001[music] I want you again. Lord [music] Hallelujah. [music] Hallelujah. >> [cheering] [applause] >> What is that? We had a couple >> [laughter] >> Okay, it's 6:30 and I would like to call this meeting to order. Um, before we do anything, can we have another round of applause for our incredible performers? [applause] Thank you, Mr. Burlesen and Sunrise. Um, in a moment, our Sunrise Middle School students will lead us in the pledge of allegiance, and we will follow the pledge with a moment of silence to honor two individuals from our PV schools community who have recently passed. Carol Morgan, the library media technician at Palamino Primary School, was a steady, caring, and beloved presence in the lives of our students, staff, and families for 35 years. Additionally, Dr. Kathy Webbki became the first national board certified
002teacher in Arizona while here in PB schools, where she also served as principal of Desert Trails Elementary School. Her career in education spanned more than 40 years, including a recent appointment to the state board of education. We are forever grateful to them for their dedication to students and education and send our deepest condolences to the their families and all who knew these remarkable women. Would you please rise and join us in the pledge and then stand for a moment of silence? Stay standing of the stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you very much. Um would the parents of these fine performers please stand or remain standing so we can give you a round of applause and thank you for sharing your students with us. [applause] Thank you all
003very much. Next on the agenda, may I have roll call, please? >> Mrs. Christensen >> here. >> Mr. Pantara, >> here. >> Mrs. Greenberg, >> here. >> Dr. Lim >> here. >> Miss Bonnie >> here. >> Next on the agenda, oh, excuse me. The next six items are related to the board organizational portion of tonight's meeting. And next on the agenda is nomination and election of board president. Does anyone have a nomination for board president 2026? Mrs. Christensen. >> Yes. Dear President Greenberg and fellow board members, I respectfully nominate Jessica Wani for board president. May I read a prepared statement? >> Um, Miss Wani, do you accept the nomination? Um, while I am honored, um, unfortunately I think I have to respectfully decline. Um, as I just do, I know that the this position takes
004a tremendous amount of, um, dedication and commitment. Um, and I worry I would not be able to bring all of myself into that role at this time. But thank you. I appreciate the nomination. >> Thank you, Miss Wani. Thank you, Miss Christensen. Uh, does anyone else have a nomination for board president? >> Dr. Limb, >> I move to nominate Tony Pantara for pres board president. >> Thank you. Mr. Panta, would you accept the role? >> I do. >> Okay. Uh, does anyone else have a nomination for board president for 2026? All right. Actually, so Dr. Lim made the motion already to Well, I will just go through. May I have a motion to approve the nomination of Tony Pantara to serve as 2026 board president? Mrs. Christensen. >> So moved. >> Is there any discussion
005or anybody want to make a comment? >> Mrs. Christensen. >> Yeah, I would like to just have some discussion. Um over over the past year, we've had some tumultuous times and um I I just one of the reasons I wanted to nominate Miss Wanie was her strong steady leadership and asking discerning questions. Um championing all concerns of not only our wonderful educators but concerns of students and parents as well. and her just governance here has um reflected both careful judgment and genuine commitment. And I so I'm just hoping that Mr. Panta will will um champion not only our wonderful teachers here but also parent concerns. Um, and we are we really would like to um have some strong leadership especially now that we've been going through a lot of tough times. And so um I'm
006I wish you the best. But I just wanted to mention one of the reasons why I nominated Miss Miss Wanie because um she has really championed not only as I mentioned educators but parents and staff members and has really embodied what it means to be a governing board member. >> Thank you, Mrs. Christensen. Does anybody else have a comment question? Seeing none, all those in favor, please say I. >> I. >> All those opposed say nay. >> Nay. >> Any abstensions? Motion passes with four yeses, one nay, and zero abstensions. And I will turn the seat over to Mr. Pantara. Excuse me while I get my glasses out. Thank you, President uh Mrs. Greenberg, for for what you've done for the board for um all these years, and I know you continue to do so.
007You know, you'll be on the board long after I'm gone. So, I really thank you for your support and help and guidance and everything we do for this board and for everyone else here. And for the rest of you, I just uh want to let you know that I'm going to do what's good for students and what's good for students is also good for parents and the rest of the taxpayers of this uh district. I want to do good all the time as much as I can by listening. I don't set the policy. We set policy. I'm here to make sure the policy we all agree on is what happens. And I think I've demonstrated that many times in the past at different as Arizona schoolboard association meetings and things of that nature. I'd also
008like to take a personal moment to thank my my beautiful wife over here, Michelle, who came. She always supports me. And uh she finally said, "Well, I'll go to a board meeting this time, Tony, okay, to support you for this." And my and my lovely daughter, Heidi, who's also thank you for your support and helping me and and getting me through all the things when I feel frustrated with this job. I appreciate it. Okay, having [clears throat] said that, I'll see where we are next here. >> [applause] >> Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. [applause] And the next six items are related to board organization portion of tonight's meeting. Um next agenda is No, I did that. We've got a promp. Yeah, there it is. Thank you. Yeah, it is. Next on agenda is nomination
009for president promp for 2026. Okay. Does anyone have a nomination for president proemp for 2026? >> M greenberg. >> I nominate Dr. Amanda Lim for president prom. >> Uh do do you accept that? >> Yes. >> Okay. Are there any other nominations for president proemp? Uh, seeing none. Um, do we need a motion for that? Right. Yeah. Do we need a motion? >> Consider a motion that we uh have an election for promp. >> So moved. >> All right. Thank you. Uh, all in favor say I. >> I. >> All oppose say nay. All any abstensions? Motion patches. Congratulations, Dr. Lim. [applause] Oh no. Moving on. Okay. Next on the agenda is to establish order of roll call vote. Consistent with the board's practice, the order of voting is decided by lot during the organizational
010meeting in January of each year. Each board member drew a number prior to the start of tonight's meeting. Uh Mrs. Miller will call on each of us to announce our numbers to determine the order of roll call vote for the 2026 calendar year. >> Mrs. Christensen, >> two, >> Mr. Panta, >> four. >> Mrs. Greenberg, >> one. >> Dr. Lim, >> three. >> And Miss Wanie, >> five. Have those been duly recorded? Okay. Um, next on the agenda is approval of authorized signatures. May I have a motion to appoint all governing board members as authorized signitories for the 2026 calendar year? >> So moved. >> Okay. Any any comments? Okay. All those in favor say I. >> I. All those opposed say nay. Any abstensions? Motion passes unanimously. Okay. Next on the agenda is authorizing
011of signature stamps. May I have a motion to authorize the use of fac faximile signature stamps of governed board members for the 2026 calendar year. >> So moved. >> Any board me board members wishing to make a comment? Okay, then all those in favor say I. >> I. >> All those oppos say nay. Any abstensions? Motion passes unan unanimously. Um although I forgot to say I say I for all these ne Yeah. It's right there in front of me. You think I could read it. Right. Next on the agenda is approval of resolution number 596, authorization to ratify vouchers. May I have a motion to adopt resolution number 596, authorization to ratify vouchers, which approves the signing of expense vouchers between board meetings and resolves to ratify the expenditures as reported at each regularly scheduled
012board meeting. >> So moved. >> Any board members wishing to make a comment? Seeing none. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> All oppose say nay. Any abstensions. Motion passes unanimously. >> Next on 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 to the floor for discussion at the appropriate place
013on 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 posted. >> And we have no blue cards that I'm aware of. Does any board member wish to move something off of the um consent items and move it for later? Uh Mrs. Christensen? >> Yes, I do. Um although the what's in the electronic form and what on the paper form is different. I what in electronic it was F7 and it and um on the paper form it's F5. So I'll read it. Consideration approval of elementary leadership professional travel request. So I believe it's F7 on the electronic version but we'll have to double check
014>> just to be sure. >> Yep. is item five on the paper version. Consideration approval of elementary leadership professional travel request. That one. Okay. So that's >> Yes. >> So on my paper version that ends up being G4. I say >> correct. >> Any other uh items wish to be set aside for later discussion? Okay. Okay, see none. Do I have a motion to approve these uh items of consent? >> Some moved. >> Any discussion? All in favor say I. >> I. >> All opposed? Nay. Any abstensions? The motion passes unanimously. All right. Next. Excuse me. trying to keep up. Next on the agenda is governing board statements. Would anyone like to go first? Anyone? Buer. Okay. Um, Mrs. Wani, would you like to go first, please? >> Yes. Um, I just I'd like to
015also take a moment and just give my sincerest appreciation and gratitude to our uh former board president um President former President Greenberg. Thank you so much for serving and leading um and being a wonderful example to to the board. Um thank you. I cannot appreciate cannot express enough words of appreciation. Truly, thank you. Um, and thank you to to President Pantara for stepping into these very big shoes and um, looking forward to your leadership. Um, and just welcome 2026. We're here. Um, hopefully everybody's had a good start to the school uh, the you know, the new the new year in this continuation of this school year and had a good break and you had some downtime with your families um, and got to you know, do some fun things and staff. I hope you you
016know you got some downtime as well. Um, I got a lot of rest time with with my my family, which was really nice and different. Um, I've mentioned before I have a graduating senior out of Horizon, and so I'm just soaking up every single moment. We spent a lot of time on our college applications, which is um kind of just wild. So, it goes by fast um and and it's kind of like a blink of an eye. And I've appreciated um every every stage of this journey through her educational um experience here at PB. Um we've we've had some really fun field trips and outings that I'll let my colleagues speak to. Um but I'll give you a little preview. One of them is Westmech. Um and I also uh had an opportunity since the
017last governing board meeting to be um to have the honor of being a spelling bee judge for the very first time um at Explorer Middle School. So just I have so much appreciation and gratitude for the invitation over there. I had a blast. It was also very um it's also very stressful, but those kids were incredibly impressive and I'm really glad nobody's asking me to spell anything these days. So um again, welcome. Thank you for being here um and for uh you know, showing your participation and engagement in um NPV by being present at this meeting. I appreciate all of you. >> Mrs. [applause] Christensen. >> Thank you, President Panta. I would like to welcome everybody here today. Any students, educators, family members, and community members. I just want to say welcome and good evening.
018The the students, parents, and educators in this community are just so amazing. And um it's been my honor to serve on this board for the past few years. So as we begin 2026, I I just wanted to express my heartfelt gratitude to enti entire community for entrusting the five of us to um be your governing board members and being your elected representatives. It's truly an honor to serve as a elected representative up here. And now as I begin my fourth year in this role, I find um myself reflecting on both the the challenges that we've faced and the successes over the past three years. But through it all, I've seen firsthand the deep passion our community holds for our schools and the future of our children. And those who take the time to attend the
019meetings like all of you today, whether whether to speak, listen, or simply observe. Um, you do so because you also care deeply about our district. That kind of civic engagement is the foundation of strong, thoughtful governance. Um, though we may not always agree, I believe that open dialogue and respectful debate make our collective decisions stronger. While the governing board does not oversee daily operations, we're entrusted with the very important responsibility of providing faithful oversight on behalf of the families we serve. And so just wanted to say thank you for being here whether in person or online and for your continued involvement. Your voice really matters. When we come together we with shared purpose and mutual respect we can make the Paradise Valley community a better place for children and families. So thank you all. [applause]
020>> Dr. Lim. >> Great. So I'm going to go ahead and pivot a little bit. I know we're still saying happy new year. We are still we're almost there where we're going to stop saying it, but we are coming into the new year though it's only halfway through the school year. It is a new year and we've already had amazing accomplishments happen in our schools and I just want to take a moment and recognize the one of those. So, uh Mr. Kevin Story over at Shadow Mountain just celebrated 30 years as an English teacher over there. He's now a lead teacher over there. Um, but he was my English teacher about uh it would have been uh 21 years ago. Uh it was a while ago. Um and I didn't I I don't think as
021someone in high school realized how young he was. He was very young for his age. Felt much older when you're in high school. But I remember the impact he had on me. I was a student with dyslexia. I had just transitioned into honors in when I got to high school and my first year uh with a different teacher. It was a little bit of a struggle. So, when I got to his classroom, I didn't feel prepared. Um, even though I'd spent two years in honors, um, he taught me the ability to read out loud, which is a dyslexic's biggest fear. Um, but he also gave me the skills I needed to to ace the written portion of the ACE, uh, the, uh, standardized test at the time, um, the Ames test. Um, and I was
022able to pass that and get a full ride to college. So, it was thanks to teachers like that that have supported and given their time back to the community. That's why we're here. Which seg segus me into the thanks I want to give to an uh former president Greenberg. You have spent a significant amount of time sitting up here while many of these teachers have been out there serving our communities and our students. You're not only stu serving our students and our teachers, but you're serving our community by being up here and being a guiding light. So, thank you for being like many of our teachers, giving back and unlike our teachers who are paid, you are not, for giving your time and giving so much to PV schools. It has really left an impact
023and I know I have learned from your leadership and I look forward to continuing to sit on this board next to you, just in a different role this time. So, thank you for your service. Uh, and thank you to all those dedicated professionals in Pavey that are giving their entire career or their volunteer time to Pavey. It has an impact and leaves a lasting impression on students many many years later. [applause] >> Mrs. Greenberg, >> uh, thank you. I just, as everyone said, welcome. Welcome to semester 2 um into 2026 and I hope the year has started or the semester has started off well. The year has started off well. Uh I thank you to all my colleagues for your very kind words. Um it's an honor to be here and to serve with you.
