Thursday, Feb 12th, 2026 Governing Board Meeting

001I want to thank Explorer Middle School for that great performance. I don't know who said it, but it was um music surrounds reality with soft edges. And boy, my reality right now needs a lot of soft edges to it. So, thank you for that music for us. Are your parents here? Any parents for this? Uh please stand up. Who's that? Good job. All right. All right. I'm calling this meeting to order. Hopefully, you all going to lead us in the pledge of allegiance. Would you do that for us, please? Thank you. Please rise. Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you. And again, let's give the guys a a big hand

002for what they did. Good job. >> Well done. Um, my glasses. May I have roll call, please? >> Mrs. Greenberg, >> here. >> Mrs. Christensen, >> here. >> Dr. Limb >> here. >> Mr. Pantara, >> here. >> Miss Wani >> here. >> Uh, next on the agenda is approval of agenda. Dr. Corson. >> Thank you, President Panta. Items approved by consent will not come up for discussion during the meeting, but will be approved when the agenda is adopted. This is possible since members of the governing board received the agenda along with backup materials at least 24 hours prior to the meeting and have had time to review and consider all items. Prior to the agenda being adopted, members of the governing board may ask that an item be removed from the consent agenda and brought

003to the floor for discussion at the appropriate place on the agenda. Any member of the audience who submitted a blue public comment card prior to the start of the meeting will be recognized to speak on that agenda item under items for approval. I'd like to offer the agenda as pres posted. All right. Prior to the start of the meeting, no blue p public comment cards were received. For that reason, no items are needing to be removed from the consent agenda. Does any member of the governing board wish to have an item removed from the consent agenda? There's nobody wants anything removed from the agenda. Okay, seeing none, I may have a motion to approve the meeting agenda and recommend consent agent items. >> So moved. >> All those in favor say I. >> I. >>

004All those opposed say nay. >> Any abstensions? Motion passes unanimously. Okay. Next on the agenda is governing board statements. Would anyone like to go first? Okay. Well, Mrs. Lonnie, you're you're up. >> Good evening, everyone. It's nice to see so many faces. Explorer, that was incredible. And I did not have um beatboxing on my bingo card for tonight. So, that was fantastic. Really enjoyed it. Um, I just want to take a minute and I know we we indulge ourselves a little bit here and we talk about all the things that we get to experience across the district. Um, what I just want to sort of highlight is I I've had a wonderful couple of weeks of um sort of experiencing some of the the bigger um events or districtwide sort of events that um I

005think we forget sometimes. It's super important. Our sites, our schools, our school spirit, our culture, all of that. But we are a unified school district and um there are so many wonderful schools across our entire district. So everything from the PV fund run, which I know you're going to want to have a gloating moment about in a in a little bit there. Um he might have he might have outran the only other governing board member who was running, which was I think me. Um so we had the PV fun run, which is a district-wide event, which is so fun to see faces and teachers and students and people from all across our district. Um, last night I attended um the honors concert at Horizon High School where they invited North Ranch Elementary School school school

006students, Sonorin Sky, Liberty, um they had Desert Shadows Middle School and I may be forgetting some other of our elementary school students and they invited them up and they all performed a song together and there was choreography that the students were taught from um the older high school students and it was just so wonderful to see um all of the students from all the different elementary schools be so excited and come together with their with with the high school students, right? And from and with other students from other elementary schools to share their love of music. Um, and so I just wanted to share that experience with all of you. It's wonderful. I think the more that we can sort of find ways to partner and bring our schools together, um, I think we're stronger

007for it. Um, I will I will leave it at that because I could continue on and on. Oh, one more thing. See, I knew I had one more thing. Um, uh, uh, United Parent Council also hosted a wonderful event. They had a a new expo as kind of a spin on things they've done in the past where they invited vendors um and different businesses and organizations and so and we had Pinnacle represented there and we had uh North Canyon represented there and we had Horizon High School represented there among other wonderful um community business um supporters of public education. So I think again just another shining example of a way we can you know bring bring people together across the greater community and so thank you to UPC for that wonderful event. Mrs. Christensen. >>

008Yes. Thank you. I'd just like to welcome everybody here today and um again, thanks to the parents and the choir members that sang earlier as a mom of a young man who is still singing even after he graduated from Horizon. He's at the Berkeley College of Music in Boston. Um, I was excited to see two young boys in the choir. And to loosely quote one of my favorite movies, they bring down the choir a whole octave in a good way. So, yay for the boys in choir. That was Elf, by the way. Um, I had the pleasure of participating in Indian Bend Elementary School's Sawado planting event and it was so interesting. It happened a couple Sundays ago and I was under the impression I would be there about 15 minutes, see a saw planted

009in the ground and then leave. It was quite the event. It rivaled many class reunions for high high school. I was so impressed. There were teachers there from the original Indian Ben Elementary School. I had the pleasure of meeting Dr. Buchard and I'm sorry if I'm pronouncing his name correctly. Does that sound about right? Wonderful man. He had he had students come and speak to him and be in tears hugging him and telling him what an impact that he made in their lives. Um I just was able to witness it. It was an all day event. I had some things planned in the afternoon. I actually kind of cleared my schedule and we we a lot of us went out to eat afterwards and I just getting to know that community. It was just so

010special. I had I'd never experienced that kind of um impact that several teachers and principles have made in that community. It was it was just phenomenal. So, and and then I just wanted to to thank him. He wrote me a nice letter and I got it in my board meeting a couple of days ago, but but well done Indian Ben Elementary School. We're looking forward to groundbreaking um in a few days on the new building. Thank you, Mr. Christensen. Dr. Limb. >> Sure. Um, so I have had a wonderful couple of weeks since the turn of the new year and as we go into February, um, getting to just be in the community. I had the privilege of doing a site visit at Shadow Mountain. Um, not only did I get to see the DAPs

011program and get to shake Mr. story's hand and we both felt a bit old in the moment, but it happened. But I then got to see their connections program as well as get a uh sneak peek into one of the dance programs from our North Valley Arts Academy uh students. It was a great indication of the collective nature that these schools have and how many different types of students our schools are supporting. Um and I kind of took that mindset then into my engagements in the community. My daughter's in Girl Scouts. Most of the girls in that troop are PV students from different schools. I see lots of PV families at the dance studio that we're in. And just collectively in the grocery stores and all around the community, I keep running into community members

012or students across the district. And I'm reminded as I run into people from different schools, different districts. While we are a massive district with over 40 schools, we really are a collective community and you know so many different people across the collection of our community. So, it it's a great reminder as a board member going into their second year um that this is the community that we're representing and we're representing all of Pey. And so, I really appreciate the effort and the connections I make out there in the community and the community support and I continue to look forward to those site visits and running into people in the community. Uh we're here to serve you and it's been a privilege to do that so far. Thank you. >> Thank you, Dr. Lim, Mrs. Greenberg.

013Um, as everyone has said, welcome. Uh, quite a crowd. Thank you for all being here. Um, I know we have a lot to do. I just want to give a shout out. Um, I was able to get to our 5K. I'm did not run or walk, but um, it was amaz and I will let President Pantara gloat when it's his turn. Um, but it was, as always, it was an incredible community event. It was our 16th. I think in all of the 16 years we've done it, I've only missed once um when I was out of town. Um and it's it's just incredible. Um even for those of you who don't want to walk or run 5K, I would definitely consider coming next year if you haven't. We had an amazing health fair um as

014well that I thought was I know we did a little last year this one um number of uh community members who are al also um have programs and projects within the district or vendors of the district and it was again just enormously uh fun event and the you know watching our our littlest uh run a little bit that was also great. So, um, kudos to everybody who made that and, um, thank you for being here tonight. >> Thank you. So, I guess I will talk about the 5K. I was there. Yes. And, uh, 4 and0, four years in a row now, the fastest school board member in the district. And, you know, they have all these categories for different age groups and brackets. Once again, they did not have this fastest school board category yet.

015So, I'm still waiting for another what >> we we'll get that added next year. >> Yeah. Well, we'll see. Yeah. Um but it is it is a great event. Um some I won't say what other people have said about it except to continue about the community. Um you see everybody from other schools you see and interact and talk to people. Um, I remember when we had the virtual 5K when CO was around and in a lot of cases that's the only way we kept our community together by you do it virtually and you send it in and it was a great thing. I love the way it showcases it's open to anybody not you don't have to be just in the district. There's people from other districts. I saw some cars with bumper stickers for

016schools that are definitely not in our district but they're there running and they see how cohesive and wonderful our community is. is just another way to to engage and be with us. Uh it's a great way to me. It's always like I'm starting into my spring my spring action when I when I do the 5K. It's uh refreshing. Um but a lot of things that are happening now actually started in the summer. They started in the summer. Uh they start at the beginning of the year. A lot of work that is now going to be bearing fruit in our test scores and culmination of activities especially a lot of our committees. When I taught here, uh the last committee I was on was the uh data governance committee, which is a standing committee still, right?

017Yeah. Still a committee on, uh Jeff Billings, we talked about things like uh with parents regarding AI, um ransomware, all kinds of things that are still needs to be looked after. One of the hardest committees was the u guaranteed viable curriculum committee. Anybody remember that one? >> Yeah. Oh my gosh, what a bear. It was a district-wide committee. Everyone had to compare state standards to what we're doing and and try and make sure that if the student goes from one school to another, it's going to be pretty seamless for them. At least it's curriculum. That was a big big committee. Probably one of my favorites though once was being on the U gifted scope and sequence committee. Okay, I was on that one. And it was pretty nice when you show up at a board

018meeting and they say, "Okay, we approve what you guys did and my name is on the back of that uh scope and sequence at least for a year before they change it all." But it was great. It it's the backbone. It's what we do here. We're not a top- down organization. It's parents, teachers, administration, cabinet working hard on these committees, hours and hours, not only during the meetings, but all the research and things that goes into it. I know a lot of teachers and administrators come to our district because we have the such a strong committee way of doing things here and I just I can't wait to see what comes up what's going to be presented to us coming up in the future and I appreciate all the work you all do. I've been

019there and again thank you very much for that. That concludes my comments. Next on the agenda is awards and recognitions. So, at this time, I'd like to invite the governing board down to the front for our awards and recognitions this evening. Good evening, President Panta, governing board members, Dr. Corson, members of cabinet, and attendees, both in person and virtual. Tonight, we have several recognitions to share with you this evening. We'll be inviting our honores to the front of the room for their recognition and photo. When we read your name, please make your way to the front of the room uh after your name's been called. For tonight's first recognition, I'll be turning it over to Dr. Holmes. >> Tonight, uh, please join me in recognizing our marketing and communications team for earning top honors at

020the state level. This month, the PV school's Markon team will be, uh, will accept the prestigious Copper Medallion Award of Excellence in public relations, marketing, and communications from the Arizona School Public Relations Association. The team earned this honor for the seriously social report don't repost campaign signifying truly exemplary work, a gold standard for school PR campaigns. Furthermore, PV schools achieved an additional 20.58% reduction in anonymous school threats compared to the valley's overall percentage decrease in part due to this campaign. Uh in addition to the copper medallion award, the team also received awards in the public and electronic media categories including photography, podcasts, um pardon me, social media campaigns, special purpose publications, and video production. Please join me in welcoming Sarah Hackett, Theres Maxis, Zach Strous, Nicole Lamar, Cara Angelie, Gina Montano, Terry, Debbie Ty, and

021our director of marketing and communications, Matt Droy. Thank you, Dr. Holmes. Uh, next we are next we'd like to honor four individuals who've maintained or achieved their national board certification status. NBCT is considered the pinnacle of recognition in education and represents an educator's diligence, dedication, and skill. This incredible accomplishment is not just a personal milestone for teachers, but it's also a driving force for ongoing improvement in PV schools. Please put your hands together for from Larksburg Elementary School, Nicole Bentea, unable to be here tonight from Shadow Mountain High School. Nick Papovich unable to be here this evening from Boulder Creek Elementary School. Amy Marcus and from Greyhawk Elementary School, Kelly Rom. Our next honore was recognized by the Arizona Association of School Councils for championing championing and supporting a positive environment for the school's student

022government, empowering StuGo to reach its fullest potential. He's celebrated for fostering a vibrant campus culture and for his unwavering commitment to ensuring every student voice is heard. Please help me welcome from Pinnacle High School, Patrick Hurley. Last tonight, but certainly not least, is the recipient of the Paradise Valley Education Association's Recognition of Professional Standards Award for Teachers. The honore this evening will be introduced by Heather Schmidt, PVEA President. Good evening pre Good evening, President Pantara, Dr. Corson, governing board, and cabinet. My name is Heather Schmidt, and I'm proud to serve as the president of the Paradise Valley Education Association. And again, my favorite day of the month is always PVEA Props Day. I got to celebrate very early in the month up at Greyhawk Elementary School where I'm proud to recognize Mr. Zach Washburn, the

023music teacher at Greyhawk. and Greyhawk. Greyhawk showed up. Here's what was shared with me about Mr. Washburn. Zach brings energy, creativity, joy to every corner of Greyhawk through the power of music. His dedication to making every school event special is unmatched. Zach ensures that every student from kindergarten through sixth grade has a chance to shine. At Greyhawk, you don't have to be in the choir to perform. Zach includes every grade level at schoolwide events like fall festival, Veterans Day celebration, holiday cocoa hut, which sounds fun, uh, holiday assembly, and the spring assembly. His lessons go far beyond singing. Zach teaches MU students choreography, teamwork, and confidence. This year, fourth through sixth grade learned and performed the iconic thriller dance, thrilling audiences at multiple events. He takes his chorus to perform at senior centers, bringing joy

024to the community and showing students the value of sharing their talents beyond our the walls of our schools. Zach exposes students to a wide range of musical instruments, cultures, and rhythms, building not only musical skills, but a strong sense of community and school pride. His enthusiasm is contagious, I think, as we've all seen tonight. And his dedication is unwavering, and the impact is lasting. Greyhawk is truly feels like a special place because of the magic that Zach brings through music. Congratulations, Zach. And that, President Pantara, concludes this evening's awards and recognitions. Next on the agenda is superintendent comments. Dr. Corson. >> Thank you, President Pantara. In PB schools, we engage, inspire, and nurture students through high quality instruction. meaningful educational opportunities and dynamic learning experiences. One such opportunity is the annual PVEA Prom Boutique, and

025it's that time of year again. With prom season approaching, PVEA is seeking donations to support this impactful event. The prom boutique provides high school students with free formal wear, accessories, gift cards, and more, ensuring every student can attend prom in style without the burden of cost. PVEA is currently accepting donations of gently used formal wear, including dresses, suits, shoes, and jewelry, as well as unused makeup, toiletries, and gift cards for restaurants, salons, photography, and other services. Donations may be dropped off at the district front office Monday through Friday from 8 to 4:00 p.m. And this is a wonderful opportunity to support our community and help create a memorable prom experience for our high school students. Tonight, I'd like to congratulate Greenway Middle School for being honored at the School Connect Summit for exceptional achievement and

026dedication to community engagement. Principal Matt Lurch, Assistant Principal Stacy Allejo, and former principal Jorge Antveros were invited to present their successful school model, demonstrating how strong collaboration with community partners has elevated student achievement and fostered institutional growth, extending learning beyond the classroom. Keep up the incredible work, Greenway. and join PB Schools at the annual Sights, Sounds, and Steam Symposium event on March 7th from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. at Shadow Mountain High School. This event celebrates student creativity and achievement across the district. The event features the steamposium, the K6 gifted showcase, a K12 visual arts showcase, live performances from band, strings, and chorus, hands-on activities, and food trucks for a fun, familyfriendly experience. That's March 7th from 9:00 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Shadow Mountain High School. And February is full of meaningful celebrations in

027PV schools. We're proud to recognize Career and Technical Education Month and the outstanding teachers and programs preparing students for future success. We also honor our dedicated school counselors during National School Counselor Week for their unwavering support of students academic and personal growth. And finally, in honor of public schools week that was earlier this month, we thank our incredible staff, students, families, and community partners for being essential partners in education and for supporting our students on their many journeys of excellence. And that President Pantara concludes my comments for this evening. >> Thank you, Dr. Corson. So, next on the agenda is item for approval G1, consideration and approval of administrative personal employment actions. Dr. Holmes. >> Thank you, Mr. Panta. Members of the board, Amy Hen is currently the interim principal at Campabelloo Elementary School. She

028earned a bachelor of liberal arts and science from the University of Iowa and a master's of education in educational administration from NAU. If approved, she will receive salary and benefits in accordance with the PPP bargaining agreement. And we recommend you approve, Miss Hen, to be the principal at Campabelloo Elementary School. >> Is there any any board member have a comment? Oh, may I have a motion to approve the administrative personal employment action as presented? >> So moved. >> Uh, any board member wishing to make a comment? >> Okay. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> All those opposed, nay. Any abstensions? The motion passes unanimously. >> Congratulations, Miss Hen. Next on the agenda is item for approval G2. Acceptance of >> we I've got two more. >> Oh, I'm sorry. I thought they

029were individual. >> The one that's fine. Next up, Matthew Lurch uh is currently the interim principal at Greenway Middle School. He earned a bachelor of arts in political science from the University of Arizona. On a brighter note, he also earned a masterers of arts. There are people in the room that knew that was coming. A master of arts and special education from ASU and a master of uh education leadership also from ASU. Thank you, Meatloaf. Two out of three ain't bad. If approved, he will receive salary and benefits consistent with the PVP bargaining agreement. We recommend you approve Mr. Lurch to be the principal at Greenway Middle School. >> Thank you. May I have a motion to approve the administration personal personnel employment action as presented? >> So moved. >> All in favor say I.

030>> I. >> Unless there's discussion discussion. Okay. All post say I say I. Any oppose say nay. Any obstensions? Motion passes unanimously. >> Congratulations, Mr. Lurch. And Jennifer Adams is currently the interim assistant principal at Horizon High School. Uh she earned a bachelor of arts in psychology, a masterers of arts in special education, and completed a program in educational leadership at Western Governor's University. Uh, if approved, we will be three for three in approving our very deserving interim candidates this evening, and Miss Adams will receive salary and benefits consistent with the PVP bargaining agreement. We recommend you approve, Miss Adams, to be an assistant principal at Horizon High School. May I have a motion to approve the administrative personal employment actions as presented? >> So moved. >> Any board members wishing to make a comment?