024Uh thank you Mr. Pantara for taking over the center square. Um I'm I look forward to supporting you in this coming year and um I know there was a whole lot of fun things that happened since the last meeting. Um unfortunately I missed some of them or most of them. Uh was not able to attend the ASBA conference. I was um getting reacquainted with my granddaughter who was 10 month 10 months at the time um and wasn't able to make the Westmech tour because I had a client meeting and a uh wonky ankle at the same time. So I hope Mr. Pantera will talk a little bit more about that. Um but again, thank you all for being here. Thank you for being such vital members of this community. um for letting us know uh
025you know your thoughts and and um you know what what is so vital um about this this district uh your your ups your you know your thumbs up thumbs down and we do listen and we will continue to listen and with that I'll turn it over to Mr. Pantier. >> Thank you and thank you again for all you've done for all the years. [applause] I remember being out there as a teacher at these board meetings and you were you were up here and I'm down there and now it's here we are together, right? Unity and being this position is is this transition is pretty um it's going to take some getting used to for me. I'm used to talking to people, but usually it's a class of students and they just have to listen when
026I do whatever. But now this is a different different ballpark. But this is the most organic and most pure form of democracy right here. Okay, that's one of one of the things I like about our state. Our school boards are nonpartisan. We don't get paid. We're here. We're just here to help the children. That's our job. To help them grow, to help them learn and do it together because we love them. We love the community. We love where we are. Um again, talking about when I used to be a teacher here at Eagle Ridge, Eagle Ridge, um I did this mini grant. I got a mini grant for um a project that we were doing a book and the project was to have all to get the material so the students can build and take
027care of their own push carts because the story book we were reading was the push cart wars. Anyone ever heard of the push cart wars book? No. Well, it's a cool book. And they had to put their not only put their carts together but decide how are they going to what they're going to sell? What pro product they're going to have at recess? They would go out and they would, you know, push their wares and that and they learned about a lot of things. A lot of math was involved with making the carts go together. A lot of um statistics. Well, what sells, what doesn't sells, money, all those things. And the reason I bring it up now is because I I thought, wow, Westmech was like push cart wars way beyond it. They have
028several all these facilities all over. ones right in our district right over um um well close to our district by by the airport by Deer Valley Airport. We did the tour and they have so many programs for these students. Uh from welding, from uh working on cars, from um beauty, uh mutitionians, all how help me out. What are some of the other things he did? All kinds of things, right? >> Yeah. Trunk engineering, um air conditioning, >> veterinarian, >> medical things, all it's it's fantastic. One of the students I was talking to though, uh he at the welding section, he said, "Oh, you're from Paris Valley." I said, "Yes, we're from Paris Valley." Well, we have a lot of students that come from Paris Valley and he mentioned the Crest program and it's such a
029beautiful thing when it goes together and we can partner with this this this organization that helps kids pursue their passions because that's what I'm all about is helping and we all are, I think, helping the students pursue their passions. If you ever get a chance, go check out their facilities and you know, you can get things repaired. Uh you want your car painted, they'll paint it just got to pay for the paint. All right? and uh all kinds of things, services like that. Uh so really reach out and find out more about them. I look forward to more and more partnerships with that organization and uh helping our students although I did not see any push cars that that was not part of the thing. And that I'll that ends my statements. Thank you. [applause]
030Next on the agenda, uh awards and recognitions. President Pantera, I'd like to invite the governing board down to the floor for tonight's awards and recognitions. Good evening, President Pantara, 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 your name is called, please make your way to the front of the room. Our first honore tonight is the winner of the PB school's poster contest for the everyday counts in Arizona attendance campaign. This campaign emphasizes the that consistent attendance is crucial for fostering academic success, building stronger communities, and ensuring that sustainable sustainability of our schools. And this student's colorful, beautifully crafted poster exemplifies
031our journey of excellence. Please help me welcome from Desert Shadows Elementary School, Laya Taylor. [applause] >> [applause] [applause] >> GREAT JOB. >> [applause] >> GOT IT. >> [applause] >> The marketing department certainly likes to see future hopefully marketers public relations professionals. Uh next up our recognition is from the Paradise Valley Education Support Professionals Group. This is the education support professional of the month award presented this evening by Shawn Webster, PBSA president. [applause] >> Uh, good evening, President Pantara, governing board, Dr. Corson, cabinet, and guest. My name is Sean Webster. I'm the PBESA president and tonight I am excited to present the January ESP of the month award to Bonnie Gilmore uh campus support at North Ranch. Um it's my absolute pleasure to recognize Bonnie as our ESP of the month. Bonnie greets every student and
032staff member and parent with a warm smile and often a catchy tune at this crosswalk. She is famous for her positive energy, singing and dancing, making mornings brighter for everyone. Bonnie goes above and beyond building relationships and connections with our students, especially those who may have had a difficult day, taking time to learn every employees name and offering a helping hand whenever needed. Bonnie collaborates closely with our teachers and staff, always making sure that students are supported during recess and lunchtime. One of her many wonderful initiatives is the Woohoo Wednesday, a special celebration in the cafeteria that Bonnie decorates with her own personal touch. She ensures that every opportunity for this event is fair and fun, making every student feel special. Her creative spirit and enthusiasm and enthusiastic costumes light up all of our spirit
033days. Bonnie's dedication is unmatched. Whether helping out in a classroom, working one-on-one with a student, or joining in in recess games, she does all of it with kindness, patience, and a big smile. Bonnie's attention to detail and even remembering to wave at every staff member in the morning just shows how much she cares about our North Ranch family. Bonnie embodies everything that makes North Ranch a wonderful place. She creates a positive, caring environment where everyone feels safe, valued, and celebrated. We are truly grateful for all the things that Bonnie does for us every single day. Thank you, Bonnie, and congratulations on being ESP of the month. [applause] >> [applause] >> daughter. >> [applause] [applause] >> Next is recipient of the Paradise Valley Education Association's recognition for professional standards awards for teachers. The honore this evening
034will be introduced by Miss Heather Schmidt, PVEA president. [applause] [cheering] >> I mean, thanks friends. I'm That's not Oh my goodness. Um I've missed you guys too. Happy New Year. Uh good evening, President Pantara, Dr. Corson, governing board cabinet. My name is Heather Schmidt and I am proud to serve as the president of the Paradise Valley Education Association representing the certified employees of PV. Uh this evening I get to do our props and I will start with this might be the best one I've done in 18 months. Greenway, well done. Uh tonight I get to recognize Cali Whisman who is an ELLL teacher at Greenway Middle School where they celebrated with the entire school. I was handed a microphone. Um, I think the entire day might have been disrupted. I'm sorry. Thank you to Mr.
035Lurch and Miss Allejo for making that happen and so we could celebrate. I wish every celebration was that much fun. Here's what was shared with me about Miss Whisman. It is clear that Callie is an essential member of the Greenway Middle School community and her colleagues are right to recognize her exceptional dedication. Calie loves Greenway and she shows that love inside and out of the classroom. She brings a dedication to our school that not every school is so lucky to have. She loves every one of our students by ensuring that they are held to high standards and provided the type of education that they deserve every single day. She's always going above and beyond to ensure that her students have engaging activities to connect with the curriculum. In addition to that, she promotes kindness and
036caring all day long throughout No Place for Hate, energizing our students to stand up for one another. Not only does she commit herself to p pushing students academically to improve their language skills, but she is also responsible for so many of our schoolwide festivities. Anytime anyone needs an event planned, Cali steps up to help. All of these special events that create lifelong memories for our students had something to do with Cali. She doesn't get enough credit for the time, energy, and passion that she brings to Greenway, but we adore her and are incredibly lucky to have her on our team. She consistently goes above and beyond. She doesn't just fulfill a role, she actively shapes a more positive, supportive, and engaging environment. Her energy and enthusiasm are contagious. She truly makes Greenway a special place
037for all of the students and staff. And all of this within just five years as a teacher. Congratulations, CALIE. [cheering] [applause] SORRY, just one more. Just one more. >> Okay, we're good. >> Can we get one more word for everyone? >> Oh my god. [laughter] She loves you. [laughter] >> Congratulations. [applause and cheering] >> And that President Pantera concludes this evening's awards and recognitions. and next to the on the agenda is our superintendent comments. Dr. Carson. Dr. >> Thank you, President Panta. Well, in PB schools, we engage, inspire, and nurture students through high quality instruction, meaningful educational opportunities, and dynamic learning experiences. One of the cornerstones of this mission is our partnership with parents and guardians. And this month, we are launching a new communications platform to make engaging with your school community easier. Parent
038Square, coming soon to all of our campuses, will offer parents, guardians, and high school students the ability to receive district, school, and classroom updates directly on a mobile phone or computer. Whether it's event reminder, schedule changes, or classroom news, Parent Square consolidates all school communication in one convenient place. Other impressive features include customizing how and when you receive Parent Square messages, replying to staff messages via text message after activating an account, accessing calendars and signups, and sending and receiving messages in your preferred language. Next week, all K12 parents who do not already have an activated account will receive an activation email for parent square. After that, staff throughout the district will begin using the new communications platform at the time that best fits their classroom, schoolside program, club, or team. For more information, visit the
039parent square section of our district website. And then join PB Schools for the 16th annual community 5K fun run or fun walk. This event encourages active lifestyles among our staff, families, and community members. This event will be held on Saturday, January 31st in person at Horizon High School. Registration is now open and participants who register by January 17th will receive a t-shirt. For more information or to register, visit funrunsignup.com between now and January 31st. A special thanks to the PV schools education foundation for providing the means to bring the Dancing with the Universe event to our district for the third consecutive year. Thank you also to our dedicated staff for putting this event together and helping create a dynamic learning experience for children. This year's performances reached third grade children from 18 schools. The event
040featured artists from several of Arizona's 22 federally recognized tribes. This experience provided a truly meaningful cultural learning opportunity for our children. January is school board recognition month and tonight I want to thank our governing board members for their dedication and service to public education and a special commitment to PV schools. This board in particular has devoted countless hours to making decisions that support student success, strengthen our schools, and reflect the voice of our community. They played a vital role in shaping the future for PV students by setting policy and advocating for quality education and this month provides a meaningful opportunity to uh recognize their hard work and commitment. And then finally, just a reminder about tomorrow's districtwide uh spelling bee at Paradise Valley High School. We're looking forward to recognizing and celebrating all of our
041spellers tomorrow. And this President Pantara concludes my comments for this evening. >> Thank you, Dr. Corson. Moving on. Next on the agenda is items for approval G1, consideration and approval of revisions to governing board policy JLC, student health services and requirements. Third reading. I'll turn over to Dr. Lindseay. Yeah, go ahead. >> Thank you. Good evening, President Pantara, governing board members, Dr. Corson, cabinet and guests. Tonight you have before you consideration and possible approval of a third read of policy JLC, student health services and requirements. At the December 11th, 2025 governing board meeting, revisions to the policy were requested to address formatting, citation of the correct statute, and specific language changes as motioned. The item was subsequently tabled until this evening. Following legal review, it was determined that the statute cited by ASBA in the
042policy was incorrect. Therefore, the third ref the third read references the correct statute ARS15-160.04. So, thank you for that correction. Additionally, consistent with the board's motion, the policy language has been updated to state, "The district shall not release the personally identifiable information of a school employee or an individual who provides routine healthc care services to students." Formatting has also been res revised to ensure consistency with other district policies. We recommend your approval on this third read, and I'm happy to answer any questions. May I please have a motion to approve policy JLC student health services and requirements third reading as presented? >> So moved. >> Are there any comments? >> Just thank you. >> In that case any um all those in favor say I. >> I. >> All those opposed say nay. Any abstensions?
043Motion passes unanimously. Next on the agenda is items for approval G2 consideration and approval of proposed community education program fee increase. Second reading. Uh Dr. Corson. >> Thank you, President Pantara. At our last meeting, the board had an opportunity to discuss the proposed community education rate adjustments, and tonight we're bringing uh this forward for your consideration. We recognize that these programs, particularly preschool and other community education offerings, are important to many of our families, and we do not take the impact of these rate changes lightly. At the same time, revenues from community education play an important role in supplementing our M budget and help support district operations and programming that benefits students across the district. Our intent is to thoroughly balance the financial realities we face with our responsibility to be mindful of the families
044who participate in these programs. With that context, I'll turn it over to Dr. Lindseay and Miss Wilcox to walk the board through the details of this recommendation. >> Thank you, Dr. Corson, and good evening again to everyone. As Miss Wilcox makes her way to the podium, I want to thank the board for their requests as a result of the first read on this topic last month. As you will hear from Natalie tonight, our team has acted upon those recommendations and she has updated information to share with you as you consider the proposal. Again, I'd like to thank the community ed team for all their hard work and due diligence on this project over the last several months. As Dr. Corson said, our intent is to thoughtfully balance our financial realities while being mindful of the
045impact that it has to our families. At this time, I'll turn it over to Miss Wilcox. Good evening, President Pantara, governing board members, Dr. Corson, cabinet, and guests. Tonight, I want to present a second read of the community ed rate recommendation. As I shared last month, this proposal outlines a plan to increase fees beginning in July of 2026 and implementation of annual adjustments to community education rates based on district costs. The adjustment is necessary to ensure long-term sustainability of our programs as we continue to face rising operational costs, increase in personnel costs, supplies, and materials. During the first reading, you ask that we consider surveying families to obtain input regarding potential program increases, provide information pertaining to the process that we use for registration. You asked uh for information regarding our advertising, and to determine
046ways that we might support families with financial assistance. So, tonight I want to share information on each of these topics. As a reminder, community ed currently contributes about $470,000 to our prek programs in particular, our title and our ECA programs. Uh those are early childhoodmies. We support our title one families in navigating an important early school experience and we also work to contribute to the district's maintenance and operation budget. As Miss Deak shared in the December meeting, title one funding has been repprioritized to serve more students at the K12 level and is no longer available to fund individual preK classrooms. To continue to provide a valuable service and an academic advantage to our title one and preK families, we would like to create a lowcost option. Community schools be a program utilizing the funds that
047community community education currently contributes to offset the tuition. With this, we will identify the communities who will be best served by the community schools program based on registration. Families can explore these options by attending our prek universe events that are held in conjunction with each school's kindergarten prek information night. And we will also host our own separate prek information night available for parents to attend uh with us virtually to have a good understanding of all of our prek options. So when we talked about the pre community preschools lowcost option, it's our proposal to create a program that would be $260 per month. This structure would allow children and families in these communities to still have a high quality prek option at a greatly reduced rate. By approving this concept, it will allow us to begin
048gathering interest and commitment from our title one communities. We can also start planning a scholarship program based on financial need, which I will review in just a moment. In addition to reduced the reduced tuition model, simultaneously will continue to work with uh external community partners such as Head Start. Consistent with our other preschool models we have in the district, enrollment will begin this month. We will continue to partner with our elementary sites to share information with families to advertise for these programs. We're deeply committed to the uh early childhood programs and we want to continue to make a difference in these communities by offering a lowcost option for them. We know that even at a reduced rate, access to programs can be a challenge for some families. As a result, we're creating an income eligible
049scholarship program for our Title One families who are interested in attending a community preschool but may not have the means to do so. We will work with federal programs as they have committed a portion of their budget to provide tuition assistance. Families will complete a scholarship application. funds will be granted based on eligibility. Although we have families whose DCS or excuse me dees applications have been approved and we receive funds on their behalf, someone did share with me that there are very long wait lists right now. And so it is our goal to partner with federal programs utilizing the federal pro uh poverty uh guidelines and mirroring some scholarship processes that neighboring districts use and to develop uh a scholarship program and application process of our own. Based on the feedback that we received from
050the board in December, we created a survey to gather information about the impact of rate increases to our families. 1,596 surveys were sent. We received 98 responses. We received replies from families in both our current tuition and non-tuition programs. due to win or break falling between this meeting and the last governing board meeting. We sent the survey directly after returning last the previous week right after break. The survey was open from Monday until uh January 6th until the past Sunday uh the 12th of uh January. While we realize the response rate isn't as high as we would have liked, the data does reflect accurate opinions of families within our program. Knowing that often survey responses are provided by those who are most uh most for something or most against a specific topic, we feel comfortable
051using the information that's been provided to us to provide some guidance when combined with our other information that we've collected. The survey revealed that families highly depend on the care that we provide and they have a very favorable view of the programs. Items of great importance include the safety and security of their children and having competent staff. Families rate the location and operating hours as important factors as well in determining their care. When analyzing the responses about potential increase in tuition, a large portion of our families state they would absorb the cost with a few making other adjustments such as potentially the number of days that they might participate in a program. Overall, they state that they would continue enrollment with no changes. That was the single most uh selected response. Some state that they
052may leave the program or switch to a lower cost child care option if they find that one exists somewhere. And some um also indicate that they would need to continue discontinue participation in child care or consider u different options or just forego care. Some of those have to do sometimes with the age of the students. Also, 19% of our respondents stated that they weren't sure what they were going to do. So, we understand that uh the importance of clear communication regarding the structure of any potential increase as well as the new rates are important for our families to be able to make their decisions. We also talked about program closure and recognizing that without rate increases we may have to make some difficult decisions about programming. Families were asked how program closure would impact them.
053Response after response indicated that the closure of any program would would pose a major challenge for a majority of the families. They know that there's significant difficulty in finding alternative care. They cited impact of program closure closure as significantly difficult to find something that would be suitable. Also, a substantial portion of our families would face potential financial strain due to higher alternative costs that they know are out and available in other places. Many of our families felt that it would have a negative impact on their child's education and social development. This underscores that the program provides not only care but also affordable and appropriate care that would be hard to replace. A dominant theme is the high perceived value of the program such as mascot little cubs our our early childhood centers and our prek
054classroom. And there is a lot of praise for the staff which families view as essential to their child's well-being and development. Many families describe the programs as having immense value. Specific staff members were louded for outstand being outstanding and for providing top tier care. When discussing prek, comments frequently mention the programs helping children thrive, leading to immense improvement in their social and cognitive development, and offering a priceless addition to their education by helping to prepare them for kindergarten. And those are quotes from parents. And when asked about Mascot Club, they view the program as an essential service. The care is described as essential and it's relied upon heavily by working parents who are often without viable alternatives. There is deep concern about any possibility of program closure. And as stated here, comments frequently state a
055desire to maintain a highquality program versus maintaining the current rates. Some families, especially those who are district employees, express a concern over the financial impact of potential increases. Several comments highlight that the program's affordability is a critical factor for staff. Many respondents are interested in the proposed rates so that they're able to plan responsibly. Several suggested we consider financial adjustments such as providing a greater discount for multiple children, creating a sliding ski a fl Let me do it again. Sliding fee, excuse me, for part-time attendance, offering scholarships, or seeking alternative funding methods like fundraising or using tax credits. Many parents indicated that they would be willing to accept tuition increases, especially if the money were dedicated to improving staff quality, for staff compensation, or for program enhancements. The most frequent condition for accepting a price
056increase is that the funds directly benefit the income of the teacher and the staff members who are the hearts of these programs. Again, those are quotes. As a reminder from the presentation in December, approximately 85% of our budget is allocated to staff salaries and benefits in community ed. Some families suggested using increased tuition to implement a stronger, more structured curriculum and to provide more funding for crafts and planned activities. The cost of those supplies and materials has also increased. We understand that rate increases are challenging. We bring this out of necessity to maintain financial viability and to keep up with the rising costs that we have for salaries and benefits. Rising costs, increased wages, and the rep prioritization of title one funding I'll place us in a position of bringing this proposal to you at
057this time. At the December governing board meeting, you asked how we make families aware of our programs. There are several ways we connect both in person and virtually with our families. Uh as of tonight, we have uh about 50 families who have signed up to attend our virtual prek information night and that's something that's been on our website. Uh it was recently posted. So I'm pleased with that level of response. And each school, each prek teacher is partnering with their school kindergarten information night. The information is communicated on our website. Uh we're sharing information in an upcoming podcast. We have a newsroom article that's posted. We have flyers that have been made for each individual site that are handed out uh as individuals go to the actual school asking for information. We have posters notifying
058families of registration dates. Emails have been sent out to all of our benefited staff and they are beginning the registration process. Now, our returning families have been notified of their registration dates via email and also at the site. We work with Markcom to ensure registration information is is visible and accessible. In addition uh each of to the each of the prek teachers being at their site, we also will have our child development centers open and they will be hosting events for families as well. For more information, families can go to our website and find a stepbystep visual guide of how to register and they can call our office at any time for assistance. I've included just a picture of the preschool information night that will be coming up and also an example of the information
059that families receive a visual representation of how to register and how to create accounts and log in find the information that they need. I am providing a quick overview of the rate proposal. As you saw during the first read, the rates for mascot. As a reminder, the proposed rates are in green. Next are the rates for our child development centers. The child development centers are at Little Pioneers and Little Cubs and they are in green as well. And then finally, our prek proposal is in green for our proposed prek rates. During the first read, I also shared proposals for the following enrichment fees, uh, high school, summer school, and then our non-school day camps. A board member reached out to ask about the daily rate as it was listed in the first read and why
060the daily rate for camp that we were proposing was lower than the 3-day option. While noting that the daily rate is typically higher in our work with all of the rates, I believe it was in oversight that we did not adjust this rate in 2023 when we should have. We did not apply the same increment incremental increase to the daily rates as we had to the three and 5day options. As a result, it remained and has remained at a lower rate. Thank you for pointing out the discrepancy. We have adjusted accordingly and you will see that on that slide. In summary, we do make the following recommendations consistent with our December 1st read. To increase the child care program fees as proposed to add the $10 non-refundable registration fee for our enrichment programs and to
061increase high school summer school fees by $5. With your approval of this proposal, we will continue exploration with Southwest Human Development as a possibility of expanding our Head Start and early Head Start programming within the schools as well as partnerships that may benefit the district. We'll share the fees with the community as part of the 2627 program enrollment. and we'll review some of the input from the community surveys and determine which might be feasible. Some of those um again the things that families suggested had to do with a sliding fee. Families suggested bringing back a concept that was in community ed before year round level pay which allows families to spread their um their costs out over 12 months. uh providing a greater sibling discount. I will share that I um I know that our
062surrounding districts they uh often are offering 10%, we offer 15%. There is another uh district that does also offer 15% but it's generally 10% that other districts are offering offering. Someone suggested we set premium hours, perhaps charging more for the hours between 6:00 and 7:00 a.m. and more after from 5 to 6:30 uh at an a premium rate. Uh we're asked to consider extending our bridge program. Uh we'll review all of these implications and the various suggestions and consider their their feasibility. We were also asked to consider an increase of the employee discount. At this time, 20% is the amount that we offer and that uh does not have tax implications for our employees. Anything over 20% is considered taxable income and per the auditor general is considered a gift of public funds. If approved,
063I will work with federal programs to finalize the financial assistance application. Additionally, moving forward, we will work to implement uh proposed annual increases as needed to avoid larger increases every three years. As I shared before, we've taken considerable time to make certain we provide accurate data. We are seeking approval of the rate increases out of a financial necessity for our programming in the district. We don't take it lightly. Everyone has said that it's it's a challenging conversation and a difficult topic. I certainly appreciate uh all of the work with the team that has worked alongside me and Dr. Lindseay uh your support uh as we have worked through this and I bring this proposal to you. At this time, I'll take any questions. >> Thank you for that thorough uh presentation. I appreciate the work
064you've done on this. I believe we need a motion to approve the community education program fees increase second reading as presented. >> So moved. >> And now any discussion or questions? Dr. Given that the material was not provided with sufficient time for thorough review or follow-up and a second read material appears to have minimal changes with several previously raised concerns remaining unanswered. The district has not clearly demonstrated how this proposed change is in the best interest of our students. Rather, it addresses administrative considerations. The district needs to take time to further develop and clarify this proposal, and the board needs time for deeper review, discussion, and consideration before taking action. For these reasons, I motion to defer a vote on this agenda item for the remainder of the school year and refer this topic to
065a study session. >> Okay, we have a alternative motion. Um, >> I second. >> Do we have a second? We have a second. Any discussion on this secondary motion? Now, would you read your motion again, please? >> Yes, I can. Um given that the material was not provided with sufficient time, it was provided at 5:00 PM last night through review of followup and secondary read material appears to have minimal changes with several previously raised concerns remaining unanswered. The district has not clearly demonstrated how this proposal proposed change is in the best interest of students rather how it addresses administrative considerations. The district needs to take time to further develop and clarify the proposal and the board need time for a deeper review, discussion, and consideration before action. For this reason, I motion to defer this
066vote on this agenda item for the remainder of the school year and refer this topic to a study session. >> So, the actual motion to defer consideration proposed community education program increase fee u increase uh to >> I'm deferring the entire agenda item >> to the end of the year >> until after the school year. and I would like to see it move to a study session. >> I just want to write this down so I have it. Thank you. Any discussion on this particular um motion? So, um, if we were to defer and not vote one way or the other, so then would that basically mean for the entire next school year? Would we continue status quo as it is for the ne for this like 20 26 27 fall school year? I mean,