031>> All in favor say I. >> I. I. All oppose say nay. Any abstensions? Motion passes unanimously. >> Congratulations, Miss Ash. And that concludes our approvals for this evening for administrative appointments. >> Thank you, Dr. Holmes. Next on the agenda is items for approval G2, acceptance of 2025 audit reports for the 2024 2025 fiscal year. I may have a motion to accept the 2025 audit reports for the 24 202425 fiscal year as presented. >> So moved. >> Any board wish member wishing to make a comment. >> Oh, sorry. I didn't see that in my thing. Go ahead, Miss Bergen. >> Thank you. While we wait for the pre There's the presentation. I thought this was why everybody was here tonight. Apparently not. Nonetheless, I have uh I believe what is I think important information for

032our district this evening and that is the results of our fiscal year 24-25 audit. We will review the purpose, scope and results of our annual financial audit and discuss the requirements that we have for auditing our process, the reports generated from the audit as well as how we landed, what were our results. Uh if you see on this slide, this is a list of various uh deadlines and date requirements that we have in relation to for me. >> Thank you. uh items that we have in relation to deadlines and uh I won't read through all of them but uh you know that we are working on multiple years at the same time and at this point in time we are presenting audit but also preparing for our 2627 budget which we will be proposing and

033adopting in June. Our audit requirements come to us from a few places, starting with Arizona Revised Statute 15914. And it requires that we have uh an USFR compliance questionnaire completed if our M budget is in excess of $2 million. Our M budget is certainly in excess of $2 million. And uh as well, we also have to undergo a federal single audit if we receive federal funds, which are grants in excess of $750,000. By the way, that threshold will change for next year to a million dollars. Uh but we certainly exceed that threshold as well. The legislature changed the requirement in spring of 2021 for the governing boards to do a roll call vote. So at the end of this agenda item, uh Michelle Miller will take you through the roll call vote for that. And

034then we have various requirements and uploads that we have to do to include our annual financial report and uh a compliance questionnaire and all of those pieces. and that goes to Arizona Department of Education as well as to the county uh superintendent's office. In terms of our process, we have external auditors and the start of that process begins when we comp procure their services through a competitive process fiscal year 25. So the audit we just completed uh that is the fourth year of a 5-year contract. So we'll next year be going out for procurement on audit services. Again, our financial data that we send to the auditors includes many things, but the most important thing is our general ledger. Our general ledger is an accounting of all financial transactions in in the district. The additions,

035the the uh expenditures, uh the journal entries, anything that goes through our accounting system is part of our general ledger. And they start with that as a basis for the fieldwork requests that are then sent to us. Our staff prepare the documentation to respond to those fieldwork requests. And the auditors then review that and repeat for any additional requests that they may have. For our audit reports that we issue, we start with our communication to governance. We then have the annual comprehensive financial report, the single audit report package that I mentioned for federal funds and then the uniform system of financial records compliance questionnaire. The communication to governance letter. This is sort of the auditor parlance. That doesn't sound super exciting, but these are all the words that we want to have in our communication

036to governance letter. That includes that there were no difficulties encountered in performing the audit. There were no disagreements with management. Management has provided all of the required representations and then Heinfeld and Meech who was our auditing firm. They complied with their independence requirements for auditors through the AICPA code of professional conduct. So, while those are all probably very droll ways as auditors may be of saying that things went very well, that is the way to say things went very well. With our annual comprehensive financial report, again, uh they don't use super exciting language. We have the unmodified opinion or what was formerly known as the clean opinion. That is the best opinion you can get on your annual comprehensive financial report. And these are some of the areas that that report covers. the management's discussion

037and analysis, our governmentwide financial statements, our fund financial statements, and then we have notes to our financial statements to help the community or anybody who is interested uh try to understand and make sure that there is some clarity about what the financial statements are reviewing. And then we have a statistical section, we have a statistical section with various uh statistics of the district. In our single auditing audit reporting packages, uh there were no significant deficiencies or material weaknesses identified in our financial statements or in our internal controls. Again, that's absolutely as uh we would want to see it. That's the best uh opinion or result of that piece of it. And in the comment section, they uh the quote is, "In our opinion, Paradise Valley Unified School District number 69 complied in all material respects

038with the compliance requirements referred to above that could have a direct and material effect on each of its major federal programs for the year ended June 30th, 2025. Then we move into the USFR compliance questionnaire. As mentioned, this is in compliance with state statutes. These are some of the areas that are reviewed. Um, probably the areas with the most review pieces in them. But it it doesn't it's not just limited to these eight uh 10 areas. There are 18 areas total. The next two slides delineate the eight findings that we had for the uniform system of compliance questionnaire findings. And there are 1071 questions, excuse me, on this. Uh, but you'll note in each of these you see the section that the question falls under, the number of the question, the language of that question,

039our auditor comments with our district notes, and then a district remedy uh to that finding. And this is the second page. So, we did have the eight minor non-compliance items on uniform system of financial records. The average findings in the state are between 18 and 20. So, we did much better uh than the average in the state, which puts people at about a high B, 88 to 89% compliance. With eight findings, our compliance is at 95%. Very proud of the work our our staff have done to achieve that. Recently, the uh governing board received an email from the office of the auditor general in relation to the financial risk analysis, and I wanted to go over that briefly with the board again this year. Uh that's been updated with the fiscal year 25 data. the

040district was notified or identified as high-risisk in two of 10 areas reviewed by the auditor general. Um, and just as a note, there were nine districts categorized as high-risk districts in the state of Arizona. There's about 220 districts in the state. Um, and as a comparative measure, only two districts were categorized as high- risk last year. So, that number has increased. Then I will note while many districts like Paradise Valley are identified as high-risisk for certain measures, individual measures uh should ne should not necessarily be viewed in isolation and the two that we're noted high-risisk and I'll I'll discuss here momentarily. This is just a screenshot of what that email should have looked like that you received from the office of the auditor general. The first high-risisk measure that we have is our change in

041weighted student count. and you see the one-year change as well as the four-year change there. And uh it's no surprise that we're losing enrollment. Seven of the 10 largest school districts in the state of Arizona are declining in enrollment. Um across the state there various reasons for that. uh significantly lower birth rates since the recession, uh school choice, expansion of ESA, and then frankly in our area, we have um little affordable housing as well uh for for younger families to uh be able to move into our area. The other high-risisk measure that we have is our capital monies redirected to operations. as we talk about each year we put 90% of our district additional assistance allocation from the state not our override but the allocation from the state uh 90% of that goes towards our

042M budget and so they see this as a redirection of capital monies rather than spending that DAA on capital it goes to M to support staff salaries and benefits this is a conscious decision on the part of the district we have sufficient funds to cover our capital needs and in the past the district has felt like where we need further support is in M. So the state allows for that flexibility. Uh yet the auditor general continues to indicate that it might be a high risk for school districts and that is because some school districts may be using that um as a way to balance their budget and eventually they're going to run out of the DAA allocation and have to find another way to balance their budget and that's not the set of circumstances we're

043in. Moving back to our audit results on the uh annual C comprehensive financial report. We submit that each year to both ASBO International and the GFOA uh to receive awards if we meet all of their requirements and timelines and those were submitted by December 31st. We also submit the annual comprehensive financial report for our continuing bond disclosures. So, I don't know if everyone's aware, but when you sell bonds as a public entity, it's our responsibility to make sure that those people who have purchased our bonds are aware of our financial circumstances. And so, there's a website called Emma where anybody can go and look up the financial information for anybody who has a bond. And we have to post all of our information there finan uh annually. Um, as another measure of transparency, uh, all

044of our required reports have been issued, the annual comprehensive financial report, the single audit report, the USFR compliance questionnaire, and then, uh, we report to a number of different agencies on all of that information, including the Arizona auditor general, the county school superintendent. It goes to a federal clearing house, so uh, that's public facing, and anybody can re uh, review our information there. the Emma bond disclosure as I mentioned and then we also submit to AD grants management and AD school finance. Our information is everywhere. Uh all of these reports were issued to our oversight agencies before the final deadline of March 31st of this year. We provide access to our financial reports on our website. If anyone is interested, you just go to pvschools.net, click departments, and then budget and finance. Uh here we

045have listed some of the resources that I've mentioned this evening and most importantly I would like to say thank you to some very important people including Kathy Dphano our internal auditor who helps plan prepare and organize for when our internal auditors come Mr. Connor Hutcherson who is our director of finance and manages the bulk of the work that's reviewed in the audit and Miss Eva who probably has the next most significant role who's our director of purchasing and making sure that everything is set for our purchasing but also you see noted on the right hand side the various departments. There are people uh in particular all throughout finance and purchasing but as well in technology, human resources and even at our schools who help provide information for our auditors and I appreciate the work of

046everybody in uh preparing for that each year. And with that I'm happy to answer any questions you may have. >> Thank you Dr. Bergen. Now may I have a motion to accept the 2025 audit reports for the 202425 fiscal year as presented? >> So moved. Any board me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me members wishing to make a comment have a question. >> Dr. Lim, >> so you mentioned the oversight agencies that we had to notify. Um are those all required agencies that we're notifying? >> Yes. >> Okay. >> None of them are optional that we're choosing to put it into. >> No. >> Okay. Thank you. Welcome. >> Anyone else? I just like to say thank you for all the work

047you did. is a huge monumental task and of course you guys came through with shining colors again. Well done. Well done. You can clap your hands. That's okay. Um yeah, good job. Yeah, that's awesome. So, I believe this takes a roll call vote, right? Do roll call vote. >> Mrs. Miller, may I have a roll call vote, please? >> Mrs. Greenberg, >> I. >> Mrs. Christensen, >> I. >> Dr. Mr. Lim >> I. >> Mr. Panta >> I. >> Miss Wani >> I. >> Okay. Motion passes unanimously. >> Next on the agenda is items for approval. G3 guaranteed maximum price number two for construction management manager at risk services for Indian Bend Elementary School rebuild contract 25-017. Mrs. Barrian >> thank you President Pantara and while our team from both Grace and Chase Grace as

048a reminder is the architect on the project and Chase is the building team on the project. I am going to click and hope that a video plays before Mr. Bala presents. Shall I click again? I'm going to try. There we go. tada. Should have a clicker somewhere. >> Can we get their presentation? Thank you. >> Good thing. >> All right. Perfect. >> Well, good evening, uh, President Pantara, members of the governing board, Dr. Corson, uh, cabinet members, community members. Um I guess the grand reveal already happened. So uh I have the tough act of following that nice video with a bunch of words and pictures but I will try my best. Um this has been a culmination of a year'sl long process as you know and we're fortunate and proud to be a part of

049this journey and I'm happy to present and today there is an ask of you of what our friends from Chase building team who have been working closely with us and the district leadership to bring this to reality. So I'm so happy to present this to you. Just as a quick refresher, here's the where we are with the process. Uh, as you saw, the the design is at a level where construction has begun and we're we're getting underway significantly with the building construction. And as you know, uh, the process has been a a very community-led, community involved process over the last year. Uh, and this involvement has been pretty robust uh, going back to last fall. um having multiple engagements with a steering committee providing the the shape to the process that gave birth to the

050new Indian bend including multiple engagements with students um which has been a big plus in this entire process. Uh and here's a student engagement that several of our team members have been able to uh participate in allowing students to imagine what learning could look like in some of these spaces. And so a big part of a school design is very easy for us to think about schools as buildings, but schools are more than buildings. It's a community. And I think part of the process is to engage students in that process to give them the opportunity to make this home. And that has been a an ongoing effort for us. So just to kind of recap how we landed uh today, uh the community engagement process allowed us to develop these three big memorable goals that

051essentially were guiding principles on how this project evolved. And just a quick recap, uh thinking about collaboration without friction and how we create connection and nature and wellness, some of the aspects of the the old Indian ben school, how do we carry that forward in a responsible way? uh and then developing environments that are built to explore. So these memorable goals translated into big bucket ideas uh from collaboration without friction, thinking about aspects of flexibility, a variety of spaces and thinking about connection through the lens of outdoor learning which is built into the campus and safety and security as we've presented to you before and the idea of creating a well sustainable environment. There's a lot of materiality that the project has embraced uh including carbon neutral carpeting um zero waste PVC uh zero and

052low VOC paints and finishes including having u a mechanical system that provides three times more air exchanges than the previous buildings did and providing high uh filtration across all of the campus classrooms and other learning and uh social and academic spaces. So building those ideas together is how we were able to bring forth the idea of connection to nature and then the wellness part of it. Uh and then the build to explore component of the memorable goals translated through uh serious investment in technology and thinking about technology asset interfaces with space and furniture. Uh and also thinking about ideas of transparency. How can we be responsible trying to provide connectivity between spaces uh where a community is being built while being uh safe and welcoming at the same time. And the and the goal of

053of um uh bringing those uh three ideas to bear across the entire campus is what you saw as uh as the design that played as the video. And here's a quick recap of how the building itself is organized. This is a first level view of the two buildings, two big buildings. the classroom and the uh student services administration building uh on the north and then the multi-purpose facility uh just south of that uh providing classrooms which are all coded in a in a tan color and then the administration which is right up front and then the large yellow orange box on the south side is the multi-purpose space which has a stage that opens into an amphitheater space. So, as you saw in the video, here's some still shots. Uh, a poor substitute for the

054video we just shot, but it it kind of recaps uh the view, aerial view of how the new facility looks like. Here's a view uh from the main street frontage, which was a a major uh goal for the project is to provide that visibility and frontage. Uh, as people drive by on a major thoroughare, they begin to see the new Indian bend taking shape. And that's a significant goal that we were able to achieve. Uh, and this is a close-up view of the entrance. Once again, protection built through ballards and hardening of all the glass you see right up front uh to making the facility feel welcoming while it's also safe. And some visuals of some of the interior. Here's the secure lobby, which again has a lot of glass, but also all the glass

055is hardened. So, it's a single point of entrance as we've presented to you before that is still welcoming but protects everybody else behind those um class reception areas and into the comments of the school. And more visuals as somebody would be walking through the main concourse going up the stairs. Uh and this is walking right through the back of the classroom building as somebody would be walking through the amphitheater space attached to the multi-purpose which has an indoor and outdoor stage that opens into the amphitheater. and the visual of the multi-purpose space itself having the ability to provide both food service but also uh athletics with a divider curtain that rolls up when it's not necessary. Here's the way it would look when the divider curtain rolls right out. Um more visuals of some of

056the spaces, common spaces within the classroom pod. And then here's a visual of the media center which has beautiful views of uh the scenic scenic nature that we can experience now. Now this is a two-story facility. And here's a view of the southside uh the secure play areas adjacent to the multi-purpose space where the littlest would be playing. And then here's a view of some of the other spaces. This is right under the solar canopies that we're retaining and designing the facilities under leveraging an existing uh element into an asset as part of that process. And here are a few more visuals of it. I'd like to invite our friends from Chase building team who are somewhere there to speak through the guaranteed maximum price ask. >> All right. Thank you Sarinon. He's always a

057very very tough act to follow. So we will do our best. Uh governing board president governing board members Dr. Corson and cabinet thank you for having us here tonight. We're excited to be here. As Sarvan mentioned, uh there's been a lot of effort on a lot of our parts getting this to where we are today. I hope you've all driven by the site and seen the progress. Uh it's really cool to see. We're showing actually an Instagram page right now uh to increase the transparency and the engagement with the community to see what's happening during construction. So just a lot of really cool things to h uh happening so far and so we're really excited to be here. uh photo that we see here. One of the things that we do like to do again

058when we talk about the community engagement part uh the display that has been put forth in the new or the existing Indian Ben Elementary School where they are now occupied gives you an inter active look at uh what's going on. You can step into that lobby. You can scroll through. You can see what's happening. So again, parents, students, the public, anyone who does decide to go through that lobby can actually see what's happening in real time. That's updated during construction. So, a nice little cool piece that you can do to track what's going on as well. And I'll turn it over to Rhett to talk about our indoor air quality. >> Thank you. Uh, so one of the key aspects we're going to be uh, practicing during the course construction is the indoor air quality.

059In addition to some of the design elements that savon was just mentioned, which has some of the HVAC efficiencies and changing out filters. Throughout the course construction, we're going to be doing a key focus on maintaining the indoor air quality. What that looks like is uh ensuring that we're going to have a a very clean job site, minimizing the amount of dust that goes uh lands on the ground. So, we're going to have a daily cleanups, ensuring that there's um daily cleanups and also mer eight filters. Typically, throughout the course of construction, we just have filters in the registers and at the end of the course of construction, we just swap them out. But in this case, we're going to be doing it every two weeks, right? So, it's very big practice we're going to

060be doing every two weeks, swapping out those filters. In addition to that, what we're going to be doing is minimizing the amount of dust that goes into the actual duct work. How we do that is wrapping up u the duct work openings with what would be like a like a like a like just a plastic uh film, Saran wrap. Thank you. Um what that does is minimizes anything that goes inside or uh inside the duct work so that when we turn the duct work on uh no dust is going to be into the air itself. Right. In additional would be low VOCC's. Grace is great at specking out items that are low VOCC's. So when we go to paint, the paint is already low VOC. And when we go to paint, we're going to ensure

061that a lot of the materials like acoustical wall fabrics or ceiling tiles are not going to be installed yet. We're going to focus on making sure that it's after the fact so that so the smell of the paint is not going to be on that fabric, right? Because you go to paint sometimes you kind of lingers. We're going to try to minimize that as well. Some other things that we're going to be doing is getting an uh air quality tester involved throughout the course of construction. So when we actually have the envelope enclosed in the building, we're going to have indoor air quality tester come in, ensure that throughout the course of construction, we'll have uh them do tests inside periodic rooms and then also test the quality of uh the outdoor air as well.