067is that is that what we're talking about? That is what I >> I just because I just I'm just want to make sure obviously because we need stability for families and staffing >> and I can give multiple reasons as to why I believe this is the case. Enrollment starts in I just got the email at the end of the month. Um it feels like a very short timeline to be communicating to our parents this change in such a short timeline. I have multiple other reasons why we weren't provided enough time to sufficiently review the material and ask any questions ahead of time. I raised significant questions that I have in this presentation that we were just given um which I'd be happy to discuss further. I feel like we have not been given enough time
068nor has enough time been given to the feedback given on the surveys to actually consider this move right now without them taking more time as a district to do the due diligence on the feedback they've been provided but also spend more time addressing some of our concerns from the last meeting because there's multiple in here that haven't been addressed. >> Mrs. Christensen. >> Yeah. Uh, President Pantera. So, we're we're still discussing the the not the main motion, but now we're we're discussing the the secondary motion. And um I will remind governing board members and and president that we do have a upcoming study session on February 19th. I believe it's midFebruary. And perhaps if if we do this and and vote to defer, have it in a study session, perhaps we can put it in
069another agenda before the end of the year. Um but that it might be helpful to um Yeah. But but I understand that your motion is to defer it all the way to the end of the year. >> Correct. Because people are making decisions now. >> Got it. for their programs. And so to not defer until the following school to defer would need to defer all the way through the end of this year and keep the status quo for next year because it is not fair for parents for us to take this to study session in February and change after they've already registered for programs. Alternatively, could we uh revert back to the original motion, vote on that, and still have a study session, depending on how that vote goes, um to discuss this for the
070future? >> No. So, we we would have to >> vote on this motion first >> in order to even have a study session. >> We need just to deal deal with the the issue right now, this this motion, and then we can talk after yay or nay, then make plans on what to do next. Any any other comments? Mr. Green, >> um if if this motion were to be approved, um what would happen to our uh Title One programs that going into the new year will no longer be funded? Well, what happens if we were to pass this motion? What are we looking at if we do not increase fees? If we at the present time, if we don't um make these alterations with, you know, the title monies that won't be coming in for
071our prek, etc. So, if if we do not, you know, either we don't pass the the increases or we pass the secondary motion to defer, what happens? >> Would would you like me to help you on that, Miss Wilox? Thank you. [laughter] Okay. Um basically I think what you said specifically um Mrs. Greenberg uh related to title is accurate but um Mrs. Copen may be able to clarify that. I think maybe what might be the more important consideration for the board in this is that if you remember from the first presentation that Mrs. Wilcox provided um we are already having there there was about $1.4 $4 million in carry forward in community education. They're using about $800,000 of that this year to be expected, which only leaves $600,000 for next year and increased costs. If
072there's no associated increased revenue with that, then the M budget will have to pick up those increased costs. Um, I would estimate probably somewhere around $400,000. And just as a reminder, we're already looking at a mid to high seven digit reduction to our M budget for next year. So just a consideration if you do uh choose to table this for the rest of the year. In addition, we would uh evaluate programs and the program viability and really have to be very careful with our numbers. Sometimes we have had prek classrooms that have smaller numbers because of the community and not wanting to uh take a program away from a community. So that's been a decision we've made and that would be something we would evaluate very carefully. >> It's my understanding we have some title
073one schools that have many aids and teachers who um need decisions on what programs are going to be happening right away. Is that correct? like at least 10 aids I can think of off the top of my head >> that are waiting for this to >> happen. How does that affect them >> considering the community schools concept? Uh that is part of our goal to be able to maintain some of those programs at those title schools. And that yes, if there are no programs uh because of the uh re um repurposing or the the redistribution of the funds, then uh we would not have programs in those title schools. >> So these people would be in limbo or don't know what they're going to do. I mean these are aids. It's tough for a district
074to aids now as it is, you know, to do these different programs and uh just makes it more difficult to hang on to them. I'm thinking um when we we defer these kind of things um if we don't need to. >> May I Miss Wilcox? >> May I? >> Yes. [laughter] >> I didn't was talking. Where did that come from? [laughter] >> Uh I think I understand what you're getting at. And the answer is yes. We have uh we have several employees uh who are very much um prek employees uh who don't have positions uh right now who are anxiously waiting to understand what opportunities may or may not exist. Um and in my experience in particular uh we're talking about people that are their heart is all in on prek. So they are anxiously
075awaiting to understand those opportunities. So cooking this to the end of the year would impact them in a really very negative manner, right? >> We we may not have positions for them in prek. We may have positions for them in other areas, but not in the area in which they would prefer. >> So this is feeding right into my concern that this decision has already been made. This decision has already been made by the district. You just need our sign off to move forward with it, which is my biggest concern with what is being brought to us. We are not allowed to govern here. We are being handed something and we're being told this is what you get. You accept it out how it is. We have already made these decisions and taken steps in
076this direction and so you need to sign off on this and this is how it's going to be. It doesn't feel like a governance. It feels like a you are but you we put your feet to the fire. We're telling you what you have to do. You don't get a choice here. You don't get to ask questions. You don't get to point us in a different direction. You take what you get and you accept it. And that is not the role of a governing board. We are here to govern to help the district make decisions. We are not being asked to help here. We're being told this is the only option you have and this is the one you take. And that is not our role as a governing board. Our role is to govern
077and ask questions and understand what is happening. Not simply take it as is when we have questions and you have not addressed them as a district. Just so I got to go back to a comment that you you made uh President Pantara, which is, you know, obviously we don't want anybody to be in limbo, which is why I I'm seeking some clarification because my understanding that the motion that we're currently discussing is that we would continue status quo for all of next year. So there we would continue to have the conversation at a study session potentially, but my understanding of the motion is we table this for a potential vote, not to go into effect next school year, the f potentially the following year. Is that correct, Dr. Lyn? >> Correct. That is what I'm
078asking to do. that our programs stay as is for the upcoming school year. And we get more time as a governing board and the district gets more time to vet the information they're be given and bring us a full strategic plan about what we're doing with our early childhood programs because this seems like an ad hoc decision based on some funding. And we don't make decisions about our students based on the cost. We make decisions based on what is best for our students. And I have not heard anything that feels like what's best for our students. It feels like this is costing us money, so we need to get rid of it. And that doesn't feel comfortable to me to vote on it in the way that it's been provided to us. >> Any other
079comments? Oh, go ahead. >> Yeah, I would just I would just add that like it's not lost on me that we are living in a time where we really need to be looking at our budget and we have significant stresses and cuts that have to be made. At the same time, you know, we need to balance that with the fact that we're talking about preschoolers who like and in my mind, if we're going to invest in any population where we're going to see a return on investment, it's preschoolers. So, [applause] I mean, whether we're talking about, you know, special education, whether we're talking about getting them school ready, I mean, to me, this is this is not really where we should be making these cuts. And so I just want to make it known like
080I understand but at the same time I think we got we got to do better than this. Um I'm really concerned about these families. I'm really concerned about how quickly it's all kind of you know being enacted potentially if we were to vote yes on this. And I'm also I am also so it's about the preschool and it's and it's about the title one families and it's also I'm very very concerned about our staff and I know you are too. I know we all are. I just I I don't feel like this is the answer. Mrs. Christensen. >> Yes. Um, I would like to thank my colleagues, Dr. Lim and Miss Swanie, for bringing up those concerns. What I wrote down was very similar to your concerns. I know we we're going through a lot
081of challenges right now. And this is kind of why I continue to harp on out of state travel and cutting spending because we we do need to lower we need to lower costs and we need to increase revenues. While this will increase revenue, it's going to be hurting some of our most vulnerable community members, uh, the the title the title schools and and our lower socioeconomic families. Um, and so depending on how this vote goes, I would encourage us as a district to overcommunicate this because not everybody opens their emails. Not everybody, you know, especially two working family, two working family members that are trying to support and put food on the table, they may not open the emails or not not read a poster or a handout coming in a backpack. And so I
082just I I feel rushed as well and I feel we need to do more due diligence. I think having a study session on this matter would help and just really think of some alternative solutions and so um so I thank you for for bringing this up and um I asked to to call the question. >> Well, do you have a second? I already seconded the motion >> for for for the calling the question. >> That means that we're supposed to vote on the motion. >> Well, I have something I want to say about it before we call the question. Um, you know, I thought it was a thorough very thorough presentation and I I had a lot of my question. It's a tough decision to make like when we had to when you look at
083closing schools, anything impacts the communities is a hard hard thing to do. Okay. It's it's it's tough. But we like all agree the economics of everything has been very very challenging. Um I just wonder how much you know kicking it down the road it's just going to make it more painful later. We might have we're still going to make some kind of cuts anyway. Some some kind of cuts we can but but by prolonging it we just adds to the pain and the the unnecessary pain to the people involved with this. President Pantara and governing board, I just wanted to add some clarification to the title one piece. So, in the first presentation, it was explained that um for fiscal year 27, which would be next year, um we have rep prioritized um funding for
084title one to go primarily to our K12, which preserves their current staffing during their school day for our kindergarteners through 12th grade. and and that is a re prior prioritization that then eliminates the the preschool programs funded by that title one. So the someone had asked earlier how would title one be able if we tabled this item how would title one proceed. So um Mrs. Wilcox mentioned Head Start and pursuing some of those opportunities that that would still that's something we're still looking at because that's good partnerships. um the dees pieces are are still there and then we would still um we have worked to look at our fiscal year 27 title one budget and we have been able to estimate a fund for a scholarship as presented in the presentation that could still hold.
085The scholarship though would be for the current rates um that would if we don't change the rates it would be for the current rates and we can scholarship um as a as needed um financially but the rates would be we we wouldn't have a reduced rate preschool if that makes sense because they would fall under the regular rates and we could still work the scholarship. is just our are the money is set. So, we would only be able to do until that money is exhausted because we would have to use that line of money. I just wanted to add that clarification. >> Uh, thank you. Thank you for that, Mr. Greenberg. >> Um, okay. I guess I'm still trying to sort of uh get a feel for the balance here. Um it seems to me
086that if we uh were to vote yes to defer this till next year, what are we looking at? Just we would have to maintain the rates where they are. Would you I mean is that what you're asking that there be literally no changes? um if we were able to say push this another month, you know, bring it to a study session and then see if there's any revision, whatever. Um bring this still to a vote this year. I know that you you you know you're itching to have registration open, but I'm just trying I'm it feels like if we push it till next year um we're putting community ed and these programs in a possibly untenable position um by not raising rates at all since we don't have a right we have no mechanism >>
087correct >> currently I mean one of the pieces you're asking is that we then would be able to implement year-to-year challenges based on COLA, etc., etc., etc. Um, but we don't have that right now. So, without approval from the board, everything stays exactly the same and we we're already using 800 of that 1.4 mil carry forward. So, we're probably looking at operating at a deficit because we don't have enough carry forward going into next year. That's what we're looking at if we push, you know, defer this, >> Mrs. >> So, is there a way to potentially figure out a happier medium where we still consider this this year? >> Um, Mrs. Greenberg, if I could add to that, President Pantara, is that okay? >> Sorry. [laughter] the mysterious voices over here. Um, you you you've
088um you've sort of refreshed what I've said and I think I want to say it a slightly different way. When we look at that onepage budget sheet that I share with the district, this in in this case to be transparent about our financial circumstances. If nothing were to happen tonight with the fees, I would add a line that would talk about um a supplement to the community education budget and that would add to the additional expenditures that the M budget would have to take on and add to the cuts that would need to be made um for certified staff and uh classified staff and administrative staff. In addition, um, you know, if if increases aren't made this year, that just compounds the need for further increases, which I think is the point you were making
089at the beginning of your comments, and I don't know if Mrs. Wilcox wanted to add anything to that. >> No, I think the other thing is we are we have two different things that we're talking about the funding for the U programs, the tuitionbased and we're talking about the uh rep prioritization of the title. And if um if that money has is rep prioritized then there would not be those programs and that's what would be different. >> Dr. Lynn. >> So my intended initial motion was actually to separate these and table the title one portion but I actually didn't separate it and I'll tell you why. So my biggest concern with read one was that we were taking the cost of those monastery, our um uh our gifted program and our uh little scholars program
090and we are increasing them significantly from the 800s to the thousands. And I pointed out in the last session that when you combine that with the mascot fee in the 400s that you have a fee that is higher than your infant program at your little pioneers and your little cubs program. I pointed out that there was a cost discrepancy and that it was more to have a four-year-old or a three-year-old in a monastery program and get full continuation care for a working parent than it is to have an infant in a longer care program in our district. I pointed this out wholeheartedly. You guys did adjust those programs by $50. Not by hundreds. The discrepancy is hundreds. It is $50. So, I'll put this into context. Our uh uh current program would put you, if
091you were to do from 6:30 in the morning till 6:30 in the afternoon, um with our preschool program, it is $1,675. I picked the monastery program. I went right in the middle. So that is the cost of the program including before and after school. Um again higher than our infant programs. I went ahead and pulled one of the programs that you guys cited as a reference point for the cost of that particular monastery program. That particularly particular monastery program is $1,150 for 9:00 a.m. to 400 p.m. Our program is 9 to3. So, you get an additional hour for the preschool program and it costs you less than our program. Um, on top of it, they do offer before and after school for that to get you to a full workday. Theirs is 230, ours would
092be $429. Their total program is $1,380 for a month. So, when you do this per year, because I decided to calculate our 10-month versus the 12-month, our program for 10 months is $16,750 for 10 months where you can go to the private program, get Monasuri for an additional hour of education and get the same before and after school program for the same actually less $16,560 for 12 months. I pointed out that we have a huge discrepancy in our numbers. I made it very clear and there has been absolutely no changes but $50 to that program. I am signific I have significant concerns that you aren't actually listening to the feedback that's being provided. And I provided this concern right up front that these numbers are wrong and that the reason these programs were in the
093800s is because they couple with our mascot programs to give parents a full continuation of care. but instead you are changing the prices and they don't reflect how people are using the programs. And so it costs you more to have your child in our programs for 10 months than it does to have a child in a private program for 12 months. That is unacceptable. And that is why I didn't decouple them because not only did you not listen to our changes with the concerns around the 260, but also the biggest concern I had with our preschool programs, our monastery gifted and our little scholars, all which I know are straining families because I talked to these families that the cost of the programs they have are putting financial strains on them. Uh, this is problematic
094and I pointed this out and you didn't address it and I didn't have time to bring this to you because I got it at five o'clock in the evening the day before the meeting and I am supposed to be making a decision and I don't know how I'm supposed to make a decision on something and communicate the concerns I have and have feedback when I'm given it in just over 24 hours to review and get my questions back. This is not how we govern. This is not how we get the information we need to make informed decisions. I am happy to amend my vote or my motion to not be the end of the year, but I think we need to spend more time and the district needs to spend more time working on this