062Ensure that we're in compliance with uh the plan that we have written out for you. And then at the end of the course construction, what we're going to do is flush out the building. And that that looks like uh either a 48 hour sequence of just constant outside air moving in and out of the building or you know the other alternative would be just 14 days of HVAC ran before you guys actually occupy the building. Essentially just giving this building a fresh new air and of course uh replacing the filters as well. That's essentially what we're going to be doing throughout the air indoor air quality. But um wow that's a lot of feedback. Can I ask President Pantara? May I ask a question on before I forget on this? It's just a term that

063I want to find. >> I guess so. Yeah. Yeah. >> Um can you define what low VOCC's are and the reason why we're changing the filters out every two? Is that for concern for the surrounding community or what what what does that mean? >> Sorry. So yeah, VOCC is a volatile organic compounds and so those are typically solvents that are used on a variety of product uh paints um sealants varnishes things of that nature usually have VOCC's in them. The specification that we've used on this project are below the typical the percentages of VOCC's uh for paints and whatnot. So it's standard operating procedure to flush the buildings before they're occupied. Uh and what they're doing is they're doing a higher order of flushing uh than what would be typically considered standard practice. >> Is

064that because of the age of the current building that been >> No, no, this is in the new buildings. So it's just to ensure that the quality of air when students move in is higher than what it would typically be required. So that it's a higher than standard practice is what they >> Thank you. Then I believe uh the second part of your question was regarding the air filters themselves. Uh so as the air is running through the building when we're finishing up construction. Uh Rhett had mentioned what happens is sometimes particulates and things settle within that duct work. Um so when they do flush that out the air filters are obviously catching all of that. We're replacing that. And so it's just another layer of protection to make sure that uh when all is

065said and done and the building is turned over for occupation then uh the air coming through that is not being affected from any of that. Uh the last part of our slides here are just showing information on what has happened so far. So GMP1 that we had previously approved back in September. Uh that was what allowed us to get started with our demolition, our early procurement. Um some early earthwork um phasing that we had done that you had seen so far because we are now actually into digging the footings on the project. And this final slides coming up here are now our proposed GMP2 uh that we have put together with the team uh to capture the rest of the costs on the project as we have come through the rest of construction design document

066development and worked tirelessly with our teams here to go through and get to uh a number that we are now presenting to you for your approval tonight. And the next slide is the cumulative costs for both GMP1 and GMP2. Uh so total construction costs of $31,516,477. Any other questions? May I have a motion to approve the guaranteed maximum price number two for construction manager at risk services for Indian Ben Elementary School rebuild contract 25-017 as presented. >> So moved. Now, does any board members have questions or comments? >> This is Morning. >> I just have a couple comments. Um, thank you for all that. Um, it's beautiful, very exciting. Um, and thank you for the, um, indoor air quality management plan. Um, I really appreciate the thought that went into it. I think that it's

067um you know seizing every opportunity we possibly can at the beginning of a project I think is you know it's we only get that opportunity once right to do it right and so I really do want to just express my appreciation and for going above and beyond to make sure that we're ensuring that that building is right ready for students to come in and we've got the best system possible in there. So thank you very much for all the work that went into that. >> Of course. Thank you. Any other comments, questions? All right, then. Uh, all those in favor say I. >> Sorry, I was waiting. I stopped comments. >> I was waiting for others to go. I did have some questions. >> I think this one might be to Miss Barrian. Um, I

068just wanted to know what the original budget of this build was. Was is this Did we have >> Yep. the original budget uh for bond and this number here. Can we put that back up? >> I didn't have it memorized yet. 31 million something or other. Thank you. Um this also includes the um what's called adjacent ways. We have an adjacent ways budget separate from bond that can cover expenditures adjacent to the property and fire lanes and things of that nature. But the bond budget, the original bond budget is 325 and they're about 150,000 below that original bond budget. Uh not a lot, but I'll take every penny. And then additionally, there's contingency uh that's in here as well. And if we don't use all of that contingency, uh that's that's kept here at the

069district. So >> great. So I'm not >> So I'm sorry. The contingency is built into this number. >> Correct. Sorry. >> Okay. Good. I like to hear under budget. That's great. Um >> we all >> earlier in the meeting we um we had the I had talked about the privilege of meeting the community and so I'm really happy that you are taking all that into because Indian Ben is a wonderful community. It has a lot of um really really great people and just you know it's it's a staple and it's been here in our community for in the PV community for so long. Um, this also may be a question for it is a question for Miss Barrian. We we talked about declining enrollment and the current enrollment last year was 514 and it's now

070in fiscal year that was 25 26 is 429 and we you promised that with this state-of-the-art building we're not going to close this school. We have talked about potentially school closures in the future. What is our mitigation plans for getting more students into this state-of-the-art facility? This is exciting. It's a beautiful building. We want many more students in there. So, um and and you probably might not know this, but what would be the impact for the other schools in the area if we Yeah. So we have about 400 students who live in the boundaries of Indian Ben but attend a different school. I'd mentioned that in other meetings. It's actually a little bit more than 400 uh who attend schools outside of this district. So our hope is to draw as many of those people

071back. Um what I have noticed in my many years in school business is there are a few things that draw families to a school and frankly a new school building is one of them. people want their children in the best of the best. Um, so I think frankly the best marketing endeavor there is the building itself, particularly because it resides right on Thunderbird. Um, but we will we have efforts in place that we've talked about uh to ensure marketing, continued marketing throughout the building process and as the school is built and as students are able to enter in January. I don't know if Dr. Lindsay may want to add anything to that about the uh attraction of families. >> I would just say that we have ongoing marketing efforts at the school with kindergarten roundups

072and differentformational sessions and this new build project is always talked about. Every opportunity get we get we share about it. Mhm. And um I was just wondering, have we considered possibly doing before the kids move in a open house just to gather more um buds in the community because it's going to be an amazing school. >> We will do an open house. I think Doc, do you want to share something on that? I see you nodding your head in excitement. >> We are excited about that. We've been working with the Indian Ben team on preliminary plans for that. We're still a ways off, but our intent is to be able to welcome students and families and show them the building before the first day of school in the second semester. But again, that will all

073be determined when we get those permits to get into the building and we're holding everyone accountable to meeting those schedules. >> Mrs. Wanie, >> so um Mrs. Kersonen asked a great question about, you know, how how could this potentially impact surrounding schools? Do Do we think that there will be any impact potentially on our on P like drawing PV students from PV campus and have we have Yeah. And have we >> will there be hopefully some ongoing conversations about how to make other campuses equally you know as attractive maybe for programs or other kinds of things that we can do to support enrollment at those other places as well. >> We have a bond program in place. Dr. Davis is working uh to um evaluate plans related to replacement. We have I don't remember somewhere

074around $120 million of bond funding left even to be sold, let alone to be spent at this point in time. Um because our because our voters are so uh generous in approving bonds for us, we have the ability to continually improve all of our buildings. Um, and you know, we're closely evaluating, as uh, Dr. Corson will share information with the governing board at a study session next week about what school closures may look like and future programming for schools. Um, and we also recognize that curb appeal is important to families and making sure that the building looks inviting and comfortable for um, their students. So, we are continuously working on that as well. I just want to make sure. Okay. All those in favor say I. >> I. I. >> I. >> All the All

075those opposed say nay. Any abstensions? Motion passes unanimously. >> Thank you. Thank you. Next on the agenda is item for approval G4 business operations departmental travel request. Mrs. Bergan so sorry turning to the right page I'm putting on my glasses. Okay. Thank you President Pantara governing board members Dr. Corson. The district is requesting approval to send staff from facilities and transportation to the Arizona Association of School Business Official Spring Conference. The conference is a core professional development opportunity for Arizona public school operations professionals and is specifically focused on Arizona specific statutes, rules, and compliance requirements. Conference content includes topics such as school facility planning and construction, procurement and contracting requirements, capital funding and bond management, risk management and safety, transportation and compliance, maintenance best practices, energy and efficiency strategies, and project delivery oversight. All of

076these directly support safe, efficient, and compliant district operations. Attendance at this conference represents a prudent investment in maintaining strong operational stewardship, safety, transparency, and accountability on behalf of the governing board and community. And with that, I'm happy to answer any questions. >> I have a motion to approve the business operation departmental travel request as presented. >> So moved. >> Any board member wish to make a comment? Mrs. Christensen? >> Yes. Yes. So we we continue to send individuals out of state travel. Is this instate or is this one in state? >> This is out of state. >> It's out of state. That's what I thought. Um >> just across the board. >> We're we're doing bargaining and we we're we're looking at every penny of savings. And I just will continue to point out that

077I would really like the district to try to look at either online or instate training for our for our staff members. Um again, as I mentioned last meeting, we've lost 8,000 students in 10 years, which is equivalent to about 120 million a year. And our revenues are based on average daily membership and that continues to decline. So revenues are declining. Our expenditures are not declining. They are increasing and I'm just concerned that it we need to save every penny because I would like to see more dollars in the classroom, more dollars for teacher salary, more dollars for staff. And I I do understand that school finance is very complicated and there's very different bud buckets. However, I just feel every little bit that we can save can go into the pockets of our m amazing

078staff members. >> Mrs. Warning. Um, so I did notice when reviewing the materials uh before tonight's meeting that this is the Arizona Association of School Business Officials spring conference that they are holding in Nevada. Correct. >> Correct. >> And I'm assuming that's because we have a large state and there are probably lots of rural even districts that this is not a very far travel for them and they've thought about that. So is it fair to say so there is no instate option because this is this is Arizona focused. >> That is correct. Not for this conference. The spring conference specifically is held in Laughlin. And part of the logic behind that is uh the hotel rates in Laughlin are very very reasonable. Um, and you will note probably that the cost of this conference for

079six people to attend is about the same or somewhere between 50 to 100% of what it costs normally to send one person to an out ofstate conference. So, um, as it comes to pricing, it's fairly reasonably priced. >> Have you attended this and or has your staff >> I have attended this for many years. I'm not attending this year, but I have attended it for many years. Um, do you would you say that you take information from this conference that helps you make um fiscally responsible decisions and budget and come up with ideas and ways to potentially save the district money that can then be used for other things like staff programs? >> Absolutely. >> Okay. Thank you, >> Dr. Lim. >> So, can I get some clarity um when searching this conference? It looks

080like there's one that happens in the spring and one that happens as in the fall. Is that correct? >> Uh there's one that happens in the summer >> or Yeah. End of summer, beginning. So So what is the difference between these two different conferences? >> So this spring conference is focused more on the practice and often the day-to-day for the operational side of the house whereas the summer conference is focused more on uh financial procurement and like off what I would say office related work. >> Great. So, I guess I'm looking for some clarity. I've gone ahead and pulled the agenda for the last year's conference for this particular time period, and I only actually see very few sessions for transportation. Most of them are geared around facilities and other spaces like that. So, why

081are we sending three staff for transportation when most sessions only have one single item for transportation to attend? So sometimes the transportation folks will also attend other sessions like procurement uh as things are related to their job titles for procurement and the responsibilities that they may have. Um additionally it's it's helping to build the the bench in transportation and ensure that we have uh multiple staff members that have the knowledge necessary to help run the transportation department. >> So our individuals that we sending are they some of our long-standing transportation employees? Um well, one of them is the director who's not. He's our interim director, so he's filling in uh for the time right now. Um and some and the other ones, I believe, are both long-standing. Okay. >> Mrs. Greenberg. >> Yeah, I I

082appreciate the information. God, I am reverbing here, aren't I? Uh appreciate the information. Um, you know, I I appreciate also that we uh do everything we can and I think that was shown in the audit reports. I think that's been shown in, you know, what we just approved. We we get information down to the penny of what things are going to cost. Our construction report shows that as well. Um, you know, I I don't believe that requests like this are brought to us um for any other reason than to support the district. And in this case, um I think as Miss Bonnie brought up, Miss Bergen confirmed, there's probably going to be information coming out of here that's going to save us more than the approximate $3,857 that this would cost. So, uh, personally, I

083think this is incredibly cost effective. um uh proposed uh conference to attend. Um, you know, I'd also and probably will continue this point out over time is that, you know, we talk we are a school district and we um expect our students to be lifelong learners or we hope that is a value we instill in them and I think as employers of our um you know all of our employees that's something we should be supporting in our employees as well and I look at when we you know we are asked to send employees to various professional development conferences. That's exactly what we're supporting. And again, it seems like this one is probably the most cost-effective one we've seen. Um although I do think um that you know everything whenever we do approve these, we are

084making a true investment in our employees to support our our students and our and our schools. And so I, you know, I appreciate that we are getting all of this information and um I, you know, I think I'll I personally will continue to support them because I think that's something we should be doing. >> Any other comments? All in favor say I. I. >> I. >> All post say nay. >> Nay. >> How many was that? Two. Three. Two. Any abstensions? Three eyes, two nays. No abstensions. A motion passes. Next on the agenda is items for approval. G7, acceptance of gifts and donations. At this time, I would like to thank all of our donors and call out a few of our generous donors. Got a list right here. I won't read them all. Um,

085Desert Cove Elementary School from Healthy Foods, Healthy Vines, $2,540. Um, we've got Barry Morgan Smith, uh, $3,500 at Horizon High School. Um, PV Schools Education Foundation helping the James P. Lee Sun Kids, $4,888. We've got the US Chamber of Commerce Foundation over at Mountain Trails Middle School, $5,625. North Canyon High School, Healthy Foods, Healthy Minds, $38,981. Says a negative meal account balance donations. That really helps out those kids. Um, couple more here over at Sky Crossing. the Sky Crossing PTO Incorporated $37,000541 37,000 $541 for shade structures there. That's great. And that's just a few of those things. And we're very helpful for very thankful for all the people who are helping our district in any way they can that way. Um may I have a motion to accept the gifts and donations as presented? >>

086Some moved. All any board members wishing to make a comment. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> All those opposed say nay. >> Any abstensions? Motion passes unanimously. Next on the agenda is call to the public. Please turn your attention to the video monitors for the next section. Call to the public is about to convene. This portion of today's meeting allows the public the opportunity to address the governing board. Although state law does not require that the governing board hold a call to the public, the Paradise Valley Unified School District and its board have chosen to do so because we believe it's important to hear about concerns and issues from our community. While call to the public is not designed to be a discussion, the board is here to listen. Due to Arizona

087opening law, the governing board cannot respond to, discuss, or take any action on items brought up during this time. However, staff members may be directed to get back to you and address individual concerns. As a reminder, the point of this and every board meeting is to accomplish the business at hand and to be able to do so in an open and collaborative way. All in attendance are expected to observe meeting rules as well as rules of politeness and decorum so that we may serve as an example to our students that issues can be discussed in a respectful and civil manner. Tonight we have 11 people who have submitted comment cards prior to the start of the meeting. Each speaker will have three minutes for remarks. As a reminder, we ask that you please direct your

088comments to the board. Please state your first and last name when you come to the podium. Our first speaker is Maria Smith and next will be Kiara Bino. Thank. Okay. Thank you, >> Maria Smith. There we go. Okay, this is my first time doing this. So, good evening, President Pantara, members of the governing board, and members of cabinet. My name is Maria Smith and I'm a soon-to-be kindergarten parent and my family lives within the PV school district boundaries. I'm here tonight as you consider changes to the district-wide bell schedule to respectfully advocate for an earlier start time at Quail Run Elementary School. I work near downtown Phoenix and need to be at my office before 8:30 a.m. each morning. Quill run's current 8:45 start time makes that extremely difficult as my commute is about 30

089minutes with traffic. While I understand that before school programs are available that would be an added expense that I'm hoping to avoid. I also do not believe I qualify for bus transportation and from what I understand the reason for the bill schedule changes are due to some um challenges when it comes to bus routes. I wasn't able to attend the January board meeting in person, but I did watch the YouTube recording and review the presentation regarding regarding the new potential elementary start times of either 8:10 a.m. or 9:00 a.m. If I understand correctly, those are the two options being considered. Of those, I am here to ask that 8:10 a.m. would make a meaningful difference for working families like mine. Quill Run is my top choice for my daughter. I have been incredibly impressed by

090the international balora program, the school's diversity, the STEM and art classroom, and especially principal Vicky Raymond. I have visited the campus twice, once for a tour, a a group tour, and once for the kinder roundup event where Mrs. Raymond stayed late to help me complete my daughter's registration. I was also impressed during my school tour that the kids were very well spoken. I asked them some questions and they all looked very happy to be there and I think that's important. We are in an open enrollment family and I feel very fortunate to have options. I have attended three kindergarten recruitment events, considered three public school districts and a charter school and toured a total of nine campuses just to give you some context. After all of that research, it is very clear to me and

091my family that Quill Run is the right fit for our daughter. However, the bell schedule will directly impact whether we can make that choice work. There are there is another IB program in our state that I am considering. I want you to know I know I'm just one parent among many and I understand there are competing needs across the district. But as public school districts nationwide face enrollment challenges, I really hope that you consider how start times influence family decisions for families like mine. I just want you to know that an 8:10 start time, something earlier, 8 around 8:00 a.m. could be the difference between enrolling my child or looking elsewhere. I am a mother of two, so I have a four-year-old and a 2-year-old, and I am looking for an investment, and when I

092pick a place, I want to stay there for a while. Thank you for your time and thoughtful consideration. >> Kiara, can you say that again for me last? >> Yes, Dr. Kira Poe. Okay. And then followed by Nema Dissa, right? Go ahead. Good. Good evening. My name is Dr. Kira Quo. I'm here tonight to formally report what I believe to be a systemic failure of leadership, obstruction of public records, and interference with my parental rights by principal Martha Maynard, now at Desert Trails Elementary. This district recently terminated its superintendent for incompetence and dishonesty. That decision underscores the very real leadership failures that have allowed misconduct, including destruction of parents rights to persist unchecked. For two years, my rights as a as a parent have been obstructed. Most recently, Principal Maynard sent emails threatening criminal charges

093simply because I requested transparency and public records. Let me be clear. Sending at most one email per week, if that, to ask for information about my own child is not criminal behavior. Threatening a parent with legal action for asking for records is intimidation, retaliation, and a violation of state law. Tonight, I am formally placing this board on notice regarding four serious issues. First, willful obstruction of public records. I received a response for a five-year records request containing only 10 emails. That is impossible. I possess proof of hundreds of communications that were withheld. This raises serious concerns about intentional misconduct and violations of Arizona public records law. I am requesting a full audit of the district's electronic archive. Second, ongoing stonewalling by district staff. I have repeatedly contacted district administration Danielle Elise, Heidi Lindsay, and also

094Rochelle Miller. Each time I was told my concerns were being forwarded. Two years later, I have received no substantive response. This pattern appears designed to delay, deflect, and bury misconduct. Third, manufactured and contradictory documentation. I have documented evidence that principal principal Maynard issued conflicting official documents to p create a misleading paper trail about me. In addition, a school social worker submitted reports that I believe are factually false. Despite being notified, the district has refused an independent investigation and refused questions. despite I have asked and they will not even I've asked directly and there were not they will do everything but talk about the about what I'm asking. Fourth, custody violations. The school has withheld information from me and communicated primarily with the father despite our joint legal custody agreements which gives us both joint legal

095custody joint decision-making and we are both to be equally informed and the school should be a neutral territory and not to choose sides. The school has very clearly shown that they have favored one parent. This is a direct interference with my parental rights under Arizona law and the Arizona parents bill of rights. This burden is not on me to justify requesting information about my child. The burden is on this district to justify interfering with a parent for your time is up. I'm sorry. Am I saying this right? Nema diss. >> I'm sorry. >> And then next will be Tracy Champion. >> Um, good evening and dear members of the board. My name is Nema Desai and I am a parent to two children in the PV school district. I'm here tonight to talk about the

096proposed increase in class size and potential loss of student or sorry loss of teachers um at San Piper Elementary School um which is a dual Spanish immersion school dual language Spanish immersion school. I come both as a parent of my two children in the school and also as a pediatrician who understands how children's brains develop. I didn't choose immersion casually. I chose it because bilingual bilingualism shapes cognitive flexibility, executive function, and long-term opportunity. But immersion only works when children are actively using the language, speaking, making mistakes, being corrected, and trying again. That requires time and attention. When class sizes increase, something very concrete happens. Each child gets fewer chances to speak. In a traditional classroom, that matters. But in an immersion classroom, it fundamentally alters the model. Language is not absorbed passively. It's built through

097interaction. From a developmental standpoint, early language pathways are especially sensitive to environment. We know the large-scale research like the Tennessee Star study, as old as it may be, um that smaller class sizes improve academic outcomes, particularly in early grades. In a setting where teachers are delivering both content and language instruction simultaneously, the cognitive demands are even higher on students and our teachers. And immersion teachers are not easily replaced. Qualified Spanish-speaking educators are a limited pool and we have felt that the last few years. Increasing class sizes increases burnout risk and makes recruitment even harder. This program works because of the intentional structure and if we increase class sizes, we dilute that structure. I'm asking you to protect the conditions that allow immersion to succeed. Not just for my children, but for every children whose fluency

098depends on daily interaction. Thank you for your time. Kimberly Summers and followed by I think is that Naomi Fret? Members of the board, thank you for your time this evening. My name is Tracy Champion. I have a daughter, a second grader at Sam Piper Elementary School. I want to speak specifically about the proposed changes to staffing at San Piper Elementary School next year. It is my understanding that staffing reductions at one or more grade level may occur causing a drastic increase to class size. While I think it's safe to say that no parent wishes for increased class sizes, it is particularly concerning for a language immersion school. PVUSD prides itself on offering offering differentiated opportunities to its students. As a matter of fact, it is so valued within the district that it is part of

099the mission statement. What Sam Piper offers is very special and frankly needs to be treated as such. At Sam Piper, if a teacher has 30 students in their class, they likely split their day with 30 different students in the afternoon. That means working to meet the needs of 60 unique individuals and communicating with 60 or more parents. When a qualified teacher sees that they can work at the neighboring elementary school and only support 30 students versus 60, they will be enticed to leave. Small class sizes are not a luxury in this environment. They are essential to its success. The unique responsibilities of an emer immersion teacher must be taken into consideration when determining class size. Teaching has never been a one-sizefits-all endeavor, but teaching students in a foreign language intensifies the need for differentiation, something

100that is best accomplished with a reasonable number of students. Our immersion program is something this district should be proud of and should be fighting tooth and nail to preserve and support. If we do not, the self-perpetuating cycle of reduced enrollment, causing reduced staffing, causing further reductions to enrollment will not end. And before you know it, this gem of a school will either close or abandon its language program. We cannot let this happen. The district must show that it supports what San Piper is doing. We know that families and the community value language immersion. We see it as more and more immersion preschools pop up and more private schools offer language programs. Let's show the community that you do not have to abandon public schools to get unique quality offerings. I recognize that the board may

101not directly determine studenttoteer ratios at any one particular school site, but your voices hold sway and you are responsible for attending to the educational desires of the community. Please ask yourself if these changes support the mission of the district. I assure you they do not. What Sam Piper offers simply cannot be done effectively with 30 plus students per class. I fear this will be the next step towards the demise of a very special program. Thank you for your time, for your commitment to our schools and for what I hope is your support in urging direct decision makers to reconsider their plans. Kimberly Summers. >> Good evening, President Pantara, members of the board, and members of the cabinet. My name is Kimberly Summers. I'm a parent at San Piper Elementary School. I have a kindergartenner and

102a second grader in the Spanish immersion program, and I'm also an educator myself. On your website, you say that PB schools engage, inspire, and nurture students through highquality instruction and meaningful educational opportunities. Governor Katie Hobbs recently said, "Public education is the key to opportunity. When we invest in students, teachers, and classrooms, we invest in our future. Every kid deserves a quality education. No exceptions. Small class sizes are how we live out those words." Research strongly supports this. As a fellow parent mentioned, the landmark Tennessee Star Project, that study found that students in smaller class sizes showed significantly higher academic achievement, especially in the early grades. Other national research shows that students in smaller class sizes demonstrate stronger language development, which is critical in dual language and Spanish immersion programs. Immersion teachers carry a greater cognitive

103instructional load. They are delivering academic content while developing a second language. That requires more student differentiation, more small groupoup instruction, and more intentional language scaffolding. Larger class sizes create real barriers to doing that well. My daughter has dyslexia. Traditional literacy instruction has often been a struggle for her, but Spanish immersion has been life-changing. It has given her a place where she feels capable and successful. For students like her, individualized attention is not a luxury. It is essential. This will not be possible with increased class sizes. We are fortunate to have compassionate, dedicated educators at Sandpiper, but one has recently resigned and many are considering leaving because of because we don't have policies to protect the current class sizes. Increasing class sizes sends the message that we are asking them to do less with more. That

104is not how we retain excellent teachers. As a board, you have the obligation to advocate for policies that best serve your community, your teachers, and the next generation of Arizona students. We truly believe if you truly believe that every child deserves a quality education, no exceptions. Then we must protect small class sizes, especially in our early grades and immersion programs. As board members, being complicit to this urgent issue will risk long-term costs, teacher burnout, teacher attrition, learning loss, and families leaving the district. Replacing experienced teachers, and rebuilding programs is far more expensive than retaining them. This is not just about numbers. It's about whether we are willing to protect the conditions that allow teachers to succeed and students, including those with learning differences like dyslexia, to survive. Please support our teachers, support our students, and

105protect the learning environments that allow them to thrive. Thank you. >> It's no f. Am I saying that? I'm not saying that right. Am I >> No, Freddy. Thank you. I'm sorry for that. And next will be Kristen Bradford. >> Good evening, board. I'm a Sam Piper parent who is here along with others who are concerned about the increase in classroom sizes. Next year, classrooms will have about 30 over 30 students in one classroom. 30 students fundamentally change the classroom environment. Dual language teachers will be teaching 60 kids, be responsible for over 60 families, 60 academic and behavioral needs. Please consider adding a third classroom, possibly supporting gifted learners. Prioritize teachers retention and manageable learning environment. This program is being stretched thin. Thank you. >> Kristen Bradford followed by Andrean Conia. >> Hi, my name

106is Kristen Bradford. I have a second grade student at San Piper Elementary. Thank you for listening to our comments today. Um, you spoke a lot about community today and I think if you visited our school, you would understand it's one of the biggest and most involved communities. I mean, look how many members are up here speaking today. Um, I think that you, unless you experience it, maybe you don't know, but our students go and learn for English in a half the day and they switch teachers, which is why they keep saying that they're going to be responsible for 60 students. I don't know how many people visited that school or seen the community. But I encourage you before you go and impress this decision, I I encourage you to come to our music concert because

107we have all grades including prek speaking or singing in Spanish and we fill that horizon high school auditorium. Um I would also encourage you to talk to our teachers because they are the ones who can tell you directly that this is going to be horrendous for the learning environment of our students. It's already stretched thin. The teachers are frustrated. This district does not pay a lot. It is tough to get teachers here and if you let them go, they are not coming back. And I also think you're underestimating how many parents choose to bring their students to this district for assets like this. I think taking away diversity from this community is a strong statement. I think that devaluing these students, these teachers, and this asset to the district will be detrimental in attendance that

108you guys have discussed here several times today. And I we are entrenched in this community, but without this asset, we are not staying in this district. So, so please consider doing your very best and advocating for this school the best that you can to make sure our classroom sizes stay about 22 students instead of increasing and our students asking to give up a lot of their teacher time. Thank you. We've got uh >> And Andrew >> Andrew Conan. >> Andrew, I can't >> Conan. It's >> Conan, right? Thank you. Sorry, sir. >> No worries. >> And next would be D.A. Yilder. Go ahead. >> Thank you, board members. Uh my name is Andrew Conan. Um I am a parent at San Piper Elementary School along with the other parents over here. I think that they

109more eloquently express what I'm also here to express tonight is the concern about large classroom sizes at uh San Piper Elementary. Um with this being a dual language school, it's important for the kids to have small classrooms so they get the attention that they need. With the larger classrooms, obviously they're not going to get the attention and they're not going to be able to fully immerse themselves in learning a second language, which I feel is very important. And I now having the foresight, I wish I would have been able to do that when I was younger. I actually grew up in the PV schools system. I went to Desert Springs, which is no longer there. Went to Desert Shadows. I went to Horizon, graduated in 2002. Um, but I'm very proud that my daughter's able

110to go to San Piper and be in this district because I think that she can get a very valuable education and I'd like to see that continue. Um, so I think that we should reconsider, you know, budget. Uh, one thing I noticed just during this meeting is that, you know, while the Indian Ben school looks like it's going to be beautiful, $32 million is obviously a lot of money. Um, it seems that we could allocate money to giving schools a facelift or reallocating that to teacher staff. So, we have more funds available to give to help to students as opposed to just a flashy new school. Again, not taking away. It looks like it's going to be a beautiful school, but we could utilize those funds elsewhere and helping our kids get a education. Um,

111thank you, D.A. Yodilder. Vote. Am I close? >> Um, kind of. Divia. >> Divia. >> Yes. >> And then followed by Jackie Garcia. >> Okay. Good evening, members of the board. My name is Divia Yoder and I am a parent of two at San Piper Elementary. Our family drives out of district every day so our children can participate in the Spanish immersion program. We chose this school intentionally because we value bilingual education, academic rigor, and cultural opportunity. But I'm here tonight because I'm concerned, as my other fellow parents, on class sizes. Spanish immersion is not a typical classroom environment. Students are learning academic content, and acquiring a second language at the same time. That requires repetition, conversation, individualized feedback, and differentiation. In larger classes, those things become harder to provide consistently, not because of teacher

112effort, but because of simple math. Larger class sizes mean less individual attention per student, less opportunity for oral participation, more time spent on classroom management, greater teacher workload, and burnout. Our teachers are doing everything they can. This is not about teacher performance. It's about structural support. Families like mine are making sacrifices to be part of this program. We are driving out of district because we believe in it. We want to ensure it continues to meet the high standards that drew us here in the first place. I respectfully ask the board to review current class sizes within immersion program. Consider appropriate staffing levels for languagebased instruction. Provide transparency around enrollment distribution and class caps. This is about maintaining quality. It's protecting a program families are choosing sometimes at great personal effort because it matters to us.

113Thank you for your time. Jackie Garcia followed by Kristen Stafer. >> Hi, thank you. Um I have my little support here. Um, I'm also a Sandpiper family and I also drive to San Piper from out of district. I understand that due to the current budget, classes are being consolidated at many of your elementary schools, which results in higher class sizes, but I'm asking you I'm asking that Sandpiper be set apart when you are reviewing these numbers. Sandpiper, as you've heard, is not the same as your other elementary schools, and it is your only Spanish immersion elementary school. It is your signature program or one of your signature programs. Um, and as you may know, we've said the teachers at Sandpiper switch their kids midway through the day. So, they're they're not just having a 30

114case load. Um, if these classes are raised uh as a 30 class or a class size of 30, they will have 60 parents to meet with. They will have 60 tests to grade and they will have 60 kids to prepare for state testing. So, it's a little bit different. The grades that these changes are being proposed for for next year are first through fourth. Our district bargain numbers that I've um heard are 28 for 1, 29 for 2, 30 for 3, and 32 for fourth. If you bring our current class sizes into only two classes from where they are now, we will be at 31 for first, 31 for second, 29 for third, and 31 for fourth. So, we would be just over those bargained numbers. And as you already know, it's not a simple

115onetoone case load. our community on the side um is also doing has been actively recruiting prek and kinder kids to come to San Piper to learn in Spanish and we have been successful. Um but now the consolidation of our classes is taking away the teachers that we just got. I was in this room last year supporting ideas to hire a fourth grade Spanish teacher because we went the majority of the year last year without a fourth grade Spanish teacher and we lost about 20 fourth graders that year. So, it's harder to retain these or it's harder to find these teachers and now that we have them, we're looking at losing them. So, if we do come over the threshold, we won't be able to find them again. and it took us nearly the whole year

116last year. I'm asking you to set Sandpiper apart when you were re reviewing class sizes and the bargain numbers and to re-review where we are at and what is needed to make sure that Spanish immersion program is successful. Sandpiper is different and it should be treated as such. We will lose good dedicated Spanish teachers if you do this. So, please go back and discuss reconsider your course of action for San Piper. Thanks. Kristen Staer >> surprise. I'm from San Piper 2. My name is Kristen Staer and I'm a mom of five current or former PV school students. I want to thank the district for the support shown to Sandpiper, especially around marketing, recruitment, and adding us back to the MLS. I hope that's happening soon. I also hope that our address on the MLS will

117be corrected because it's currently this address, which is not helping. Um, we uh hope that Markcom can gain access to our Google business pages or create new ones so that we show up in the Spanish immersion near me search. Mr. Pantara and I searched at inside the school and we were number 13 on the list. I had to click three times see more to get to San Piper. He can verify that. I want um a team including myself, Julie Ryan, and Cara Bennett, a kindergarten teacher, have been actively marketing Sandpiper in the community and building preschool partnerships. Julie went to 17 preschools in our area to promote Sandpiper and to build relationships. I also serve on the Spanish Teacher Recruitment Committee where Mr. Varner and the team have worked tirelessly, tirelessly to build a strong

118pipeline of Spanish educators. Because of that effort, we brought in exceptional teachers. we have today. St. Piper is the district's only Spanish immersion school, and we face real competition from nearby districts and charter schools. Families have choices, and quality is what makes San Piper stand out. Right now, we are at a tipping point with class sizes. As you just heard from Jackie, our immersion teachers are being asked to take on significantly more students. Dual language immersion immersion requires focused instruction, language development, and meaningful interaction. and overcrowding crowding directly undermines that model. Small class sizes are not a perk. They are essential to success and one of the main reasons families choose Sandpiper. When classes grow too large, we weaken the program, risk losing teachers, and push families to other schools. Our numbers are so close

119to needing three teachers in each of the grade levels, we are losing a teacher. That financially, it's better to keep the teachers we have. It will cost the district far more to recruit and hire new teachers than it will to keep the excellent teachers we already have. Going through what we went through last year caused us to lose 20 students in fourth grade alone. That's just fourth grade. If this happens again, we will lose more students and more trust. Leadership decisions matter. Under the direction of former board president Anne Greenberg, the district has made choices that cost enrollment and money. from staying closed far longer than surrounding districts during COVID and hiring not one but two superintendent whose concerns were evident during hiring. Those decisions are now being felt in our classrooms. If you're serious

120about building trust, rebuilding trust, enrollment, and quality, we must protect your what works. And that includes maintaining appropriate class sizes at Sandpiper. Sandpiper is doing the work. Our teachers are doing the work. Our families are doing the work. Now, we need district leadership toision. >> Thank you for your time. >> And that's all the yellow cards I have here. It concludes our call to the public. Next on the on the agenda is items for discussion. uh L1 career and technical education CTE pathways. Uh Dr. Corson. >> Thank you, President Pantara, members of the governing board, cabinet, and guests. Well, across the nation in Arizona, there's been a strong and growing focus on better aligning K12 education with college and career readiness. This work recognizes that today's students need more than a single pathway forward. They

121need opportunities that connect academic preparation with meaningful career exploration and realworld application. By blending college preparatory coursework, dual enrollment and industry recognized certifications with high skill, high wage, and high demand career pathways, we can provide students with greater relevance, direction, and purpose as they transition into post-secary education and the workforce. This represents an alignment between K12 education and colleges, universities, and industry. In PB schools, our career and technical education department has been working closely with industry partners, community members, teachers, and school leaders to align pathways across our high schools and to envision new opportunities driven by student interests and workforce trends. Tonight we have Melissa Mison, our director of career and technical education along with a couple of our high school principles to share an update with the governing board on this important work. Mr.