095before we think about making these changes because the information and the concerns we are giving you are not reflected in this second read. >> Mrs. Christensen, >> thank you for that. Dr. Lim, the my other concern is that we are still governing this district like we like it was 10 years ago when we had 8,000 more students and we're with a revenue of 120 million more per year. There are cuts across the board that we could be making rather than passing it on to our to our parents, right? We need to look at we take a good strong look at budgeting and things like out of state travel for instance and other things that that we do. Um I I just find it hard to believe that we c we can't um that we would
096have to pass this on to the tax and they are taxpayers because they're living in our districts. So they're they're paying for the schools, they're paying for additional, you know, help with their students. And so it's just very frustrating to um to have um have this being so rushed as Dr. Lim points out. And and I will point out also you you mentioned five o'clock. Dr. Lim works full-time, so she's she got it last night. she has children and you know several of the governing board members work full-time and so it's difficult to make these types of decisions if we're really going to govern the way we should. So um thank you for your comments Dr. Lim and >> Yep. >> Thank you uh Mr. Pantara. I just wanted to add that we we understand
097um and we worked really hard to put the information from the December meeting and to gather that to provide it to you and I recognize that the PowerPoint was shared with you last night. Um we did have winter break in there and we weren't able to provide the survey to our families due to the last board meeting and that last week before break. So we are working with a very tight timeline and it was important for us to share accurate and comprehensive information for you. Um that was also previously shared with cabinet. So um I do recognize the tight timeline. I would also add that you know with our preschool programming with not increasing fees all of those teachers are certified which is different from our um CDC classrooms. And so those are higher cost
098salaries that we've been covering for the last three years without an increase. So I know that Natalie has worked very closely with the finance team here at the district to review all of that information. And again, we know that um p having our impacting our families with in proposed increased fees is a challenge. And I and I know we've said it multiple times, we do not take that lightly. Um, we just want to be able to have these programs sustain. >> Thank you, Dr. Lindsay. Uh, Dr. Lind, so you were saying that maybe it didn't have to go to the end of the year. That's a possibility of amending your your motion. >> I I am happy to consider amending my motion to not basically put a moratorum till the end of the year that
099we might make some considerations. I don't think that's going to change my opinion on the 260. Um but I I do have significant concerns that I think we need to vet during a study session um including the survey that was open for a very short window of time and if the numbers are accurate you reach 6% saturation um which is not saturation. So you received very little feedback given the numbers that you have provided. So this feels more like a smoke screen to try and convince us that this is sufficient to move forward and it's not sufficient to move forward and I'm having no problem calling out that this is insufficient to move forward. >> So you wouldn't be say willing to separate the title one portion so they could go forward and and build
100their programs and and do >> I don't feel comfortable with our title with them trying to close our title one programs. It sounds like those decisions have already been made and we're not governing governing that and that that is very problematic with me. I'm willing to amend my motion to not basically moratorium us from voting on this before the end of the year. That being said, I don't think that's in the best interest of our families to vote on this after they have already registered. So, I believe it's in our best interest and will be best for our families if we do not vote on this until it affects 2027, 2028. And we take that cost and we go ahead and eat it as a district so that we do what is best for our
101students, not as best for our pocketbook. There are other ways, as Miss Christensen said, to save money and they are not at the expense of our families and our community. >> Maybe we call the question. >> Jill's trying to clarify. So, you're saying you're not going to change the deadline. >> That being said, I'm not changing my motion. My motion stands as is, and I intend to stick with that motion. >> No more further discussion. >> All they then voting on whether to um vote on Dr. Limb's motion to suspend this um I'll read it again. Deferring consideration of proposed community education program increase fees to the end of the year. Is that Did I read that correctly? >> And refer it to study session. and and and and put it on the agenda for
102the first study session. >> If we want to put it on the first one, that's fine. >> Okay. >> I'm happy to read my motion again if you would like. >> No, no. I I just I thought I read it right. Yes. >> Close. All right. Uh no more no further discussion. All in favor of the uh motion say I. >> I. >> All those opposed say nay. >> Nay. Motion carries 3 to two, which means we're deferring this to the end of the year and we're going to have a study session. Okay, thank you. Moving to the next item on the agenda. Whoops, glasses. Next on the agenda is item for approval, G3, acceptance. Wait a minute. Is that correct? No, I skipped one. Oh, I am correct. Oh, that's pretty. Next on the
103agenda is items for approval. G3, acceptance of gift and donations. At this time, I would like to thank all of our donors and call out a few of our generous donors. If I have find my list, one moment. It's here somewhere. Um, so I'd like to highlight some of them. Um we've got from Desert Tra for Desert Trails Elementary School from um their PTO is $6,792 school from um Delto Partners Incorporated for $1,000. Um we got Grreyhawk PTO. They've put together quite a few uh donations here to maybe $1,300. Excellent. From the Kevin Rotham Sports Foundation for Horizon High School, $4,000. That's for their baseball program. And I love baseball, so that's great. Mercury Mine Elementary Parent Teach group. They've donated a shade structure for students in the pickup area. I believe that's valued at
104what, $26,000 according what I'm reading here. Is that correct? Yeah, these are just a few and we really thank all the people that uh make these donations. Um without you and people making those donations, this would be a a poor experience we can offer our kids. I need a motion then to uh approve the acceptance of gifts and donations as presented. >> So moved. >> It's been moved. Any discussion? All those in favor say I. I. >> All oppose say nay. Any abstensions? The motion passes unanimously. So now we're at the part of the agenda which was moved. Correct. It's now G4 and that is consideration approval of elementary leadership professional travel request. I have a motion to u vote on that. >> So moved. >> All right. Discussion then. Mrs. Christensen. So, we just
105had a lengthy discussion about increasing um increasing expenditures for our most vulnerable families while we are still sending people to on out of state travel. So, I I just want to go over some numbers. 10 years ago, as I mentioned, we had about 32,000 students. And I'm going to do just rough estimates of of numbers here. 32,000 students. Now, because of declining enrollment, we have 24,000 students. That's a loss of 8,000 students. In terms of business, loss of students means loss of revenue. So, our expenditures have gone down significantly. If you multiply 8,000 students lost by a a very conservative estimate of 15,000 students, which is uh funding that we get per students for average daily membership, that is a loss of $120 million a year. As I mentioned before, we are governing this district
106like it was 10 years ago when we were rolling in the cast. I understand we do pass bonds and overrides that is not for maintenance and operation. It's not for salaries. It's However, our taxpayers are being burdened. People are suffering and we continue to govern and and make decisions as if we're still rolling in the dough. We've closed three schools recently and it's been stated in previous board meetings that we're going to have to close additional schools in the future. Um, I had a conversation with Maricopa County Superintendent Shelley Bogs and she's indicated that she has budget for staff and training and that districts can request certain things. The Arizona Department of Education also has budgets for staff and training. And if we can do some creative thinking, maybe partnering with other districts, these are
107tough times for all of Arizonans. um we can come up with things where we bring bring training in house, maybe share costs with other districts. There are ways to do this, but um and the state legislature has also indicated it increased oversight. I mean, you've seen a lot of the fraud and waste what's happening in other states across the nation. Um and that there's a lot of fraud and waste. I'm not saying that there is here, but what I'm saying is that we really need to take a hard look at our budgets and we need to do better with our expenditures to serve Arizonans better. So, um that's why I pulled this out and Mr. Pan. Uh, President Pantara, just for future note, anytime there's going to be an out ofstate travel for the remainder
108of the year, you might as well put it on the regular agenda because I'm going to pull it out a consent every time because we need to we need to discuss these items. >> Thank you for that advice, Mrs. Christensen. I'll take it under advisement. Uh, Dr. Corson, can you talk to us about this particular request of this field trip field trip this professional development? >> Yeah. Yes. Thank you, President Penter. And actually Dr. Lindsay has some additional information about this particular travel she would like to share. >> Sure. Um thank you Dr. Corson. So this travel request is for Tammy Taylor. She's our district 21st century grant coordinator. Uh 21st century is a federal grant and we currently have 10 sites that receive that federal grant funding. Um that totals for this fiscal year
109um $1,138,000. So, um, Tammy, as I mentioned, has been with our district and serving in 21st century for the last 14 years. And so, she we reviewed this, um, request very carefully. We, um, definitely hear your concerns, Mrs. Christensen, about professional travel. And, um, we went through this um, and had a lot of conversation about it because it is um, a federal grant-f funded. And um knowing the the cost of this trip is approximately $2,500 of that 1 million plus total revenue grant for the year. Um it is um not impacting our district from our M. It's like I said completely federally grant funded. In addition, um Tammy does take advantage of um local professional development opportunities through AD and has great um partnerships and networking with um with folks all across the valley. This
110is an opportunity she felt to really enhance our programming. We've had this grant for many years and we want to continue to build it. um 21st century people know it as after the bell and it provides afterchool academic learning and enrichment opportunities. And we know through um research that's provided to us both from the the federal government and this and from the state department that this grant has a big impact on students and their achievement um when they consistently come. And we want, she wants to continue to learn strategies to um build up our attendance with these programs to support family engagement um to provide um new programming options for our kids to entice them to want to stay after school and be a part of this um part of these grants. And so her
111going to this conference will allow her to learn new information, bring back to our district, work with all of the 21st century grant coordinator coordinators at each of our sites to build our program. So after reviewing all of that and looking at how this was funded through a federal grant, um we felt like it was a good investment. >> Well, I have a qu a follow-up question. So the money, if we didn't approve this, the money is not going back to the district. It's it's part of the grant that we were given from from the federal government. Is that correct? >> Yes. >> And isn't the requirement of the of the grant itself that the people that some of the money is supposed to be spent on professional development? >> Yes. >> So, if we
112didn't do this, we might lose the grant. >> I don't think we would lose the grant, but there's money set aside and it's intended for continued professional development. And she has uh she has gone to a lot of the I I I don't want to speak for her. I know she's here, but I know she's been a part of this grant for many years and has gone to and continues to go to local opportunities and just wants to get new fresh innovative ideas from a from a national perspective. >> Thank you, Dr. Lindsay. Mrs. Christensen. >> Yes. Um, since since this individual has gone several years, can you show us the metrics that has that shows this has increased academic achievement? And specifically, I know you mentioned that it has, but just saying that it
113does doesn't always mean it. I I would like to see solid numbers and um and also a plan of the train the trainer and when she comes back how she's going to implement this. >> Sure. I I can speak to that a little bit and then if Tammy wants to add anything, I would invite her to do the same. Um we get feedback from AD about the impact of the grant. um they have as part of a grant requirement they have to submit um information from each of the sites um related to a uh attendance and then that the state looks at our academic outcomes from a state testing perspective. Uh we also as part of a grant requirement we have to do a um a survey where we survey teachers and that all gets
114shared with the state and then the state um shares back with us the impact that 21st century is making at a state level. um when it comes to how it's impacting students in our district and if it's effective in terms of their academic learning, it's one component of in academic interventions that we have, you know, in in combination with inschool programming. So it it becomes really difficult to tease that apart to know that it makes an impact. But we do know that with extended learning opportunities after school when kids stay after and they regularly come um that it makes a difference with their academic learning. In addition, I would also add there's an enrichment component. So um students that may struggle in the classroom um have opportunities to learn a new skill. Um Tammy and
115I were talking about a cooking class and a student learning how to make a scone and feeling success from that experience and that boosting their confidence which can translate to success in the classroom. So there are a lot of other benefits for 21st century and it keeps the kids supervised after school. >> So that was a lot of words to say. You don't have specific metrics to show me right now that shows academic >> increase academic achievement. Yes, I do not have specific direct correlation for Paradise Valley about how um our test scores are impacted just from participation in 21st century. >> Also, if if we didn't utilize this money for something, can the the grant money be used for other things that can be taught to maybe a a wide wider variety of people
116m maybe many more educators? um different or does it specifically have to go to this conference? >> It does not have to go to this conference. Um and our intent is always to maximize the federal dollars that are given to us so we would uh use it in another way. >> Okay, great. And just one more comment be um it's to me it's very frustrating to >> um >> to say I'm not done yet, Mr. President. Um Pantara, I'll be done in just one moment. It's very frustrating to me to when we say, "Oh, it's federal dollars. It's this dollars. It's this." And I get maintenance and operation is what pay teacher salaries. And if we had more of that, we could pay teachers more. However, every penny we spent. This is not a private
117company. The these are all taxpayer dollars where come whether it comes from the federal, state, or our funds overrides, it all comes from taxpayers. So I it frustrates me when the district conflates and keeps saying, "Well, it's it's this bucket, so it's fine." It's still a waste of taxpayer dollars when we should be bringing things inhouse and cutting budgets and doing things um in a more fiscally responsible manner. >> I didn't mean to interrupt you, but I I was going to call Mrs. Greenberg, who was waiting her chance to to talk. Mrs. Greenberg. >> Yeah, I Mrs. Christensen, you I I absolutely understand your um continued discussion about metrics. So, I'd like to know what is your expectation of what would happen um in terms of what you would expect improve you know how what
118would you expect to see? >> Thank you. >> In terms of metrics, >> thank you. What I would like to see is is um start t start doing baselines. So in the business world when you're measuring something you take a baseline and and determine what students learning. So if we're going to a conference that say is going to increase math skills, take a baseline metric. Yes, it's going to take a long time because over time you're going to see that going to this conference is increasing math scores because we're learning new techniques. And so baseline means starting now and I I've had qu I've had um conversations with with Dr. Corson on this matter. We're just to me we're we're going to conferences and we're not measuring. So it we don't know we don't know
119if it's really helping student achievement because ultimately that's the goal. When parents send their kids to schools, they want them to learn basics, math, reading, science, and and there's other things too. And they want them to be safe. And if we can't prove and show and we're continuing to spend money, taxpayer dollars, and we can't prove that, then we shouldn't be spending taxpayer dollars in that manner. >> Mrs. Greenberg. >> Um, thank you. I appreciate that. I mean, I think this is something we do do. Um, I also would say that I think we know that our learners are all different. So, even if we take a baseline and we have student A and student B and student C and they were all exposed to um, say a new technique that somebody learned at a
120conference, it may click for student A, it may help for student B, and it may confuse student C. So, I think it's difficult to I I understand what you want. I think as with many things in education, it's difficult to be able to absolutely pinpoint um and say that is helping, that isn't helping because it's probably going to help somebody, >> may not help the next person till the next year. So, again, I think these are all factors that that we consider. Mrs. Christensen, >> there's something called a mean, which is an average. So, if you take a baseline and student achievement is here. Some some may come down, some may come up. But if the overall goes up, that means it's an increase in academic performance. If it goes down or stays the same,
121that means it's not helping. So, I don't think it's hard. I do understand that learners all learn differently. But overall, if we're going to do something that is going to increase student achievement, you will see it increase. Um, even you know, some will increase up here, some may not increase at all, but overall the mean is going to increase. >> Personally, I think it's unrealistic to look for one toone correlation on every one of our training programs for every student in this district. The time and money would take to invest. If you look at we've been doing these programs like this one for years and our our achievement has been going up in the district. Seems like these kind of programs in a general speaking have been getting better because of these kind of trainings.