122Mozan, >> thank you Dr. Corson. All right, good evening. President Pantara, governing board, Dr. Corson and cabinet. Thank you for the opportunity to share our work around redesigning K12 career readiness across PB schools, especially since it's CTE month. Tonight, I'll be sharing how we are building a more intentional, connected K12 system that prepares every student for success in college, career, and life. What you'll see this evening is not simply a program update, but a more aligned approach designed to help students discover their strengths, explore career pathways, and develop real world skills that position them for long-term success. This approach also strengthens alignment with workforce and community needs. Miss Mozan, if we could just there. I think we're pulling up. >> Oh, wrong >> presentation. >> Sorry. >> I believe that's the wrong presentation though. >>

123Yeah, that's signed. Looks like we're going to get that presentation loaded in just a moment. Did she have it? >> There. I think we have it up. Miss Smalls on. >> Oh, great. Yes. >> So, if you want to advance to the slide that you were on, that'd be great. >> I think I'm here. We're perfect. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Michelle. This work is grounded in our district vision that every learner is empowered for a lifetime of success. The future ready PV graduate pro framework ensures students graduate prepared, resilient, and opportunity ready. Through structured pathways, real world learning experiences and intentional connections between academics and careers. Most importantly, this model ensures PV schools remains competitive and responsive for the evolving needs of our students and community while maximizing the impact of the resources already

124invested in student programming. To understand why this is critical at this moment, I'd like to begin by looking at the larger landscape driving this change. There are three primary drivers shaping this work. First, workforce trends show that nearly threearters of future jobs require post-secary education and advanced training. Employers consistently report skills gaps in apply in applied and technical fields. Secondly, student outcome data shows that students engaged in career and technical education programs demonstrate higher graduation rates and stronger engagement in learning. Innovative and relevant career pathways also help districts respond to declining enrollment trends by attracting students and families back to public education. When students see clear purpose and real world connections and opportunities aligned to their interests, they're more motivated, they're engaged, and more likely to persist towards graduation. Third, this work strengthens our community

125by building local talent pipelines, supporting economic stability and expanding industry partnerships from a return on investment perspective. Aligning educ education with workforce readiness strengthens student outcomes while supporting long-term community sustainability. As we examine these trends more closely, we recognized an opportunity to examine workforce trends and the evolving needs of our community. We recognized the importance of re-evaluating our CTE pathways to ensure they remain relevant and aligned with both student and industry needs. Education and workforce preparation have evolved significantly across Arizona and nationally. School systems are restructuring around comprehensive college and career pathway models. Universities are also shifting toward career connected academic programming. This work also reflects the evolution of career and tech technical education as well. CTE is no longer viewed as separate from college imp college preparation or limited to the traditional trade-based programs.

126Today, CTE is centered on career focused learning that prepares students for a wide range of post-secary opportunities including universities, certifications, apprenticeships, and direct entry into highskll careers. Programs such as Crest demonstrate how CT and college preparatory experiences are integrated, offering students rigorous academic coursework alongside career focused learning. In response to these shifts, PB schools began exploring what a more intentional college and career readiness model could look like for our students. Over the past few years, we have collaborated with key stakeholders, including industry partners, educational leaders, teachers, parents, principles, and counselors to study best practices to identify opportunities to strengthen student preparation for post-secary success. Through this collaboration, we identified an opportunity to develop a more structured student- centered pathway model known as the academy framework. Designed to expand opportunities for students while strengthening long-term workforce

127and community impact. PB schools has strong CTE programs. However, students often navigate programs independently and experiences are not always intentionally sequenced. Families benefit from clearer visibility into career progression. Industry partners benefit from more consistent engagement. And our district benefits from scalable aligned programming across all campuses. The strategic question became how do we organize strong programs into co a coherent student centered system? Our answer is the academy model. Let me briefly explain what we mean when we refer tomies. An academy is a structured career pathway with a compre within a comprehensive high school. It includes sequenced coursework, industry advisory input, work-based learning opportunities, and options for dual enrollment, AP, and credential attainment. Students progress through a structured experience beginning with exploration and ending with capstone and internship opportunities. Our goal is simple but powerful. Every student

128graduates as a future ready PV graduate prepared, resilient, and opportunity ready. This means students graduate with academic preparation, professional skills, and a clear career direction. This model allows us to strategically align existing resources while expanding meaningful student opportunities across all campuses. Career readiness begins in elementary school and followed by exposure and career exploration in middle school. When students move into high school, students move into skill development, credential preparation, capstone experiences such as internships, dual enrollment, and work bas work-based learning. This intentional progression ensures students graduate prepared for post-secary success and workforce entry while maximizing the effectiveness of our instructional investments. Beyond structure, this model also produces measurable benefits for students and our community. This system addresses workforce skill gaps and improves student engagement, motivation, and graduation outcomes. It builds a clear K12 pathway aligned with

129high wage, high demand, high need career sectors and strengthens industry partnerships. Let's look more specifically at what opportunities the students will receive. Through the PB Graduate Pro model, students will have access to industry credentials, college credit opportunities, internships, work-based learning experiences, advanced diploma designations, and individualized college and career planning. These opportunities allow students to graduate with meaningful credentials and real world experience that strengthen both workforce readiness and post-secary success. to model to bring this model to life. I would like to invite Horizon principal Shelley Strous and North Canyon principal Jorge Anttoveros to share updates on their progress and the work underway to developmies at their schools. Good evening, governing board and cabinet. Um like Melissa said, my name is Shelley Strous and just wanted to share um a little bit about what we've been doing

130at Horizon. Um I have um been lucky enough to work on the original team that we started laying this out and thinking about what an academy model would look like. Um so some of the things that we are doing right now um so far is we have ongoing collaboration with the district team. Um I have shared some of our ideas with our school council which is made up of students, parents um and teachers and staff. And then um just last week I um introduced this to our entire teaching staff um and our department leadership team so we could start talking about what type ofmies might we want to bring to Horizon. So, um, what we're looking at right now, um, is we, CTE sent out a student survey and one of the highest response rates

131came from our high school. And so, we are targeting some of our pathways based on what our students said they are most interested in as far as career paths go. So, you can see there on the bottom some of our ideas. Um, we're looking at four pathways to start with. um the arts, media and communications pathway which will encompass our very strong already existing fine arts program. Um our engineering and technology program. This one is huge. We have a lot of students who want to major in an engineering program in college and we already have an engineering program intact. So we'd really love to grow that. And um you'll see there it says H3. Those are high wage, high demand, highskll jobs. So, all of our pathways lead to career paths that are going to

132grow in Arizona in the next 10 years. Um, they'll be adding about 600,000 jobs in those areas alone. So, those are the ones we're targeting as well. Business and innovation, we already have a very strong marketing program as well. So, getting students more involved there. And then we're hoping to introduce a health, medical, and bioscience program um in the 2728 year. That is our goal. So, we're making some plans now for how we will work with Melissa's team. Um, how we will recruit. We already have some um companies and businesses such as Mayo Clinic and ASU that are just really ready to partner with our students and get our students into um their businesses and see um get the exposure to those careers. So, we're really excited about this. Um I really feel like we've

133been looking for something um that we can grow at Horizon. As you all know, we're pretty landlocked and we have we live um are we're surrounded by a very expensive neighborhood. So, it's very hard to um grow our enrollment and we feel like this is going to be one of those things that can help us stand out. We compete hard against um two of the private schools in town um as well as some charter schools. And I think we can all um say that those schools cannot offer these type of pathways like we can. So, we're getting really excited to do this work. We've started this work. next year we'll be really working hard so we can really roll out some of these pathways in 2728. So that's what we're doing at Horizon. So thank

134you. >> All right. I asked to go first because she said about three4s about what I was going to say. Um first and foremost I'm proud representative North Canyon governing board cabinet. I'm here extremely proud to present the future of North Canyon. I also started this journey a couple years ago as a middle school principal and we're struggling in creating that ambition for high schoolers, eighth graders transitioning to high school. They don't not they don't get it yet, right? They struggle understanding the point of high school and seeing the big picture of the four-year plan. So with the work of a lot of exploration and understanding, North Kenyan High School is very proud to announce that we are actually officially underway starting 26 27 with our freshman course uh freshman group. We are looking at

135the way I describe it. Miss Mozan did it a little bit prettier. I explain it this way. Freshman year you explore it. Sophomore year you learn it. Junior year you try it. Senior year you experience it. We believe in that journey. So, not only at North Kane are they going to graduate with the requirements of rigorous learning through the Paradise Valley Unified School District, but they're also going to walk out with the experiences of a portrait of a graduate. Those collaborative skills, those learning engagement skills that we truly need to um teach to our kids and we learn that through experience and learning. So, at North Kenyan, we'll have fourmmies starting next year. We have our arts and and media just like um horizons very similar. We have our applied technologies. That's what I tell

136our kids is our hands-on projects, right? That blue color. We have our construction technology. We have autos. We have uh welding. We also have working with people. We are very excited that next year North Canyon High School will be introducing a fire science academy in which we are very proud to work with a lot of Phoenix Fire Department and bring that to exper that experience to our North Kenyan students. And then the last one is the innovation and technology academy that's going to focus a lot on IT network security and things like that. Again, I'm very proud of the journey that we're doing. I'm very excited to give our students this opportunity starting as a freshman level and really get them a chance to explore their future opportunities and see high school as an experience,

137not just a check the box. So, I'm super proud of that journey and and very excited to see what where this takes us moving forward. >> All right. Thank you both. Appreciate you both highlighting how this work is taking shape at Horizon and at North Canyon to ensure long-term success. We are implementing this work through a phase in strategic rollout. Our initial phase focused on program alignment and partnership development. It's important to have those industries uh working with us. That's the going to make this a key um program for us. The next phase expands middle school career exploration and freshman academy experience while strengthening work-based learning opportunities. That middle school career exploration is very important. I was a former um high school principal myself and getting those ninth graders to understand that as soon as

138you hit those doors, it matters. They can if they don't do well their first semester, they can start knocking themselves out of opportunities, scholarships, um many kinds of things. So, we're we're trying to if we start talking about careers earlier, they're going to have know why we're here, why we go to school, we're all going to have a career someday. So, we just want to make sure kids are having some intentionality when they do that. Uh the future phase expand academyy's districtwide and deepen postsecary and workforce alignment. This phased approach supports sustainable implementation while maintaining quality and then fiscal responsibility because as um Mr. Onto stated uh fire science and it's an expensive program. We spend a lot of money on equipment and whatnot. So we'll have to make sure that we are prepared to

139make sure that we have the best program possible. So this brings us to our closing message. The future ready PB graduate pro initiative represents a strategic investment in our students, our workforce and our community. This model allows us to strategically align existing resources while expanding opportunities for students by intentionally connecting career readiness and industry partnerships. PB School is preparing every student for success in an evolving world. At PB Schools, our commitment remains clear. every student, every path future ready. Thank you so much and I welcome any questions. >> Well, thank you. That was very thorough um temp presentation. I really appreciate it. Does any board member like to make a comment? Mr. Christensen, >> I'd like to thank all three of you for that wonderful presentation and this warms my heart to see this. While

140my family all went to college, a lot of my son's friends chose different paths. And I I love it because one size doesn't fit all in education or careers. And so I'm very excited to see this come to fruition on a more um organized way in our district. So um I'm I'm super excited. So I just want to thank you. I know it's not easy to do this type of work and the research involved and and I appreciate Mrs. Strous that you did reach out to the students to to get feedback because the world is changing and um when I graduated college and high school like eons ago, it was it was different. It was a different world and we were just expected to go to college. But I I'm I'm just thrilled that we're

141that we're doing this and and in a meaningful way, especially with, as you stated, with all of the different opportunities that are going to be coming to Arizona and already here. Not all of them require a college degree, but they do require skilled workers. And I think teaching that good work e ethic. And I love how you said planting those seeds uh during freshman year to tell them you're not going to be in school and with mom and dad forever. You're going to be a productive um member of society in the workforce. So just thank you all. I appreciate it. >> Thank you. >> Dr. Lim. >> Sure. I I have a few, but maybe we can bounce back and forth. Um, so my first one was I know we saw that futures ready uh

142uh PV graduate pro where we tal you talked about the prek through 8th foundation. So we just heard from a bunch of parents from San Piper the value of learning that language and why they've brought their students here. So how are we going to start coupling this with our existing programs and I'll tell you let me explain that a little bit more. So we're looking at potentially things in the healthcare sector. One of the most needed things right now is dual language speakers, specifically Mandarin and Spanish, which we teach right here in those schools because the language barriers are really problematic and we don't always have interpreters in those spaces, especially in certain parts of the country. Um, so how are we going to begin to couple our CTE programs and ourmies with the feeder

143schools that are coming into them with these amazing magnet programs that are developing amazing skills for our learners that actually could set them apart not only in the CT path CTE pathway but then set them apart in the career because they're dual language speakers or have these other skills they've developed going through different specialty elementary programs right here in our district. I guess you know through collaboration you mean for specific students like give me an example of a a program. >> So I'm just so we can take Sandpiper for example which will if I understand correctly feeds into Horizon um and they're looking at a potential health CT program there to have those students from the beginning be engaging with the science at the elementary school level to get them excited about health care would

144get them into that pathway. But we have to capture them long before they get to middle school. So, how are we going to begin to look at, say, our science curriculum at targeted schools that are feeding into these specialty programs to make sure we're capturing these students as soon as possible? My prek already knows she wants to either be at the tooth tooth doctor or a heart doctor, but that's from her medical experience of being a medicalized child and her being in that space and being around those professionals. How do we get students that experience without having them go through what my daughter's going through, but getting that experience in their elementary school? So instead of being like I want to be a YouTuber, they're like I want to be a cardiologist, I want to

145be a dentist, I want to be a nurse, I want to be a physical therapist, and because that what is what's going to grow these programs is students from the very get-go wanting to come to these programs because they already thought about this when they were 5 years old drawing their future career in kindergarten in Spanish. >> Absolutely. And you know, as we start moving into the elementary, we haven't even um broached that yet, but that is a conversation. Will we have schools that are a career specific school like that? You know, for example, you know, we have Crest, we have Quest, and will we have a a a smaller version of Crest for those engineers and computer science students? That's definitely a conversation. So, I think that'll take some conversation with uh Dr. Corson

146and communities and principles as to what they think their families need in their community and and we'll work towards that because I agree with you, the earlier we get them, the the better we are. And Miss Smzon, we have been taking some of our CTE programs kind of on the road to some of our elementary schools to begin introducing them at least to some of the offerings that we have in the CTE program. Would you like to share a little bit about that? >> Yes, that's Thank you. Uh CTE road show is what we call it. And we've gone to Desert Shadows, Desert Cove, we're going to Echo Mountain uh Intermediate and Primary and uh Wildfire. uh this this semester uh we take our all of our pathways from the high school. We uh try

147to align them with the high school that they're at. So we make sure that we take all of those programs down and each grade level. For example, when we went to Desert um Shadows, they did the little uh kindergarten culinary uh first grade did nursing, you know, and so our CTSO students are leaders within the pathway go down and they do a hands-on activity with the students and they rotate through the whole entire grade level. So, it's been a huge success. Um you know, but scaling that is, you know, because we want to hit all of them and they want us back, you know, they're like, "Well, come bring the rest of the pathways because of course we can only do, you know, seven." So, uh, it's been a great success. >> Yeah. And Dr.

148Lim, we recognize that's just a little introduction, right? What we're talking about is really our vision, too, about how do we create a systemic K12 >> career and college pathway. And right now, we're starting to uh create that vision for the high school, the secondary, but we recognize, to your point, that this starts much earlier. And so, this is really a K12 experience. We're beginning that uh work at Greenway Middle School as a feeder to uh North Canyon. And so our middle school is the next group that is preparing at least for North Canyon's uh launch and then we'll be dropping that to the elementary levels as well. So a lot of work to come in the next few years to create that K12 uh system. >> Great. And I think my only push would

149be that we do think about that prek level. we do go all the way down to those learners because many of our schools have those pre-k learners and one of the biggest issues getting them to retain into that school. You'll see uh some of the schools only have like a 30 40% retention. They go off to another school either out of district or another school that they're not feeding into. So, how can we get them excited and engaged as early as possible so they build the trajectory in those elementary schools that they're starting in and be building a community in? Thank you, >> Missie. >> Thank you so much. Um, this is all very exciting. I have a question about I heard the word exploration a couple times. Is that sort of being like the

150freshman year? Could you just kind of tell me a little bit more about what that what that looks like >> for the uh freshman or middle school? Because we're doing one in seventh grade, eighth grade, and then one in the freshman. >> Either or both. >> It's really getting them exposed to many things. First of all, school links, the school links platform that we have, um there's always a challenge of getting counselors into classrooms, but if we had a dedicated class for this career exploration and ECAP um planning, students will feel more confident when they get to high school about what that is because right now they get there and they just sometimes pick random classes. It's just it's not it's int it's not intentional. If we give them that time to build that up,

151that is going to be a much better opportunity for them. They will also have experience with all 25 pathways that we currently have in our high schools. We're developing um lessons for we split them up in seventh grade and in eighth grade. So they'll have experienced every pathway that we have. So they'll know what we have across the district. So they may not necessarily go to their feeder high school. They could possibly go to another one if they feel that there's a nursing pathway or something that they would rather go to. >> Thank you. And so that's where too Yeah. I mean, I know this is a massive like endeavor and so I'm, you know, got to sort of build it. Um, but I think to a lot of the points that we've already sort

152of talked about, right, the earlier we can kind of expose, you know, families and and kids to all these different things, I think I think the better. Um and and to that same point, I guess, so when engaging particularly, I think right now at least where we're at with middle school students, um like what are what are we doing to communicate with families? Um or what do we hope to do or plan to do? Because I realize again this is kind of early on in the building of this um you know, sort of and I know it's not the very first time or first program that we have, but it is a sort of a new vision if that's fair to say. >> Definitely is. I mean, I I I I envision maybe parent nights

153where we have them come in and we talk about what the students going to be a part of. Also getting really familiar with school links. They'll be able to see what their students four-year plan looks like. They'll have all access to that. Um, and I think that's much better than we have. We used to have the cards where they would just kind of sign off on this, but they're going to be able to have some conversations with their students about what they're choosing. So, that'll be a good platform to use. >> And that's what I'll just share. So, it's not even necessarily specific to our district, but I've definitely heard some feedback in some other places about um programs like such as these, not quite as well thought out as this though. So, that's we're

154already I think ahead of the game where um families really are feeling like they're kind of left out of that conversation and then their kiddo comes home and they're like, I'm going to do this and I'm not I don't want debt from college and I'm going to be this for the rest and parents like, wait, what? Right? And they kind of feel a little blindsided. And so I think that options are wonderful. I think that it's um you know also kind of what it's important but also asking a lot of an eighth grader even a ninth grader even a freshman in college to sort of choose a trajectory right if they especially if they've only been exposed to certain things. So, I'm very excited about this exploration piece of it because I think that's like

155the best thing we could possibly offer our students is just to even know what's out there and to make sure that our our families are informed and that they can be excited about it, too. Because what we don't want to do is, right, potentially set up a situation where we're we're communicating really really really well with students and getting them all hyped up and the parents feel like, you know, kind of came out of, you know, kind of came out of nowhere. And again, these are these are things I'm sort of hearing, I think, because different even different districts, different states are we're all kind of looking at this. This is an important piece that we need to build into our K through2 education. And I'm like watching and I'm like, let's let's learn from

156the mistakes that I think some of these other districts are making um because we have to do everything we can to I think engage parents and families too. And then at the end of the day, they'll be our biggest champion of these pro of of these programs, right? and and and champion for their child, too. So, >> and our biggest partner. So, that's really important. Thank you, >> M. Greenberg. >> Um, yeah, I appreciate this is I appreciate everything that has gone into this. Um, and I know how hard everybody has worked on it. We've also talked in the past about um, you know, how we use our feeder system in this district. And so it feels like we're overlaying different pieces. And I guess maybe the question and and you know is how are

157we integrating all of that in the sense of maybe where we're considering putting programs as we go through this or you know there there seem to be some natural fits we have and maybe less so in some places. So is how how is all of that coming into the conversation? Well, I think this uh spring and next year we'll start really starting to align those uh middle school pathways. We already have they do have some CTE there. So, really being intentional about aligning those to the high school is is the next goal for us so that students have already experienced that if they're really loving film and TV, for example, at Greenway Middle School, they also have film and TV at PV and at North Canyon currently so that they can continue on in that

158pathway. >> Dr. for them. >> Um, so, so I just want to follow up um, uh, on kind of two of the programs that we're looking at putting at Horizon and hopefully just put my concerns to bed. So, obviously you've got the arts, media, and communication and then the health, medical, and bioscience. And obviously, these do map on to programs we kind of already have. We have the Crest program and then we have the uh, North Valley Arts Academy program. So, how are these going to be different and not pulling from programs that we have invested a significant amount of time, energy, and teachers into especially with the the arts academy now having honors classes available um in this upcoming school year for students which is going to change the trajectory of students going to

159say the DAPs and the arts program. So, how are we not competing with ourselves is basically my concern. Sure. So, as far as the arts go, I I'm sure you're aware the arts program at Horizon is also very robust. Um, and we've laid out some new courses where kids can earn honors level credit once they get into those upper level upper level choirs for instance. Um, and take weaving those AP classes back in there such as music theory um, and things like that. We're also looking at when we say the arts communication trying to um we're very cognizant of the budget and when we're choosing our pathways we're like okay we're not going to choose a pathway that requires us to build a multi-million dollar facility because Jill said it's not going to happen. Just

160kidding. I didn't ask her because I knew what the answer would be. So we're trying to tap into what we already have and then how can we morph it into fitting these pathways. For example, we have a lot of students who really enjoy our photography program, but does photography necessarily are they all going to go be photographers with their career? Probably not. So, like, how do we fit that in? So, we're trying to morph that into photography with graphic design, with digital media, with learning all of those tools and kind of packaging that all together. So, that's one kind of one of the ways where it will look different because at for in the DAPS program, for instance, it kind of the pathway that they take is a little bit different. So I think ours

161will be a little bit different too. And that was kind of the goal amongst our high school principal discussion is we all don't want to have the same things and we don't want to be like fighting with each other but we want to use the facilities that we already have. And um I think this year Crest had to turn away a number of students because they just couldn't fit them. And I'm like Horizon wants to tap into that. Like let's get the bioscience, let's get the engineering so the kids that can't fit at Crest then we can take them too. and how do we look at what Crest has and make it a little bit similar and different depending on what the kids um needs are and then what facilities do we have that we

162can use and morph into um to make the pathways work. I was going to mention um another idea is tapping into those like future husky night type things is having these presentations for parents so we can talk about this and it's a traditional like openhouse come walk around but we could add in some like info sessions of let's talk about this and the kids can have really they can try different things so if a kid were to choose the engineering pathway as their freshman year and then they're like oh I realize I really love communication they could switch at some point in high school and still have two years worth to get dual enrollment credit to get a certification in something else. So, we don't want them to feel like, oh, when I make them

163choose something when they're 14 years old and that's what they're stuck in, but then they still build those skills. Um, one my one of my school council members, he's our community member actually. He works in like global HR and I asked him when we were talking about this, I said, "What skill do your businesses that you work with, major corporations say that students need?" And he was like, "Adaptability. just more skills, hands-on things, being able to talk to people. So, that's what we're really trying to seek in giving the kids is these experiences where they can get hands-on. And definitely all the way down to the elementary schools cuz my six-year-old wants to be an ice cream scooper. I'm like, that thumbs up to that one. Like, I don't know if that's going to work

164out for you. Then she layered it in with ice cream taster, too. Scoop and taste. That's going to be her job. And Miss Bzon, specific to like bioscience program at Horizon High School, I would imagine that's going to look somewhat different than what we have at the existing crest in terms of the specific courses that might be offered for that. >> Yes, that that pathway would look different for sure. I mean, we haven't built it yet, but um but we still want we don't want to turn those students away. So, having a medical type opportunity for them that they feel is still, you know, an AP track for them. uh that would be something we'd want to do >> which I think Miss Trophus you indicated was popular among the student population already attending. >>

165We have a lot of students who also apply to the healthcare pathways and don't get in just because they just can't fit the sheer numbers. So, actually when I share this with my staff, my physics teacher came running up to me and he's like, "Oh, I have this uh professor. He works at the healthcare campus um up by ASU's campus by Mayo and he wants to do a partnership like he's already the ASU gentleman's already emailed Melissa and I. He's like ready to go like get students in there." And I'm like, "This is amazing and it's so close." And we already have those partnerships with Mayo through our other programs. So, um I think definitely just trying to tap into those areas that we know we're not fitting kids in cuz we just don't have

166the space where we do offer it and being able to offer that too so they can get it at their because we do have kids like they want to stay at their school. They don't want to get on the bus and go to you know PV which is what they're doing right now to get some of those classes and if we can bring some of those to our campus then that would help as well so more kids can have access to those programs. >> Mrs. Christensen. Yeah, just I I know I don't want to beat a dead horse, but just one last thought. I just really concur with what Dr. Lim and Miss Swanie had said about I we were very fortunate because I had quit my job so that I can help my my

167son and we we were supposed to go to uh Pinnacle, but we knew that Horizon had a nationally recognized choir program only because we did go to Husky night and um a lot of the other parents didn't realize that. They thought all the high schools offered the same thing, but because I was working in the in the schools. I was room mom and I was very involved. I knew that, but not everybody does because we have several two two working parents. So, yeah. >> So, I was Thank you. So, and you already kind of touched on it, which got me really excited. So obviously when we're thinking about these programs, we're thinking about who are the people who are going to teach these classes and there's obviously lots of talented, you know, professionals in our

168community. So is kind of the part of the organic sort of building of this also looking at those partnerships so that it's kind of just like a natural sort of evolution as opposed to like picking a program and then trying to find, you know, the unicorns out there to come in and and do it. >> Is that fair to say? Okay. Yes, we're definitely looking at partners from around us because we're going to need we want internships. We want those students to get out there and apply that knowledge that they've they've received their sophomore and junior year. So, that'll be key having those. So we won't want them to drive 40 miles to >> and and by keeping it in an academy at the site that means right and correct me if I'm wrong um

169a lot of times if we have a student for example who is very interested in a program at PVCC or a Westmech location or something like that means sometimes they might not be able to engage with sports or they have to make a choice between a dual enrollment or an AP class because they have to spend a significant amount of time right sort of going back and forth so keeping it in house seems seems like it gives so much more flexibility and opportunity for a kid to if that's their choice, right? There's not there's no right or wrong, but if a student loves baseball and wants to play baseball, but also wants to take one of these academy tracks, they don't necessarily then have to pick one over the other, which I think is incredible

170and amazing and not everybody is doing it that way. So, I really very much appreciate it because these are kids and they should get to explore and try out all the things and not have to not have to pick one. Like we all had to at some point at some point it was like you just have to pick something like let's keep them in that space that explor the exploratory space as long as we can. So, >> and that's the key of having counselors involved because they're going to be the big guide on the side for students for getting them everything they want. So, that's why we want them to have this career exploration so they're kind of going to know what they want when they hit, you know, they get to nth grade. You

171know, that's why seventh and eighth grade is so important. So, when they're planning and they're working through school links and planning their four-year plan, they'll they'll feel a little more confident about that >> with their parents. >> With the parents >> with their parents. >> I would also say I think I'm hopeful that we we have teachers already that are interested in teaching these classes. I have many just on my campus alone that teaching is their second career. Teaching was my second career. And so when I was talking about some of these pathways, there was a few of them that ran up to me immediately like, "Oh, when I was doing journalism before, I would love to teach a communications class, right? It's not going to be their whole schedule, but they a lot of

172them were very excited." And I think that will kind of be a little bit organic, too. Or I I have some CTE teachers who came out of the career field because they have retired but still want to teach or they had a family. And so, so that's I mean my engineering teacher, she has a minor in cyber security. She's amazing. And I'm like, what? She is a unicorn, but she has four little babies. Yeah. >> And so also, if there are community members who are listening that kind of fit the bill, maybe, you know, they could >> Can we like flash Melissa's number? >> Yeah. >> Did you want to say something, Mr. Greenberg? Um, how much can we incorporate virtual learning into this as well? It feels like there's going to be some overlap

173or it feels like we may have students at one high school that aren't going to necessarily fit into a specific path. But, you know, and particularly if we want to be able for our students to experience, you know, multiple potential pathways before perhaps picking one. And we've we're laying that out as we know you're not going to walk in ninth grade knowing exactly what you want or 10th grade or so. Have we have we thought about returning to some of those virtual? >> We are working right now with PB online to do some CTE courses where students could do that. Um I haven't thought about it if a student was in CLA, you know, in the high school and taking a virtual one. We often do uh virtual with business partners and you know uh

174tours like that. We do that already. Um but we'll have to we'll think about that. That that's an interesting concept. >> Dr. Lim. >> Um so I'm going to need Jorge on this one. >> Sorry, switching principles. Um so uh as as Miss Swani was speaking, it just got me thinking about kind of the tour we had when we were at Westmech. So you mentioned the blue collar and thinking automotive. Obviously putting in a huge automotive shop at North Canyon would be amazing but also very very expensive. >> we have to the scale that that was my question. Do we have one to the scale that Westmech has at their Deer Valley with paint and all of that? Like how I guess my question is how much are we going to realize that bringing everything

175in house is not going to be a perfect fit and that we need to direct students to certain programs say in their senior year to get a little bit more from places like Westmech or the community college where we actually need to recognize that we have a gap in our program and we're not going to be able to financially fill that gap. So, how can we then in those unicornous students that want to do auto body paint and that is their dream get them to Deer Valley's Westmech campus because we don't have one to be able to engage in that part that we just can't fit that gap because I I mean I'd love for you to paint cars uh at North Canyon. It just seems like a very big lift because I've seen the

176size of their paint shop. >> So, we do have an amazing auto class as we speak. Um Mr. Hennessy does a fabulous job and actually believe it or not we found a unicorn in him. He's a retired firefighter so he's going to introduce the fire science for us as well. >> Awesome. >> Um but with that being said >> there's a couple components especially working for us at North Ken. Many of our kids are excited about Westmech. They really are. But unfortunately many of our students do work. Many of our students do not have their own transportation and that's a difficult challenge for them. We have certain students who do go to Westmech. Um but we try to provide them as many experiences on our campus as best as possible. Now we've come up with

177a lot of resources to give them those opportunities for those bigger programs. Our autos is basic automotives. Uh we do not have custom paints or detailing or things like that. But they I mean they do a very good job and they've done a great job growing that program itself. uh we have I believe currently right now 14 kids who are 56 level students who are embedded in there for three years and they're walking out with many certifications and ready for the next world. The biggest thing for me and and probably the biggest journey of what I am excited about just because you're in autos for four years at North Kenyon doesn't mean that you're going to be a mechanic grown up. It means that you walked out with those hands-on experiences and opportunity to gain

178collaboration, time management experiences of hands-on getting dirty, right? Get underneath the hood. Um, and that's what we try to sell our kids is is gain those 21st century skills, but also gain those uh portrait of graduate qualities that make PBUSD special. >> Great. And so, it sounds like you already have a sense, so I'm going to ask you my next question. How are we pointing the kids to the next step in their opportunities? So, for example, you talked about information technology academy. Our our biggest deficit in Arizona is cyber security. People that want to be on the cyber security side because, as my husband will tell you, it is the most boring part of it. Um, but we need so many cyber security professionals. How do we then bridge them to PV Community College where

179we know they have a white hat program? How do we get the information in their hands so they know what their next step is? What are you guys doing right now or what is your plan to make sure they know where they can go next? Well, the biggest eye openener for me in my year one of high school principal is how many people want to help and how many people are invested in our high school students. We have great partnerships with a lot of resources. We currently have a monthly meeting with our Wested uh partnership. They reach out to so many different organizations, so many different companies, so many different programs where our kids are already going into the next step even before their senior year graduation. Right? Many of our seniors are currently doing

180internships. They're getting jobs. They're getting opportunities or they're applying for colleges for next level learning. >> Great. Thank you for your answers. And I know you are not even through a full year there. Thank you for diving in and clearly going ahead first into all of this. So, thank you for that. >> My pleasure. >> So, you mentioned early on, it's my turn. >> That's okay. You mentioned early on that you did some research and and you re saw what the career needs are in the community and and kind of based the the pathways on what's out there and where the needs are here. Right. >> Now, is there flexibility built into the system so that when those needs change, we're changing with them to to keep up to that? >> Absolutely. >> Is that

181something you look at? >> And that's why working with industry partners so closely in working with industry is so important because they're going to tell us, hey, this is the next big thing. You need to get working on this. So that's that's why they need to be our right hand in this in this development. >> Yeah, I know we're very good at what we do and I can see us flooding the market in some career and all of a sudden well now these kids wouldn't be able to find a job right away. But if we're switching things that are are more current and relevant, but you've got that built into the system, right? >> Yes. >> All right. Thank you for that. >> Any other comments? >> Well, thank you again. Be very thorough and

182and listen to all our questions. We really appreciate it. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. glasses. Next on the agenda is items for discussion 1 121- K-12 science adoption first reading Dr. Lindseay. >> Good evening, President Pantara, governing board, Dr. Corson, cabinet and guests. On behalf of Jean Copen, who isn't able to be here tonight, we'd like to present a first read for the K12 science curriculum recommendation adoption recommendations. So, tonight we have with us Robin Hayward, our secondary steam and science curriculum specialist and co-f facilitator of this committee. And we also have Christa Perez, who is our elementary steam and science curriculum specialist and the other co-f facilitator of the committee. They're here tonight to present to you the committee's process and recommendations and then answer any questions you may have. >> Thank

183you, Dr. Lindseay. Uh hello. Uh I am Robin Hayward. I'm this secondary steam and science curriculum specialist and co-f facilitator of this committee. Uh so um I'm going to be beginning the presentation. Um but purpose of this presentation is to share with you the governing board a first reading of the process and recommendations of the K12 science adoption committee. Tonight we begin by recognizing our committee members and outlining the vital purpose of their work. From there we will walk you through our timeline and process highlighting the extensive efforts that led to this evening's recommendation. We will also detail the specific evaluation criteria utilized to ensure we selected the most effective resources tailored to the paradise tailored for the paradise valley community. Throughout this journey, we prioritize gathering various perspectives from teachers, principles, students, parents, and

184community members. We look forward forward to sharing the valuable insights gained from those stakeholders. Finally, we will conclude our presentation with our formal recommendation and the anticipated next steps pending board approval. First, we want to take a moment to introduce the dedicated individuals that served on this committee. In this group, we had representatives from various stakeholders, including parents, administrators, teachers, an English language development coach, gifted coach, and a mentor teacher. We had teachers from title and non-title schools, gened classrooms, special education classrooms, dual language classrooms, and gifted classrooms. Special thank you to a couple parents on our committee. Uh Mr. Grover is actually an engineer in the field and was was instrumental in reviewing curriculum and so is Miss Colbertson. While she's not currently um in the classroom, she's a certified earth science teacher. Um

185they were both instrumental in reviewing high school resources. Now, every member on the committee brought their own individual experiences and insights, providing us with a comprehensive evaluation of the science curricula being considered. This process started in April 15th of last year and ended January 22nd of this year, including homework over the summer. During this time, committee members spent a total of 591 hours between meetings and curriculum evaluations. Yes, we added it up. Uh we truly appreciate their their this group. Uh they were wonderful to work with. Um and we thank them for their dedication and work. Thank you to all the members for their willingness to participate in this process. Now, the purpose of this committee was to research K12 comprehensive science curricula and make a recommendation for adopting the materials that best meet the