122>> Mrs. Christensen. >> Yes. Okay. So, I'm going to do a visual. This is this is um our expenditures over the I've I've looked at the metrics at the state level. Our expenditures have gone up. Remember I talked about enrollment? That's revenue that's going down like this. Student achievement has remained relatively flat. So even though we've increased the budgets over time over this last 10 years, we're not seeing a direct correlation of student achievement to expenditures. More about half of the state budget goes to education. and you and Arizona is not climbing. We we've actually fallen a few points and we're dead last in education. So, we really maybe need to start governing and doing things a little bit. Thinking outside the box, thinking, you know, this like it or not, this is a business.
123So, when businesses have declining revenue, you have to make change. You either have to get a new product so you can sell sell more or you have to decrease costs so to remain afloat otherwise you close and you'll close more schools. >> Mrs. Greenberg, >> well I would disagree with saying public education is a business but I don't think that's a conversation for for the moment. But I would also point out as you say things are going down. Uh P funding from the legislature also has us just about dead last of the 50 states in DC. So there there's something to be said for that when there is no I know there's always discussions about well where should we be? Well, if we could at least get to national average, >> which is about $5,000
124more per student than where we are, that may help provide greater assistance. >> Mrs. Christensen. >> Yes. So, um, while I concur with you, we we're not up to standard. When you lose 8,000 students in 10 years, then something is happening. and that is declining revenue. So, we are a local controlled state. We govern at the local level and we are losing students. And so, um I've been on this governing board. I'm going into my fourth year and we keep losing students, but we were doing it. We were losing students well before I got on this board. So, business as usual has to change because it's it's it's not working. And so we we need to start doing something different because we all know the definition of insanity. Um so I'm hoping this is why
125I harp on being fiscally responsible and setting the bar high for all our students because I do want all our students to achieve at a high level. But if the expectation isn't changed and we don't encourage our students to to achieve at that level, then things are never going to change. So, um I'm sorry that we you disagree on this matter, but um and and schools do run like a business. We have budgets, we have revenues, we have expenses, we have overhead. Um, businesses don't get bonds and overrides though and so that that helps a lot with with funding. But, um, it is and if it's not run like a business, then you are to listen and school districts that are failed and they go bankrupt. So, >> do we have any more discussion on
126this specific travel request item? >> Miss Dr. Lynn. >> Um, so I just want clarity because I I think there's been a lot of back and forth. Uh, Miss Taylor has never attended this conference. Is that correct? >> That's correct. >> In the 14 years that she's been helping run these programs. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Thank you. I just needed that clarity. >> Any more discussion? Okay, then. All in favor of the motion to um approve of elementary leadership professional travel request, please say I. >> I. >> All the oppos say nay. >> Nay. >> Any abstensions? The motion passes 4 to one. I believe that's the last thing uh on items for approval which brings us to call to the public. Please turn your attention to the video monitors for the next section. Call
127to 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 [music] board is here to listen. Due to Arizona open meeting law, the governing board cannot respond to, discuss, or take any action on items brought up during this time. [music] 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
128business at hand and to be able to do so in an open and collaborative way. All in attendance are expected to observe meeting [music] rules as well as rules of politeness and decorum so that we may serve as an example to our [music] students that issues can be discussed in a respectful and civil manner. Okay, we have seven people who have submitted comment cards prior to the start of the meeting. Each speaker speaker will have three minutes for remarks. As a reminder, we ask that you please direct your comments to the board. Please state your first and last name when you come to the podium. Our first speaker is Anna Sanchez and next will be Howard Griggsby. Hello, thank you and good evening. My name is Anna Sanchez and I am a member of this
129district and um tonight I would like to address the board uh in rel in uh regards to a prof a teacher by the name of um Jerry Michael Nanny. Um, it has come to my attention that um um uh uh well I am here to request that you permanent permanently release this teacher from all his duties as a teacher of PBUSD. His actions of playing a song to elementary school children that contain sexually explicit lyrics shows not only poor judgment but a total disregard for the rule of law. He broke the following statutes. ARS 15113 parental rights says that Mr. Nanny did not seek parental approval and or the opportunity to opt out as clearly stated by statute. He did if he doesn't understand his responsibility as a teacher. He should not be one. ARS15-120.03
130sexually explicit material is prohibited in school. He can't possibly claim that he did not know what the lyrics in the song were depicting. A girl from Tennessee has crazy visions and wicked dreams to become a stripper in Santa Monica. Uh some of the lyrics say won't make mama proud. It's going to cause a scene having fun on the stage in my heels where I belong. Every night at the Pink Pony Club, I am up and are on the floor. Lovers in the bathroom and the line outside the door, black lights and a mirrored disco ball. I am very concerned that this person's background may not have been vetted properly and he may be a sexual predator. It wouldn't be the first time that this has occurred in the district. The third ARS that he broke
131was uh 13-3506 furnishing harmful material to minors and likely he also violated the following board policies GBE, GBE, GCQF, GBF and JNDB. His actions have to have consequences. Otherwise, we are sending their own message to the rest of the faculty. An apology is not enough. What about the emotional and psychological disturbance that he has caused not only to the very young audience but the parents whose rights have been violated? Who is going to cover counseling fees? And what if the district gets sued? We must preserve the innocence of our little ones. Otherwise, we lose our humanity. This type of exposure to children is inappropriate. And if the teacher's personal sexual preferences cannot be kept in his private adult world, he should not be teaching little children. I trust that this board will do the responsible
132thing and dismiss Mr. Nanny. Thank you. [applause] >> Next is Howard Griggsby followed by Susan Winder. Hello, my name is Howard Griggsby and I'm a proud member of this community as well as an employee of the school district. I stand before you to speak about an incident that happened on December 12th. I uh was in a classroom, students return from gym and you know they have oders from when they come playing in gym. The teacher in the room sprayed this child from top to bottom heavily with Lysol. This was very disturbing to me because I care about our students. I care about our students. As she sprayed, she made the comment that her and this child had good rapport with one another. Another staff member in the classroom told her to raise the child's arm,
133the student arms, and get under his arms. These are chemicals that they're spraying on the children. Yes, I do have a problem with this. This child uh could not cogn cognitively uh tell her to stop because it's one of our special needs childs. Um what if the chemical had an adverse reaction? What would we have done then? It it bothered me so that uh on December 16th, I emailed our special education director to act request a conversation with her. She bounced it back to the assistant principal who's good friends with this teacher. And I told the I told the assistant principal what h happened and she said she would forward it downtown I mean to the administration. Um upon leaving that meeting I requested that well I explained to her I didn't want to go
134back to that classroom because I knew because I exposed this to this that there would be retaliation. Her comment was she's not like that. Had the roles been reversed, I as an African-American man know that they would have walked me out of that classroom until an investigation was done. This has not been done as of yet. I refused to go back to that classroom. I refused to go back to that school at this time because of the retaliation. The retaliation has taken place not only from the teacher but that assistant principal and other staff members that they've included. This was not about me. It was about the child who got sprayed with Lysol which could have been damaging. What if it was one of their children? What if it was one of your ch children?
135It's wrong in all aspects. We're here for the children and we work for those of us who work for the board are mandated by the state to report things. Just know that the state will know about what happened. >> Thank you. >> Next [applause] up is Susan Winder followed by Stacy. I can't make this right in a heart. >> Hark rider. >> Harkrave. Park writer. >> Okay, thank you. You know who you are then? Okay, good. >> Yes, I'm Susan Winder and I'm a taxpayer in the district. Good evening, Dr. Corson Bordon Cabinet. I would like to pose two questions for you to ponder regarding the music teacher and his inappropriate decision to play the LGBTQ Pink Pony song. Is this song part of the approved curriculum? And if not, has he been reprimanded for
136stepping outside of the approved curriculum? This song is a violation of President Trump's executive order of no DEI or seal in schools. Was he reprimanded for violating the president's executive order? And I don't buy for one second that he didn't realize he made a mistake. It has become public knowledge that the student who was upset about hearing the song and her mother who reported it have been bullied. Does the district not have an anti-bullying policy against students? If so, why was this tolerated? And those students involved were not held accountable for their behavior. I understand that the student was bullied to the point that the family has acquired ESA and sent her to a Christian school. One more student lost. One might ask why these students chose to bully the girl. Could it be because
137the parents bullied the mother on various sites on the internet for reporting the teacher's poor choice of music to the district? When I was a principal in the state of Michigan, the state legislature passed an anti-bullying policy that required the state board of education to put up a website where principles had to input the names of students who bullied other students. Um maybe we need to create such a website for the parents so that such negative behavior displayed by them is not like that of a child. When a teacher is reported to have violated the above guidelines, it doesn't mean they are not a good teacher. It means they allowed their personal beliefs to interfere with the choice of curriculum. Thus, all the parents that spoke at the last meeting totally disregarded the actual issue
138and turned it into a lecture about what a great teacher he was. Parents need to understand the behavior their students observe from them results in the same behavior of their students. Thank you. [applause] >> Next is Stacy. Say that name again, please. >> Hard graater. and followed by Mary Beth Satchel Satchel. Is that correct? Sinishel. Okay. Thank you. >> Okay. Want to start by saying good evening and thank you all for offering me your time tonight and giving me this honor. Um also welcoming Dr. Corson and new president Pantara. Um I was here for three reasons. The main one is my daughter has dedicated almost four years. She did repeat a grade four years to the dual language immersion program who is head by Amanda Lim is the director of the MO. Um what I
139want to call to the attention of the district is there is not a formal uh procedure for removing kids. I'm being told by my principal that upon third grade when a child fails they just leave. My child has asked to still be part of the Mandarin performance which is a very big deal. I almost missed it last year because of retaliation. I suffered an entire year of having to miss every school field trip and failed to come to support my daughter. I have volunteered at almost every event over the four-year period possible as a proud member of my PTO. I lost the right to come to school. I lost the right to tour other schools to find a better school. I suffered an almost an entire year of a trespassing order because I stood up
140for my daughter. I've endured all this. I've stuck with the program and my daughter has been one of only nine kids in a group. I believe she's been held in that program just as a placeholder to guarantee their funding. Upon kicking her out, I asked for one simple thing. Can she still perform? Can she show what she's proud? Can she perform this year at the New Year's performance along with the rest of the students? She is she has an IEP. She's a special needs student with 12 different disabilities. And the the special needs, they get their own number. She is not offered a place in the structured classroom. And that's the only difference between her and the other special needs students. I have asked at every single PTO meeting. I've continued to ask directly Miss
141Rodriguez and Amanda Lim, come up with a better way to take these kids out of the program when they fail. My daughter failed because she was unsupported, not because she didn't have an interest in learning. And in fact, this program is presented by the district as a proud opportunity for dyslexic children who may be visual learners. My daughter did not receive a single visual support. In fact, she was told, "We do things one way. Sink or, you know, float or sink. Sink or swim." And she sunk. And she's over here at almost 10:00 at night. She's in the back of this room because we're still fighting. And she had speech therapy very early this morning before school. And she has respit. She goes to a skills trainer for almost three hours every day after school.
142All of her medical things. The second reason I'm here is because she has a chronic illness form. It's right here. I turned it in in August, 6 months ago, along with a very clear directive from my doctor that she has medically necessary disabilities, upwards of 12 different disabilities, growth hormone deficiency, all of it, ADHD, dyslexia, dcalcula, autism traits. She goes to 12 to 40 hours of ABA therapy a week, speech therapy, and skills training every single day with a respirit provider who picks her up from school. Last Friday she got on the wrong bus. Last Friday she was sent home on a bus that picks her up a half an hour late every day. She misses two and a half hours a week of instruction because of your bus system failing her. >> Thank you
143for >> Mary Beth Senaw followed by Jeff Landry. Good evening, school board members and superintendent Corson. Thank you for letting me speak tonight. My name is Mary Beth Snershaw. I'm a longtime resident of um Paradise Valley School District. My sons both went to Pinnacle High School. Um the last time I was here, I heard women getting up speaking about what a wonderful teacher Mr. Nanny is. This has been mentioned. I was confused by this knowing about the Pink Pony Club song that he had admittedly played in his class. I don't normally get up to speak, but there's just too much wrong with this situation and I just feel like it's gotten swept under the rug and it really shouldn't be. Um, and you just heard all the rules that were broken and I think that's
144the thing that some of us are really quite upset about. He broke the law, plain and simple. I mean ARS 15-120 which the previous speaker mentioned 003 it bars schools your schools from having any sexual explicit materials or audio and it clearly says in the song people are standing in the line to have sex in the bathroom. So how he's gotten away with just a little pat on the hands. A lot of us are really confused by that. Um, so that's the first thing is that he clearly broke the law. And I spoke to a friend of mine, um, Allan that works at one of the district schools here. He's a school music teacher, and he right off the bat, he said, "We all know you do not allow any sexually explicit materials in the
145music class. If there's anything even," he said, "I say no to tons of songs. If there's any thing even questionable, I have to get it approved. The parents have to approve it." This man went through none of that. He clearly broke the law over and over again, right? So, there's that. And he got a slap on the hands. So, now maybe he thinks, hm, that went okay. Maybe I could do something else. We don't know the man. He's a new teacher. These women that got up to speak about him don't know him. Okay? They don't know his history. The second thing I want to speak about is the bullying that um the mother who brought this forth, she just thought she was doing the right thing, has received. There's been um a lot said about
146that already and yeah, she's putting her child in a private school and I applaud her for doing that and she will use ESAs according to what I know and I applaud her for doing that. And all I hear from the public school teachers is the ESAs are horrible, right? We hear that all the time. The essays are horrible. They're taking down our schools. They're not. The schools are taking down the schools. the education and the culture that has changed over the last few years is what's taking down these schools. And I want you guys to realize that that's what it is. It's not the ESAs are just a great benefit for women, mothers who are trying to protect their children and take them to a private school so they don't have to worry about them
147being bullied. They don't have to worry about sexually explicit content. Thank you for letting me speak. I appreciate it very much. [applause] >> Jeff Landry followed by Wendy Mayor Mer. Thank you. Sorry about the difficult names. So, my name is Jeff Lande. I'm the parent of two children in PBUSD and I appreciate the chance to speak before the board and cabinet tonight. Before I say what I'm say, I'm going to give the number 801 in the last 10 years. another student gone because of what we're talking about here. From my understanding, a few months ago, a parent at a parent of a student at Desert Trails Elementary contacted the school in the district with a strong concern about a sexualized song called the Pink Pony Club, which we've heard of, that was played in the
148classroom for a group of sixth grade music students. It's also my understanding that the district administration agreed with the parent that the song was highly inappropriate. All of this is concerning considering that there have been past district run-ins with sexualized content in Paradise Valley District Schools. I would like to point out, which has already been done, that since this appears to be a violation of some Arizona statutes, which I'm not going to repeat. Unfortunately, like we've heard already, the teacher was given a slap on the wrist because supposedly they didn't intend any wrongdoing, as if intent had any bearing on what the statute says. I'm not sure when we are all going to agree that our tenderaged students need to be safe from these types of things at the schools that us parents entrust them
149to. Here's my even bigger concern which you've heard about already. From my understanding, the parent involved has now been a target of ridicule by other parents at the school online and so forth. I wonder if any of those targeting this poor mother are the ones who came and spoke on the teacher's behalf. It's fine that he's a great teacher, but what happened was wrong. What's worse, of course, is that the the poor sixth grade student has been the target of bullying by other students so badly that, as we've heard, the families remove the student completely from the district and looking at alternative schooling options. Again, 8,01 in 10 years. I don't know the specific policies, but I'm pretty sure our district has anti-bullying and anti-retaliation policies when a student or parent bring up certain concerns.
150I know the company, the large company that I work for certainly does. This is all very unfortunate considering the continued declining enrollment in Paradise Valley District. And I think it's high time that we start looking inward as a district at what part we play and you all play in stopping the decline and being advocates for parents willing to be involved rather than allowing engaged parents to be silenced and cancelled. I think it's time for a turning point. If the parent or student is here tonight or listening, you should know that there are many of us who are like-minded. And though maybe quieter at times than your opposition, there are a lot of us. We are here. We are engaged. And we have your back. Thank you, [applause] >> Wendy Mer. Hello, my name is Wendy
151Mer. I am a former student of this district along with my son who is a former graduate. Um my son while in this district encountered four different forms of sexual materials, two of which I brought to this district. There's there's something going on. It has to be top down. The culture starts with the leadership. Teachers need to know that they cannot provide sexually explicit material. Period. Parents need to be given consent. This was a lapse of judgment to have this Pink Pony song played in a music class. Serious misjudgment, especially at the elementary level. That's even 100 times worse. I don't know what the training is in this district that parents are given or that student that teachers are given to not provide this material. They just need to do their due diligence and be
152careful. That's the bottom line. Secondly, we have heard from other people here today about the bullying going on for people that are bringing things to the attention to the administrator and to this district that has to stop. How are we going to be a better district and care for our children and their academic performance? You talk about social emotional learning. Well, it starts here, doesn't it? Don't we all want the best for our children? and not to be bullied and to hear everyone's voices. I think so. On a positive note, I'm going to end it with this. My son did graduate. He had the experience of having welding class at Paradise Valley High School and that sparked a great interest in him and he went on after high school into the adult education in Westmech.
153He succeeded. He loves it. He's currently a welder loving it and thriving. So, I appreciate that from the Paradise Valley School District. Thank you. [applause] >> I believe that concludes our calls to the public, which takes us to items for discussion. Next, the agenda is Yes. Right. Uh discussion here, I put my glasses. I one, transportation and belt alignment proposal. Dr. Corson. Thank you, President Pantara. Tonight, we're bringing forward a first reading of the proposed transportation of bell-time alignment for the board's consideration. We recognize that changes to school start and end times affect family and students routines, child care, work schedules, and student experiences, and we approach this work with care and respect for those impacts. This recommendation is the result of thoughtful committee process. The committee examined the ongoing transportation challenges we face, including
154persistent driver shortages, late arrivals, and drop offs, and the strain these issues place on students, families, schools, and staff. To support this work, the district also engaged third-party transportation experts from Transfar to analyze our system and provide datainformed insights and recommendations for the committee to consider. Multiple scheduling options were explored along with the educational, operational, and family impacts and stakeholder feedback was sought and incorporated. While change is difficult, the committee also recognized the positive implications that better belltime alignment could provide. Greater reliability in transportation, improved predictability for families, reduced instructional disruptions, and more sustainable system overall. This first reading is intended to provide the board with a clear understanding of the problem being addressed, options considered, and the rationale for the recommendation before any action is contemplated. I'll now turn the presentation over to Mrs.
155Brian who will present the analysis, proposed changes, and some next steps. Mergan. >> Thank you, Dr. Corson, President Panter, and governing board. Um, still there we go. uh do have quite a bit of information for you tonight. Um I know that it is late but I do not want to rush through this. This is another very important topic that uh we are looking into at this point. We did have a study session uh earlier in this school year and discussed briefly that we'd be looking at transportation and bell time alignment as it related to uh the findings from transpar who provided us with recommendations. And uh we did con convene the committee and I want to go over some of that work tonight along with some of the data they reviewed uh some additional steps
156taken and the recommendation that we would be bringing to the bringing back to the governing board on February 12th. Um I I don't think anybody misunderstands the challenges that we're facing, but just to be um incredibly clear and ensure that everybody's on the same page about that, I just want to reiterate uh all of those pieces. We've had an ongoing bus driver shortage and that's obviously created some systemwide impacts that extend just beyond transportation in our buses. Um that shortage is local, it's statewide, and um actually even nationwide over the last 5 years. Uh at times we have operated with as little as 39 of 110 positions that we have on the books filled for drivers. So approximately staffed at 37%. Uh that has a CDL driver shortage. our our bus drivers for our yellow
157buses have CDLs and that puts us in competition with the private sector where wages can be increased because they can increase the prices they charge for things. Um we have sort of an additional complication in that with our shifts, our drivers are on split shifts. They don't just get to work a straight eight or 10 hours. It's uh split up between the day while the students are in school. Um and and in this area um in within our district, we do have a limited pipeline of those who are interested in filling driver positions. With fewer drivers, that limits the amount of flexibility that we have and minimizes our ability and capacity to absorb when we have absences um or even mechanical issues or accidents that sometimes occur with our buses. uh additional pieces of the
158challenge. Um the all of these issues cause sometimes our late pickups and late arrivals. I know that the board um for those of you who have been on at least in my time here and since then you will have received emails uh often particularly at the beginning of the year and at the end of the year they tend to be uh the highest from parents who are frustrated with the set of circumstances we find ourselves in with transportation. Uh with those ongoing challenges include those include late morning arrivals as well as delayed afternoon drop offs and that happens in particular when routes are collapsed and drivers are unavailable. And just to reiterate those impacts include lost instructional time for students who are on the bus. It um increases the supervision need for our school site
159staff who maybe were not thinking that they would need to be staying after school while they were waiting for a bus to arrive. And it disrupts in particular our schedules for our families uh when they're expecting to and our staff as well when they're expecting to pick up their student and their student isn't there and they're waiting or when a student is waiting for a bus to pick them up in the morning uh and the family doesn't necessarily feel like they can leave their student at the stop and uh various issues of that nature that our families uh struggle with the disruption of their schedules. Um, additionally, I would just say that the elementary schools are a little bit more disproportionately affected by this because they fall within tier 2, but mostly within kind of
160our tier three, but our final tier of the day. And so, as delays continue to compound, that continues to make the buses later and later. So, the challenge we're facing includes operational strain as well. The transportation disruptions also require daily triage by our administrators in terms of who can I get to uh stay after school today, who's going to make sure the students get to class if they've arrived late. Um it causes disruptions to our transportation staff and their schedules and expecting them to double and triple their routes. Um as well as uh disruptions to the district leadership when having to help uh communicate any issues and uh resolve some of those issues. That limited staffing that we talked about earlier also reduces our ability to optimize our routes and quickly resolve issues. Um, and
161while that situation has improved significantly uh over the last year, we still don't have the total number of drivers that we need. And while right now we are on the higher end of paying our bus drivers, I suspect it's only a matter of time before what happens uh what always happens will happen, which is other districts will increase their prices so that they can get staffing back and [clears throat] we will potentially be in a difficult situation with our staffing again. Um, other districts have chosen to expand their boundaries, meaning that you have to live further out from your school site in order for us to pick you up for transportation or andor eliminated routes. We've chosen not to take those actions. Um, and we must pursue alternative solutions because of that. And I will
162share um in past years it has warmed my heart in particular when we've brought that up as a consideration and talked to our transportation department about that and their belief is no, we'd rather get every kid to school even if they're late than not have them to school at all because they don't have transportation. So why transportation matters? It's an educational and community impact and those challenges ripple across our entire district. Um almost all of our schools have transportation. There is an impact on student learning with missed instructional instructional minutes when there are late arrivals. It also impacts the entire classroom even though students even the students who were not uh brought by a yellow bus to school because it uh the students coming in from the buses can disrupt that entire classroom. It can
163sometimes reduce access to the early breakfast programs that we pro provide at our campus as well as before school academic support and other enrichment and intervention opportunities. Um, as I mentioned before, that inconsistent transportation tends to affect our younger or elementary students, but also uh our students with special needs. Um, we do door-to-door pickup for our students with special needs. it does take a little bit longer to load some of our students with special needs as well. And so this impacts them a little bit more significantly. The additional reasons for why transportation matters is our impact on our families and our staff. Our families experience missed work time. We often get that um comments within the emails and communications that we receive. It provides child care challenges for them when they can't depend on a
164bus uh to arrive on time. It also increases stress and unpredictability for our families as well. And then our school staff end up adding uh and absorbing additional responsibilities that includes supervising students in the afternoon who are waiting for buses. Um managing parent concerns certainly as well and adjusting instruction on short notice when there are disruptions or late arrivals to the classroom. So moving from the challenge to a solution that needs to be a system level solution and our transportation challenges cannot be solved in isolation. The I want to be super clear that the core issue is not an effort on the part or excuse me a lack of effort on the part or commitment of any of our staff. Our transportation staff, our school leaders and staff and our drivers are already operating at
165maximum capacity and then some. I don't believe that there is anything else that we can expect them to do. While we solve the problems on a daily basis and have done so for a number of years, that just addresses the symptoms, but it doesn't resolve the structural issue that we have. Our belt times directly affect our transportation capacity. And so we have the start staggered start and end times. Um, and paired with intervals in between those tiers, that helps us determine how many routes a driver can complete, how many tiers the district can operate, as well as the district's ability to absorb any absences or delays or mechanical issues. And our current bell configuration severely uh restricts that routing flexibility and causes delays. We talked a little bit about that in the study session, but
166I'll reiterate the reason why that is in a in a few slides. In terms of the continued system level solution, if we have better alignment with our bell times, it can increase our efficiency without increasing staffing. And obviously, increasing staffing has an increased cost related to it. Better alignment can also reduce our late pickups and arrivals significantly. It can improve our schedule flex scheduling flexibility for our families or excuse me predictability for our families and our schools and also create greater reliability for our athletics, our afterchool programs and our early breakfast access. So while not every student is brought to or from school on a bus, sometimes they rely on transportation for athletics after school early breakfast. I would add to that list uh field trips as well. I want to share, you know, this