186needs of Pey School students and teachers. A comprehensive resource is one that includes evidence-based materials that build learning around the science and engineering practices, crosscutting concepts, and core ideas of knowing science and using science. This adoption is an opportunity for our district to leverage new resources with the goal of increasing science achievement. There are several critical reasons why PV schools is moving forward with a new science adoption at this time. One is that our current science contracts that were established in 2019 and will expire at the end of this school year. Without a new adoption, our teachers and students will lose access to the digital platforms and materials they use every day. The landscape of science education has improved significantly in those intervening years. Also, there is now a much stronger pool of resources specifically

187built for three-dimensional standards aligned learning along with along with highquality open-source options like open sed and open stacks that offer more flexibility for our district. We are also seeing a major evolution in instructional technology. Many of the tools we now consider essential became available or significantly enhanced post 2020. Modern curricula now include integrated accessibility features that are vital for our students, including text to speech and speech to text for our dual language immersion classrooms. These programs, these platforms provide robust translation supports that were not standard during our last adoption. We are al also seeing secure AI integration such as a partnership between OpenStacks and Google which provides a specialized AI tutor grounded strictly in the vetted district approved resource uh curriculum. Finally, the committee prioritized the importance of the portrait of a graduate and bridging

188the gap between the classroom and the workforce. It is essential that the curriculum includes real world practices that help students link what they are learning now to the challenges they will solve in the future. By embedding these connections early on, we help our students envision how these scientific skills apply to their lives long after they leave our schools. Throughout the process, the committee was dedicated to incorporating a wide range of stakeholder voices and perspectives. We recognized that the broad variety of teacher that a broad variety of teacher and community member input would enhance our recommendations. So, we followed a structured process outlined in the table on this slide to engage stakeholders while strictly adhering to open meeting laws. In March of 2025, we issued a call to committee to the Paradise Valley Education Association, the

189United Parent Council, and the Paradise Valley Principles Groups. The resulting committee represents a true cross-section of our district. The committee met for nearly a year, including work over the summer months. We followed all open meeting guidelines with agendas and notices posted physically and online at least 24 hours before each meeting. Meeting minutes were promptly posted online within 3 days and sent within 48 hours to UPC, PVEA, PVP, and our science instructional de division leaders at middle and high schools. Additionally, committee meetings were open to public attendance. Each meeting included dedicated time for community members to express their thoughts to the committee, which allowed us to involve the broader community in the decision-making process. To reach as many people as possible, several events were planned this year. While the finalist K12 vendors were on display, uh

190Kristen and I hosted o three openhouse nights in the lobby where we are open for extended hours on board meeting evenings. Um, these nights were advertised in advance to stakeholder groups and the science instructional division leaders. There were also two nights available with where Christa met with elementary teachers, um, had them join for a virtual tour of the science finalists and provide feedback. We even gathered ideas on how students learn best from 250 title and non-title elementary students, ensuring the committee was looking at these resources with our Paradise Valley young scientists in mind. On the next slide, you will see an example of their input. Furthermore, middle and high school teachers met on during an early release district PLC afternoon to review finalist materials and provide their professional feedback to ensure that all school communities

191had information and access. Flyers were shared at all the schools and posted throughout the campuses. These flyers contain digital access codes to each vendor's curriculum as well as a link and a QR code to provide feedback. Materials were on display in the district office lobby and accessible online for 60 days from September 23rd to December 18th. Through these efforts, the committee received 271 pieces of feedback to consider. The final steps of our work involve constructing this recommendation for the governing board. We are hopeful to present the second read for approval on March 5th, 2026. This date allows for materials to be ordered in time for summer training opportunities and we will share more about those next steps at the end of the presentation. Hi, I'm Christa. Thank you for the intro. Good evening everybody. I'm

192the elementary steam and science curriculum specialist and I'm the co-f facilitator of this curriculum adoption. Um, as mentioned, the committee prioritized student voices in the process of making their final selection. I had the privilege of interviewing over 250 kindergarten through sixth grade students. One of the kindergarters from Eagle Ridge really represents the heart of >> Yeah, let's go. The heart of our feedback process. While she is just one of the 250 students we interviewed, her excitement reflects exactly what we are looking for in our new curriculum. >> Can you press play on that? >> We make it all the time. I've watched that like a hundred times now and I'm still not still not over it. She really captured what we heard from many students. Student wants a hands-on learning experience. They want to talk

193about what they are learning in groups and they want to experience science, not just read about it or watch videos about it. And like this young scientist stated, it's about experiments all the time. The committee began its work by grounding itself in evidence-based instructional frameworks. Members participated in four initial meetings to gain deep background knowledge on the Arizona State Science Standards, threedimensional science, and the sense making versus information frame. A critical first step in this process was a district data review where the committee analyzed the PVUSD state test scores for grades 5, 8, and 11 to ensure our work was targeted toward the specific needs of our students. From this foundation, the committee developed a comprehensive rubric featuring 37 individual criteria based on ed reports and internal committee work. This tool was used to evaluate

194a wide range of proposals. We sent requests for proposals with the specific needs of our district to vendors, ultimately receiving 15 submissions for elementary, 13 for middle school, and 11 for high school, which is representing 56 individual high school curriculum resources. After the list was narrowed to the vendors in the 60-day community review, the committee refined the evaluation tool to gain as many data points as possible across five core categories: engagement, coherence, teacher support, access, and assessment. During this phase, members scrutinized 20inut vendor presentations and carefully evaluated the evidence components of each curriculum. Simultaneously, our IT department conducted a thorough review of each resource to ensure all digital components met the district's standards for safety and security. In the final stage, the committee reviewed summarized data from all members from all member reviews alongside feedback

195from the community and teacher events. Now, it's a little history. In 2014, the framework for K12 science education was published by National Academyy's Press and was the basis for next generation science standards. This text represents decades of research into effective science instruction and is the basis for modern national standards. Based on this framework, in 2018, the Arizona State Board of Education approved the current state standards, which emphasizes shift towards student centered learning. Under these standards, students don't just memorize facts. They engage in science and engineering practices to solve real world problems. The diagram on the screen illustrate illustrates the three dimensions of these standards. The blue ring represents the science and engineering practices. This is how students actively engage with content. The green ring represents crosscutting concepts. It's the lens through which students view the

196world. And the yellow center represents disciplinary core ideas. It's the essential content knowledge, knowing and using science. ED reports, a nationally recognized nonprofit curriculum evaluation tool, helps evaluate instructional materials based on the following criteria. Does the material cover the standards it says it does? Does the material challenge students or is it just surface level learning? Is the material actually teachable? Does it support all learners and provide teacher resources? The goal is to ensure districts are buying resources that will actually be used and not heavily supplemented with other resources. These three dimensions of science as well as information from ED reports form the basis for the committee's evaluation rubric. The committee prioritized standards alignment and student engagement while also heavily weighing teacher support and ease of implementation for novice to veteran teachers with a strong framework

197for understanding science education considerations of PVUSD needs and connections to national rubrics. The committee developed a robust rubric with the following criteria. Science resources align to standards. They meet Arizona State Science standards and three-dimensional science learning. Phenomena and problems drive learning. Lessons are centered on solving real world questions and investigations. Coherence and scope. Logical structured sequence of instructions across all grades. Teacher, student, and parent supports. Resources for all teachers. Tools for all learners needs. and supports for families. Assessments. They need to measure knowledge and skills that guide future learning and usability integrates with district technology and userfriendly interfaces. Using this criteria, the committee narrowed the list to the 60-day review finalists. A link has been provided for the governing board if you wish to see the entire rubric. After the initial evaluation narrowed the field

198to our top contenders, the committee refined the 37point rubric into five core categories. Because the finalists were all highquality resources, the committee required a more granular level of data to distinguish between them. This refined focus allowed members to gather more specific data points and ensure each resource was held to the highest possible standard. The committee evaluated the finalists based on these five essential components. Number one, student engagement. Ensuring students are actively doing science through investigation and sensemaking. Coherence, confirming the curriculum flows logically and respects valuable instructional time. Teacher support, verifying that the materials are highly usable and provide robust resources for educators. Access, ensuring the content is reachable and effective for every student in our classrooms. And finally, assessment, providing teachers with clear, actionable data on what students have mastered. Using these criteria, committee members

199completed detailed evidence-based evaluations for each resource. These scores were then averaged to provide a clear objective comparison, ensuring the final recommendation was supported by by a strong foundation of data. Sorry. A link has been provided for the governing board if you wish to see the entire rubric. The committee transitioned into specialized subgroups to focus on the unique needs of each grade band. This allowed members to apply their specific expertise to the final review of the elementary, middle, and high school resources. The elementary subgroup facilitated by me focused on the specific instructional requirements of the K6 environment. The following slides will detail the committee's findings and the specific recommendations for Paradise Valley Elementary Schools. Using the comprehensive curriculum review, the K6 committee subgroup identified five standout contenders for the elementary level level listed here in alphabetical

200order. These finalists were selected based on their strong alignment with our standards and their potential to facilitate effective science instruction across the district in our K6 classrooms. During the 60-day review period, we ensured these resources were accessible through several district-wide channels. Flyers were made available to every campus so families and staff could review materials digitally and physical examples were hosted in the district office lobby for in-person evaluation. To provide transparency, we gave process updates to the United Parent Council, UPC, assistant principles, APC, and principles, PVP, ensuring these leaders knew how their stakeholders could access and review the materials. To gather specialized feedback, we hosted two virtual tours for elementary teachers. We also prioritize student feedback, as you saw. An example, partnering with steam teachers at both title and non-title schools to gather insights from over

201250 students. These young scientists shared overwhelmingly that they learn best through hands-on and collaborative experiments. While the community review was active, the committee conducted rigorous evaluations to determine if these resources were viable within our specific K6 parameters. A major focus was determining if a curriculum could be taught with fidelity within the 30 to 40 minute window typically available in an elementary schedule. Following the 60-day period, the committee carefully synthesized all evaluations, teacher reflections from the virtual tours, and the community feedback. By analyzing this combined data, the committee reached a strong evidence-based consensus to ensure our final recommendation met the high standards of Paradise Valley. The recommendation to the governing board is to adopt imagine learning twig for the tier 1 kindergarten through sixth grade science curriculum for a period of seven years. It's me again.

202Uh the secondary science curriculum adoption decisions were made within two subgroups. So we had a group for grades seven and 8 and we had a group for 912. Uh both of the subgroups were facilitated by myself with occasional assistance um by a valued member of the committee who's here. Um so the 78 subgroup did meet on a couple of different dates based on their availability and we did post a separate notice when that did happen. Um as we move into secondary science, uh we want to first discuss curriculum in seventh and eighth grade. uh middle school science has a unique challenge of bridging the content and skills built in elementary to the rigors and expectations of high school science. Um the committee recognized that in the prior adoption they did not that it did not

203include comprehensive support for all content bands. Um and they said the lack of cohesiveness uh was identified as negatively impacting student achievement on ASI. Now the committee was also recognized that with the aiight test ban including grades six, seven and eight um their task was especially important. Uh following a similar structure as the elementary group, the committee identified the following seven standout contenders for middle school that are listed here in alphabetical order except for the last one maybe twig. These finalists were selected based on their alignment with the committee standards and priorities, demonstrating exceptional potential to meet the unique needs of the district and facilitate effective science instruction. During the 60-day review, I presented information to principles, presented United Parent Council and to the assistant principles and counselors group. uh time was taken during committee

204meetings to discuss vertical alignment as well between the resources that were the same between our K6 subgroup and our grade seven and eight subgroup. In addition to all the communication already mentioned, middle school teachers reviewed curricula at collaboration meetings last fall as well as during a provided feedback on an early release day that's already been mentioned um for the committee to consider. Um happy to say the committee reached consensus around the recommendation to the governing board to adopt imagine learning twig for the tier 1 grade 78 science curriculum for a period of seven years. Um and this is the same resource that is being recommended for K6. Now, as we move into the process and recommendations for high school, uh we acknowledge that high schools face the additional challenges of building on prior science content

205and skills uh while explicitly preparing students for college and career. Uh this slide shows specific considerations when reaching consensus about curriculum for high school courses. One, high school science teachers are our content experts in the courses they teach. They are a tremendous resource to the district for that reason. It is therefore important to honor the content knowledge of the teachers in decisionmaking. These teachers consistently show expertise in building engaging science lessons using a variety of resources rather than using a prescribed lesson sequence. Two, our high schools are very diverse with their pathways and curriculum focus. This indicates that there is not always a one-sizefits-all approach to curriculum at the high school level. Three, science achievement on standardized tests still falls short of our students potential. The curriculum choice choice should reflect the shifts in standards

206as well as the potential to impact student achievement. Four, high school courses cover standards that may not articulate to the next grade level. Students have more flexibility in high school regarding which courses they take to meet requirements for graduation and high school admission. and five high school teachers are held to meeting the requirements for ACT, ACSI, AP, dual enrollment, and common finals. This variety of accountability measures requires resources that align to each of these measures. In addition to the considerations for the science adoption, we also considered factors that would directly influence decisionmaking. Um on the last slide, the content expertise of high school science teachers were referenced. The committee acknowledged that autonomy with evidence was needed with high school curriculum resources. The working definition uh with us with for autonomy with evidence is that the

207district provide quality resources allowing high school science teachers to build the most impactful lessons while reviewing achievement and sharing lessons that drive improvement. Two, during this adoption, many of the committee's recommendations represent a shift from traditional publisher curriculum with high price tags and little evidence of student achievement. Three, the committee considered the needs of newer teachers, especially when considering open educational resources, and are committed to collaboratively building guidance documents to support those new teachers, as well as strategies to meet the needs of all students. We acknowledge the need to leverage teachers content expertise in building these supports. Um, and if you're not familiar, open educational resources are freely accessible, no cost, openly licensed text, media, and digital assets used for teaching, learning, and research. And open educational resources are highquality materials that are created by

208industry professionals and well-known college professors and vetted through thorough evaluations of alignment to content and standards. Many universities and our partners in our community college are moving toward these resources to support their courses as well. Four, we wanted to mention that there were some considerations specifically around biology curriculum that the committee discussed. The committee had difficulty reaching consensus in choosing one resource because we had some sites that expressed that student achievement was well supported with one resource uh with our current tier one tier one resource uh which is a more traditional textbook uh resource. Uh however, there were other schools that were not experiencing the same student achievement with our current resource and advocated for something different. Um N4 we did have um so there was a supplement discussed in the committee called pivot interactives

209that um both for specifically for integrated science and physics teachers. They advocated for this resource to be provided districtwide. Um and pivot interactive is an unique supplement that allows students to interactively interact with videos of experiments. So it's it's very unique. Um, and just know that Pivot was previously governing board approved as a supplement in May of 2024. Okay, that's a big list. Taking into account all the considerations and criteria previously discussed, the committee identified the following high school curricula as finalist to support the various high school courses. You'll notice this slide includes supplements. Uh, these supplements were reviewed using a rubric established during earlier supplement adoptions for consideration by the committee. During the 60-day review, curriculum adoption presentations occurred at prison principal meetings, assistant assistant principles meetings, and United Parent Council meetings. As you

210have heard, curriculum displays remained in the district office lobby during the entirety of the 60-day review period. In addition to previously mentioned events, all high school teachers were brought together in one place on a half-day to provide feedback about curriculum and discuss common final data and curriculum considerations. After the 60-day review, the community and teacher feedback was considered along time alongside the comprehensive curriculum reviews to reach consensus on tonight's recommendations. Okay. The high school subcommittee reached consensus to recommend this list of resources, a list on this slide, to the governing board as the tier one curriculum for a period of seven years. The subcommittee also reached consensus to recommend the three supplements that are listed at the bottom of the slide to the governing board for approval. Pending the approval of this curriculum by the

211governing board, several important next steps need to be considered. A detailed plan for implementing the new curriculum is being created, including timelines, training sessions for teachers and staff, and communication strategies to inform stakeholders about the plan. We will work to create a plan to efficiently allocate resources such as textbooks and supplementary materials. We will ensure that classrooms have the necessary resources to facilitate instruction and learning. We will facilitate work teams to create guidance documents that will serve as a guide for implementation. Lastly, we will establish processes for assessing and monitoring the implementation of the new curriculum to ensure that is meeting the intended goals and objectives. This may involve conducting regular assessments, collecting feedback from teachers and students, and making adjustments as needed. The science committee has reached consensus on the recommended curriculum resources that

212most effectively support student achievement and align with researchbased practices. Following a thorough evaluation, the cabinet has reviewed and supports the committee's recommendation. Several important factors influence the final decision, including extensive stakeholder feedback gathered throughout the process. The committee reviewed uh carefully reviewed the final offers from vendors and noticed that the proposed resources are competitively priced. Cost was carefully considered alongside the quality and viability of the resources to ensure a responsible investment. The total cost of this recommended K12 science adoption is approximately 4 million for a 7-year contract which covers all necessary instructional materials and digital licenses. Funding for these materials is made possible through district additional assistance override funding and we are appreciative of our voters for providing the means to secure these resources for our students. Additionally, you will notice there are several resources

213in blue font. These are the open educational resources we mentioned previously that are open to all districts at no cost. The recommendation to the governing board is to adopt imagine learning twig as the tier one curriculum for K8 science and the resources uh from for high school listed on the slide for a period of seven years. Once approved, the supplements listed will be added to the approved list for ongoing teacher and student use and you we thank you for your consideration. Now, we really appreciate your attention. We know that it's late um and we're looking forward to bringing a second reading of this adoption um that which is scheduled at the next boarding meeting on March 5th. At this time, we're happy to answer any questions you have. >> Thank you very much for that

214very thorough uh explanation of how the committee worked all especially what 500 and some hours. Yeah, that that's that's a lot of hours. So, thank you. And so, um questions, comments, Mrs. Christensen? >> Yes. So please forgive my my my directness in this. I am a little bit frustrated. I feel like that was a lot of explanation on the process. Our committees are second to none and we all know many of us have been on committees or have given input and um we know we we trust the committees and things like that but a lot of the stuff you mentioned was redundant and I am still no closer to understanding what we actually adopted. Um it I I appreciate that you did a lot of hard work but a lot of stuff risen. I think

215we could have cut out about 20 pages of this and it was 30 minutes before we even got to any lists of things and and please so please forgive my directness and it's no reflection on the committee. I know our committees are amazing. we we get so much stakeholder input, but um I don't I don't know what we're adopting and we're you know that was like 45 minutes and so please forgive my directness but I I you know it I'll just leave it at that. >> I have a question. Oh wait, Dr. Lim, >> so I I want to go to a comment that was said somewhere in here about our mat. So, we have a master schedule. That is correct. And it's a 30 to 40 minute block at the elementary school level if

216they're lucky for science. Correct. >> That's correct. >> In the spring. >> Okay. >> For elementary. So, I um I guess because I've looked back at our our past curriculum, which was the FOS lessons. Those are about a 40 to 60 minute block. And we know historically those weren't being used. Let's be 100% honest. I've heard from lots of teachers that checking them out, getting them, doing all of that has been challenging. How is this new curriculum any different from that same issue of checking them out or going to the room where they're at? And how are we actually going to fit it into that 30 40 minute window? Because frankly speaking, every protocol I've ever done that says it's 6 hours is eight plus hours. that it is not truly the time that it

217says because it takes more time when you've never done something before especially students to set something up and pick and get it ready and start. So that that 40 30 to 40 minute window seems simply not enough to do science in general. So how and and we did say 30 40 minutes but you did not clarify if we believed we could do it in that. I don't believe we can do it in that window. So, I would love to see that we can show that we can do science in an experiment-based way that's hands-on in 30 to 40 minutes and actually have those students retain that material and not have all the setup and take down dropped on the teacher. >> So, thank you Dr. Lim for that question and through my conversations with Miss

218Copen about that very fact. Um, I would like Christa to take a stab at answering that question because I know that that was a big part of the conversation among the committee. >> Yeah, thank you Dr. Lim for that question because we know that is a a very real consideration in our elementary classroom. So with the curriculum that we're recommending, Imagine Twig, they say that it will be about 30 to 40 minutes for a lesson. they do offer um fasttrack options for our younger grades where we're splitting between science and social studies. In addition, you mentioned the the constraints as far as checking out kits and that is something that we've taken very strongly into consideration over this process. So for one thing, there will be teacher manuals for every teacher that they will keep

219in their classroom, which is something that currently does not work with the system we have. So that will be an upgrade. Also, we will be having in grades at least four through six, ideally three through six, uh the kits available for every teacher who teaches science in their classroom. So, they won't have to be switching among teachers at their school. And part of the way we are able to do that is through reorganizing some of the materials that we currently have. So that's helping with the financial responsibility as well. Things for example like beers that don't get old, we can put in the new kit so these materials are available for our students. I remember when I investigated the different curriculums options that you had to displayed, you know, for the this whole process. Well,

220I checked them out when they were available to look at and I remember, you know, checking out the faucets and setting up the labs and that and when I saw on the kits that the curriculum I saw that was in display, it was a lot more streamlined than what I experienced when I was teaching science in here. So, I was very happy to see that kind of thing. Sorry, I I have followup to the question. >> Yeah. So, thinking a little bit about the hands-on experience of our teachers. So, so obviously each classroom learns differently. Each group of learners functions a little differently. And while we would hope a 30- 40m minute block would work, it may not work for every classroom. Um, so how much flexibility exists in the master schedule? If a teacher

221realizes a lesson is just not working in a 30 40 minute block this year and they really need to combine a block and do more science on one day and less science on another day, how flexible is our master schedule to allow teachers to teach the way their classroom needs which may not fit into the master schedule? It thank you for the question. It's an ongoing challenge because with our ELA curriculum, our math curriculum, intervention time, specials time, our instructional day is really short. And so one of the things that we worked on last year is to revisit master schedules and look for consistency across the district. So a third grade student in one school is getting the same amount of instructional minutes in math that across that another student in another school across the

222district was getting. And so it is an ongoing challenge with science and social studies. And so that we look for those opportunities for integration with wit and wisdom. Um I'm not sure if that has been a part of the conversation with the committee. Um but it is an ongoing challenge just with the shared lack of minutes within our instructional day to fit all the content in. >> Well, yeah. I guess my question there is our schools function very different. A title one school is going to look very different than any of our schools past the 101. The supports and infrastructure they have means they may have deficits say in the science and social studies in some of our schools that our other schools don't have. So, are we giving our schools and our campuses flexibility

223or are they tied to this set schedule of way of learning? Because it feels very silly to adopt a hands-on learning model where our title one schools may need a 50 to 60 minute block to do their science and then say, "Well, sorry, you can't do it that way because it doesn't fit into our master schedule and you're not allowed to adjust the master schedule." So, I have a worry that we're adopting and putting money into kits that we know the foss kits aren't getting used. So now we're going to buy more kids that are again not going to get used because it's not that the teachers don't want to teach it, it's that they don't have the time to teach it and we're not giving them the time and we're not allowing them to

224adjust their schedules. I can remember there would be days when I was in elementary school where you would h spend half the morning just doing science. Would you touch science the next day? No. But you spent the day multiple hours working on that particular subject because that is what you needed to do to learn it. I worry that this master schedule with no flexibility into it when we adopt this is just going to be a bunch of kits sitting on the shelves again just like our foss kits and so that is a lot of money for schools not to have the flexibility to actually figure out how to use them themselves. Yes. And as I mentioned it's an ongoing challenge because we also have state statute with K3 reading and a number of instructional minutes

225that we have to meet based on those guidelines. So um our math curriculum requires 90 minutes. So, um, >> so are those requirements per day that they must do that? >> Yes. >> And there's no flexibility in adjusting that to have more on one day than another. So, they're required to That's the the daily requirement. >> That's the daily requirement. >> Yes. And I would say that there would be flexibility in some cases to, you know, if there was an experiment that went into the next day, but generally speaking, we have to adhere to instructional minutes within content areas so we meet those expectations set forward by the Department of Education. >> Okay. I I guess my follow-up question to that is just for clarity on our our our standards for our science curriculum. Are

226are are we getting enough time for our science curriculum? Because obviously our scores in our district are not great. um they they're some of our lowest test scores and it's because we're not capturing and getting these students doing science earlier. For example, they do STEM education in the spring and they're tested in the spring on those same things. So, they're not actually learning all the science material before they test. So, it could imagine as we do a curriculum adoption, switching social studies and science to where science is actually happening in the beginning of the year ahead of testing might be something we could do while adopting a new curriculum. But we actually have to look and see why why are our students not robustly testing well in the sciences? It's because they're not doing hands-on

227work. It's because we're teaching them probably at the wrong time of the year. So, how can we make multiple changes at once? Being conscious of what we are required to do, but also saying we need to prioritize science because we know from our surveys that Miss Baran has done that our district, our families want science and they want better science and more science and they want it tied into what we're doing. So seeing it tied into other curriculums, seeing us increase those minutes in other creative ways like tying it with wit and wisdom would make me more comfortable with seeing this 30 40m minute block because it's not really 30 40 minutes if we tie them together. But we actually have to do it and help the teachers do that process instead of throwing them

228to the wolves with a new curriculum that sits on the shelves and collects dust like our foss kids. >> I appreciate that feedback. Thank you. >> I particularly like the fact that there are some virtual labs, right? mentioned that. So, you know, the for the younger kids, they they are virtually going through um videos that go with them. It's like that helps some of that setup time and take down time. Um I'm glad that's part of the system, too. Uh and those open resources you mentioned, those are those are, you know, non-copyrighted things. We just use them, right? >> Correct. >> I like the idea of that because they're they're going to be updated as science changes and there's new information. Boom. they go right to those open sources and they change them and make

229it more current and relevant uh keeping us always at the uh forefront of science. Some of these curriculum books we've had in the past you have them for five years while three years in you find out that some of the stuff's changed that you're trying to teach the students is is already outdated. So I really love that opened resource aspect of it all. Thank you >> Mrs. Wani. Um, so yes, of course, we I I definitely would love to continue the conversation and maybe just even have an opportunity to learn a little bit more about, you know, the time in the day to make sure obviously that we're utilizing all the great resources that you all have all vetted. Um I actually I agree with with um President Pantara about you know it's important to

230have these digital resources but I actually am more and more concerned that we are moving so far away from like physical hard copy books and paper and pen and writing um you know and and attention span and the difference between sitting down and working on a task and filling out even like a lab on a piece of paper right versus digitally. I think we need obviously um versatile learners who can who can kind of navigate both, but I think traditionally we do sort of retain more information when we're when we're actually engaging with hard physical things. So I know there's the hands-on kits. The the website also mentions like digital journals, but then also hard copy journals. So I guess just really my question comes down to what sort of handson like resources text opportunities

231right for students to you know measure write something down versus and and you know it's not to say to not use an app or to not use but to be engaging in both so that they they're they're able to kind of flex between and and use both mediums. >> Thank you for your question. Are you asking what kind of hands-on? >> Yes. Like hard like text or journals or papers, documents like you know old school. >> Okay. So imagine Twig has that available for kindergarten through sixth grade with financial responsibility at least the first year. We're going to get that for 3 through 6th grade. That is also what is developmentally most appropriate for our students. Also considering the amount of time we have available during the elementary school day. So third through sixth grade

232will have a journal where they will document what they're doing in these investigations. They will write their questions. They will do models and add to them over time and that will go along with their their units. All those are also available digitally. So for the ones that are most important for writing, we can print those in kindergarten through 2 grade. >> And um so if if so both versions are available, which I think is great. Um but is there uh any like are teachers going to sort of decide on their own which ones they want to utilize? Like just kind of talk me through what that sort of looks like. So if you're in third grade, if you're a third grade classroom and you've got both available, will they I mean is it possible that

233teachers might only use digital I guess is my question. I'm cons because I it just h it's a concern. It's a concern of mine. and I'm going to watch my own children and I and I and I see them like struggling honestly and I've got a senior at this point and a and a middle schooler and it's like they don't interact with physical materials and I just would like us as we're adopting new materials to be thinking about integrating some of the more traditional ways of learning back into you know our our educational learning environments here at PB. >> Mrs. Greenberg Oh, I thought you had something to say. Uh, so, >> oh, I'm sorry. >> It's late and I know you guys have done so much work. So, I'll just circle back to my

234question, which is >> I want teachers to have flexibility, but will they be encouraged to utilize both methods digital and physical hard copies in the classroom? >> Yeah, thank you for checking. So for 3rd through sixth grade that we are the books are part of the curriculum adoption those journals we will be we'll be providing strong professional development at the start which will help teachers know exactly how to use them and they um they go right along with what the students are doing. So, and in in addition, we will be working with teachers and working on creating a guaranteed viable curriculum so that that fits right in there. >> Mrs. Greenberg, >> um Dr. I think touched on this um in her comments and her questions, but it feels like particularly in K6 and it's

235not just us, but education seems to be siloing um subjects more than we used to. And it feels like, you know, we constantly have that pendulum swing in education. Like we were over here, now we're starting to move here, now we're starting to go back. And I guess the the you know the question or maybe comment I don't know this yes it's late um you know how much can we integrate again in terms of you mentioned witten wisdom you know so okay you've got 40 minutes for science and it's going to flow into English and so maybe we can integrate the two together and use the science lesson for part of whatever it is we were doing with ELA etc etc etc >> and you know obviously ly we're focusing on the science curriculum adoption

236here but as we go into professional development and we look at some of these issues and obviously it's different school to school as well. So how much are we looking at that overall integration and that may not be a question for you and that may be more for Dr. Lindsay or Miss Copen when when she's here. Um you know that just that overall bigger picture question of being able to go up we've got to hit these standards but we can do it by integrating this way and take out four instead of two or you know what I obviously it's a little exactly what you mean because we used to teach outdoor education back in the day. take kids for camp overnight on weekends at like a Prescott. Yeah. >> And that's all we did was

237was science and outdoor education. We integrated things all the time, but like you said, the pendulum swings back and forth and um you got to get those standards in, right? >> Yep. >> Um I used to love teaching with the FOS kids. That was that was always a lot of fun for me. But uh I agree with you about the integration of things is is tough. Um M Dr. Wani uh Dr. Lim. So, I actually want to go back uh to Miss Swanie's question. I actually don't know if she got her question answered, and I am concerned about this, too. I I worry that we're waffling between, well, they could use digital or they could use written. Why are we not trying to map on to what scientists are doing? I did my lab notebooks

238by hand. Most of what my colleagues still do is by hand because for patents, that written material cannot be manipulated in the same way that the digital material can. And it can make or break whether you get a patent, whether you wrote it down or tracked it digitally. And yes, there are platforms for doing digital notebooks, but most of my colleagues still do it by hand because it guarantees you that patent. It controls your science. It is more tangible than the digital form. So why are we not knowing that the fields are in these spaces? Mapping on to thinking about the CTE stuff that we just talked about, finding out what the fields are doing and mapping that on so that our learners are doing this because I have a small learner that can get

239tired very quickly writing anything. And if she was just doing things by hand and that was just the norm, I wouldn't be struggling so much to get her to write a few paragraphs down because her hand hurts so bad, but you put her on the computer and she's like typing away. Not everything that every career is is going to be digital. And so I think we need to embrace that our K through six kiddos need more hands-on writing, less digital, less computers in front of them. they need to do more by hand and science is the best place to do it. So I do have a a question about this curriculum. How much of this curriculum has gamification or digital tools as a huge component? Because that is that is not how we learn science.

240We learn science hands-on doing it, not watching videos and playing games. So how much of the curriculum that we're adopting is gamifying science because that we know statistically and data wise is not the best way to learn. Thank you for your question. So there Imagine Twig does not have gamification. Um there's not digital games for the students. There are some videos for students that show kind of like we talked about right before us. There's a lot of career connections built in early on. So there are those videos. There are some digital investigations for things that you can't physically do unless you're my role model, Miss Frizzle. Um, but you can't do it in the actual classroom. So, there are some digital investigations. And then as far as um the writing piece, uh, Miss Copen will

241address what that will look like further. Yeah, I think it is more of a district thing that we need to think about more globally about getting our youngest learners writing things down and science seems like the best place to do it because it's short, it's sweet, and it's often fun and like writing a recipe. So, >> um, Mrs. Christen, >> yes. Um, I concur with Dr. Lim. I've been doing a lot of study on this. Education Week just had an article in January that says education technology including districts one-on-one and computing initiatives impedes students abilities to learn and and they go on to say that portal a portal to platform actually harms children's mental health and um they're starting to do Senate committee hearings on this and going back to basics Sweden has is they

242did a whole digital initiative and Sweden has gone back to um removing technologies from the schools. Um I it's it shows in our test scores as Dr. Lim had indicated science we're struggling. I went to veterinary school. I had to you know do my beaker experiments all by hand. I didn't do any electronic stuff, you know, doing tests and you know the petri dishes. everything was was physical and I have big concerns that we are excuse my reference but we're dumbing down education to push an all online and create these children that are addicted to digital technologies and learning less and less and I I just have big concerns about that. I just want to say also you all are wonderful and and so I just also like truly like obviously this is a bigger

243sort of philosophical conversation that we all need to be having and so I just can't say enough like I think you did amazing and wonderful work and I just please don't take what you know this conversation here we're we're passionate and we care very much about this and we just want to you know do the best job that we can to serve our community and it is not a reflection of your committee work or or you all it is a bigger sort of right just fundamental philosophical conversation about education that I think is important to have and I'm excited to be a part of a an organization that we can have these kinds of conversations. So I just felt like I needed to say that thank you thank you. Thank you. And and you know

244sometimes it's this kind of thing that helps get get our wheels turning so that we can all work together right to to try to get the best possible outcome for everybody. So, I just felt like I needed to say that and just truly thank you. Thank you. Thank you for all the work that did go into this. >> Dr. Lim. >> So, so I will bring it back to the curriculum and I just want to uh discuss one of my concerns. Um, and I think it's probably potentially mitigable, but I know we are talking about a science curriculum adoption where it looks like about half of them are open curriculums. What risk are we taking on that these might become closed curriculums and now we don't have a curriculum or are these always been open

245models and we expect they will stay open when we make this adoption? >> Uh yes they have been open and we expect that they will stay open. >> Okay. And do we have a contingency plan or or have obviously vetted curriculums just in case at some point one of these goes behind a firewall? >> Well, there were several uh open source curriculum that were reviewed during the committee process. So if something happened in the future then we could reconvene the committee and discuss those other things that we have current comprehensive evaluations on. >> Perfect. Great. Thank you >> again. Thank you. Um from what I saw and all the things I looked at most of it was not digital or online and I really Yeah, it's not. Most of it's not. That's just an option

246if you can't do it hands-on, right? Yeah, that's like an option. But all I No, you don't have to answer that. I just thought it's fantastic and I I really appreciate all your you know your work on that and we'll look at it even closer before we meet again to discuss and listen something else to say. >> I do just based on your comment I >> three of us have had children in this trip recently >> and the books are not being used. They they just sit on the wall. No, the kids don't want them. They would rather have digital. It's easier and faster and they go through it. But are they are they truly learning? We spend more money be it was a curriculum adoption a few years ago. They made us get the

247books and the books sat on the shelves and they were not used and it just increased the price of of the of the curriculum because the we should be telling the curriculum company, the publishing companies what we need. I know that Poria has done that. They've done it in Florida instead of just accepting and accepting prices. So, it again I having had a kid go through this recently, um I I've seen it firsthand and we're we're not using the other materials. So, just lessons learned. >> Any more comments? Again, thank you for your work. My granddaughter knows she loves science and she's going to be looking forward to this this new stuff that's coming out. I really appreciate Well, see you again in in in March. Right. Okay. Um before we adjourn, I get my

248glasses. I would like to remind everyone that our next regular governing board meeting will be held on Thursday, March 5th, 2026 at 6:30 p.m. May I have a motion to adjurnn? >> So moved. All in favor say I. >> I. >> All oppose say nay. Any abstensions? Motion passes unanimously. We are journal.