167is about stability for for families and staff and it's not just simply the earlier and later start times. It's more reliable and a more sustainable transport p transportation system um to ensure student safety that supports learning. So, as we shared, we convened a committee and I want to thank from the bottom of my heart all of the people who attended four and what became five uh transportation meetings related to this. This was co-f facilitated with Dr. Corson and I before he had before he was doing two jobs. Uh he committed to that with me and I appreciate his work with me on this uh because then he did have two jobs while we were working on this. So, thank you Dr. Corson. Uh these people were came fully committed and prepared and reviewed the documents
168ahead of time before each of the meetings as well as spent time in the meetings. Uh they thoughtfully sent questions and added information to joint documents that we had and um you know there was a great amount of time, thought and effort that they put into their thoughts and we uh originally had scheduled four meetings. They felt that we needed a fifth meeting. um or maybe agreed with me that we needed a fifth meeting. Uh and appreciate that additional uh meeting being fit into their schedule. And we will hear from one of the committee members in a few slides along with um Heather Schmidt, president of PVEA for some additional feedback that we received. To reiterate the purpose of that committee, it was to recommend to cabinet school start time adjustments that improve our transportation
169efficiency while supporting instructional goals and community needs. Uh, as mentioned, we had these five meetings and these were the times. Um, I I would say I don't think there was a single meeting that ended on time. They didn't go super late. We certainly try to be respectful of everybody's time. Uh, but not one person, you know, left early. they felt committed to ensuring that we were able to complete the conversations that we were having. Um, and while this isn't probably the most exciting committee to be on and it was a difficult committee to be on, uh, they were all very committed to the purpose and ensuring a positive solution. Uh this is one of the slides taken directly from our uh one of our our presentations in the committee around decision-making that we make recommendations
170to the superintendent's cabinet and that we strive for consensus in our decision making. This additionally was a document we shared with each meeting and uh you can see the meeting that goes across the top 1, two, three and four and then along the side all of the stakeholders within uh cabinet committee meetings stakeholder communication and pathway outcomes and ensuring that we had a plan and a map for our intentions, our purpose, our results, our process and our relationships. This is a uh culmination of all of the agendas. We started with a presentation of the current state of transportation. It was the same presentation that the board received uh earlier this school year from Transpar. They um received that data and the recommendations from trans transpar for um a minimum of 45 minutes and ideally a
17160-minute difference between tier times. Then the committee started to work on the generation of options, reviewing the options, the details of those options, um the impact of those options, whether they were positive, neutral or negative. And then we looked to request some additional stakeholder feedback and that was part of why we had that fifth meeting so that after that stakeholder feedback was requested that the committee had time to review that additional feedback. A final proposal was made in that uh final meeting. we reach re reached consensus and then we closed out the meeting um by what there is uh what we called the plus deltas. So the positives of the committee work and the delta of the committee work. Whenever we have a committee um in this district our hope is that they uh enjoyed
172the time on the committee or and felt that their uh voice on the committee was heard and valued. And so we take time to do a plus delta to um receive that feedback and I'll share what the committee shared uh during that part of the agenda. Moving into understanding our current schedule and we uh talked about this a little bit in the study session as well. Our district currently operates on the tiered bell schedule system as many school districts if not most school districts do. the um different start times do operate optimize our transportation and resource allocations. Our schools currently are assigned really to five different tiers. There are three main tiers with sort of two subtiers that total up to five tiers. Our high schools do start the earliest and our specialized programs start
173the latest here with the six high schools because each of these the six high schools, seven middle schools, 28 elementary schools. They're those numbers because they each include uh their portion of the Roadrunner students of our typical schools. It's the five high schools, six middle schools, and 27 elementary schools. All five of our high schools are at 7:30 a.m. to 2:10 p.m. with Roadrunner being 7:15 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Our middle schools, four of them are at 8:00 a.m. and 8:00 a.m. to 2:40 p.m. And then two of them are 9:00 a.m. to 3:40 p.m. Um, as we shared in the study session, the goal is to also get the middle schools all on the same tier as well. And then with our elementary schools, we have eight that are the 8:15 to 2:45 and
17419 that are 8:45 a.m. to 3:15 p.m. The considerations over the many scheduling options for the different bell time approaches that were made. Um the final recommendation was selected based on the best balance of a few things. That's the educational needs, our transportation logistics, our family schedules, and our operational efficiency. The option of making no changes to bell schedules was considered with the committee. Um they though they do understand that some changes between schools to different tiers will need to happen regardless of whether or not bell times changed. Uh they did feel as though making no changes was not the right solution at this point in time. Additionally, we recognize as a committee that no option, including our current option, is perfect. Unfortunately, a summary of the recommended changes is that the committee came to
175the 50 minute AM buffer and 50 minute PM buffer. The additionally it brings the middle schools all together as I mentioned in tier 2 and then it adds 10 minutes to the elementary school day and that is because currently high schools and middle schools have a 6-h hour and 40 minute day and elementary schools have a 6-h hour and 30 minute day. So the key changes in summary for the recommended change is to keep our high schools at tier one with some slight time adjustments, consolidate the six middle schools into tier 2. Our elementary schools do experience some changes and some shifting between tiers two and three. And then as I mentioned, even without bell time changes, tier adjustments will be needed for next year to um capture at least some efficiencies in transportation. With
176our high schools, the adjustment is 10 minutes earlier. maintains the 6-h hour and 40m minute day. Our middle schools, as mentioned, are all consolidated into tier 2, maintains their 6-h hour and 40-minute day. With our elementary schools, we would have two of the schools moving from tier 2 to tier three. And in particular, with this elementary uh section, we're not finalized on which schools will be in which tier yet. So, that's why we're keeping it to summary information at this point in time. Three schools are moving from tier three to tier 2. 17 would remain in tier three. Six would remain in tier 2. That includes Pinnacle Peak Prep, um counting them in the elementary school area. And that would move their day to six hours and 40 minutes to align with the high schools
177in the middle schools. In terms of what that would look like for time, the high schools uh Roadrunner would have no change. It would be the 7:15 to 1:30. The five high schools would change to 7:20 to 2:00 p.m. So, they would start 10 minutes earlier. Middle schools would move to tier 2. So, their start time would move to 8:10 a.m. to 2:50 p.m. And that's either from the 8 a.m. start time or the 9 a.m. start time for the two schools who are currently in tier 3. For elementary schools, uh, we have tier 2 would move from starting at 8:15 a.m. to now start at 8:10 a.m. Uh, with the additional 10 minutes, that means that they would end at 2:50 p.m. And then tier 3, instead of starting at 8:45 a.m., would move
178to 9:00 a.m. And with the additional 10 minutes, the day would end at 3:40 p.m. We additionally have to consider the impact to half days. Um, another unique piece to this was that uh, high schools and middle schools had 4 hours on the current half-day schedule and elementary schools had only 3 hours and 45 minutes. So, we wanted to align that to be consistent too so that we could have three true tier times. Um, and so you see what those proposed schedules would look like for the high schools, middle schools, and the two tiers of the elementary schools. Just to provide a quick summary of the impact, uh the transportation portion of this is to optimize our bus routing through our tiered schedules and having having different buffer times or extended buffer times between tiers
179to help positively affect our route efficiency and driver schedules. Terms of family schedules, obviously this creates different impacts on drop off and pickup times and all of the things related to that. We recognize that for some families uh it may have a negative impact or simply a change or for some families certainly it might have a positive impact. Um in terms of instructional time the recommendation as mentioned add 10 adds 10 minutes to the elementary school day as well as maintain consistent high school and middle school instructional minutes. In all of this, acknowledging our family and staff concerns is an important consideration and we recognize that any change to start and end times does have an impact on our families and our staff. Um that includes child care and work schedule as well as after
180school or even before school activities. Um, as we continue to evaluate this, we are fine-tuning the, um, additional pieces including special education, preschool, uh, high school zero hour, which is super early. Our community education impacts, sun kids, field trips, and half days. We want to ensure coordination and minimize disruption as best as possible. We also know that clear communication and an advanced notice uh which is why we're bringing it this early on is a priority so our families have uh sufficient time to plan for the coming year. And now I will move into focus group feedback and we start with our certified group. Miss Heather Schmidt will make her way to the uh front and um Dr. Corson and I thought it would be helpful to hear directly from Heather. uh she and I uh
181as well as uh um Dr. Holmes met with a group of elementary certified staff to discuss with them in particular the additional 10 minutes. That's the particular feedback that the uh committee wanted. And so there are some things that were discussed and I will let Miss Schmidt talk about those and uh round out anything else. Thank you. >> Good evening again uh President Pantara governing board. Thank you Mrs. Beran. Um, I first of all, thank you again to Mrs. Barrian and Dr. Holmes for including us in making sure that we have been part of this conversation from the get-go. Um, I just want to give a little timeline addition. Um, the committee was called back in September and the first meeting was September 24th. I was able to as part of our PVEA process, we
182meet monthly with the representatives from all schools and updates were provided to the council of representatives in October and November uh specifically on the work that had been done in this committee thus far following the November meeting which was right around the time of I think the fourth committee meeting. I don't have the graphic in front of me and the time has lost all meaning this month. So, um, the following that fourth meeting, there was an interest in, that's kind of where the 10-minute thing came up, and, uh, Mrs. Barrian and Dr. Holmes came to me and we got with an an urge to get feedback directly from teachers on the impact of the 10 additional minutes in the elementary school day. So, I was able to use that network and pulled a group, a
183small but fabulous group of uh elementary educators together to specifically discuss the 10 extra minutes and we met and had a very thorough conversation. Um, and uh a lot of this is the discussion that we had um I don't want to read slides to you but um you know the group as as educators we have a million ideas and they are people who love throwing all ideas at the wall. So some ideas that they the first person who gave me feedback was well can we have 10 more minutes of lunch or prep. Um and we moved on from that because that um we want everyone to have preps and lunches that are of equal length. Uh our elementary friends I love you guys but they don't need 10 more minutes than anyone else. Um we
184there was also conversations around um where that time would go and we've had a lot of conversations. Um, I also had our January Council of Representatives meetings last night where this information has been out to the staff and we had a more broad discussion. We spent almost an hour last night discussing this. Um, so we talked about um big picture is where that 10 minutes will go and what that will mean and our focus is on adding that to the instructional day um and making sure that that is benefiting those students that are in those classrooms. Um, so every school, elementary schools, they develop their own master schedules. They all look a little bit different, but there are obviously key things that are sim are similar or same from school to school. Um, some schools
185have specials kind of scheduled a little bit differently where they have a little bit of a window of time between their um as they transition between grade levels. Um, sometimes specials start, it may the school might start at 8:45, but they don't go to specials till 9:00. So that 15 minutes at the beginning and the end of the day, things like that. Um pushing very hard for our teachers to work at the school level with their administrators to ensure that this 10 minutes is put into the master schedule in a way that benefits the school. And you know, we have a lens always of the school by the local decision being made at the school site of what one school needs may not be the same as the others. Um, a big piece also is
186that when I'm not going to guess on the date, but a few years ago when we added the second recess for our K5 students, um, that is 10 to 15 minutes of instructional time, that was actually lost. Um, so that was an exciting piece for some of our people that were in both the focus group and in conversations we've had since the focus group met at the very beginning of December. Um, on that 10 minutes being able to be used for additional instructional time. Um the other side of this is our certified employees work um are we have a duty-free day as we call it. They currently work bell-to-bell and when buses are late at the end of the day they are often asked to stay after and support students and make sure that they
187are supervised and kept safe after school and compensated at our duty rate to do that work. Um but there's very much excitement um I think amongst almost all of us about the piece of transportation improving. We've seen I think um some amazing improvements this year alone with getting our and I will not take uh Mr. Webster's uh thunder above transportation, but um we've seen positive movement on timeliness of transportation this year, but we can always make that better. And I believe that this is a piece there. Um for some of our schools that are moving to a that more 9:00 start time, a lot of our schools have after the bell programming. There's also we asked if there was an opportunity to do more before the bell. So have more enrichment type classes before school.
188Um as well um potential opportunity for transition time to be built in um ultimately and I am grateful to see yet again um that focus on the communication and clarity for all of us. That is the most important piece both for our families of course but for staff in understanding what their lives will look like for next school year. Um, some of these changes are big and we love the the fact that we can get um this answer as soon as possible so people can plan ahead for next school year as they're registering for before and after care things like that. Um, I will be here through the remainder of the presentation if I am needed again. Thank you all. >> Thank you Heather. Um the only thing that I will add to that is
189uh in that meeting uh I was reminded of that instructional time I had forgotten about that that was lost um when the state mandated an additional recess period and um the filling in the room around that was that they were excited about the idea of being able to recapture some of that instructional time which I thought was very positive. The next focus group that we spoke with was our elementary school principles. Um, some of the thoughts they had were around the 10 minutes and working that into the master schedule, which is some of what we heard from the certified uh group as well. That this would support reducing the student wait time. um that their time would be spent uh partially at least in instruction along with the addition to the time between tiers providing
190um the need to not have to have that amount of weight time. Uh it would also support the supervision uh that the staff have needed to provide that uh Miss Schmidt just talked about as well in terms of having afterchool coverage that would no longer be necessary or be rarely necessary with the change to the 50 minutes between tiers. um they noted that the breakfast location does affect some of the supervision whether or not they have breakfast in the classroom for example and so wanting to make sure that we um work through those pieces as well. Um additionally their special education staffing and break times would be impacted. They want to um ensure that that is thought through and they did have some concerns about the 9:00 a.m. start time impacting the potential for afterchool
191meetings. Um, we do, as you saw, have two middle schools who have a 9:00 am start time right now. And so, um, talked with Mr. Clansancy about how that often works at his, uh, campus. And he said that, uh, most of the school site meetings are done in the morning. Um, but there are sometimes meetings like IEPs where you need parents to be there for that and after school tends to be more convenient and wanting to ensure that our teachers would be there. says he doesn't have a problem um getting teachers in for any of those types of meetings for IEP. So, I think that that will work out well. These were all just thoughts that they wanted to bring forward when we when when we seek feedback from focus groups, from committees. Um the
192purpose is to ensure that we're recognizing and paying attention to any of the speed bumps that we may hit along the way. Whenever we're presenting something like this and making significant changes in a district, we want to make sure that I don't I don't know what all of those pieces are. Dr. Corson doesn't know what all of those pieces are. We want to ensure that we're talking to the people that it impacts and making sure that we are considering those things and determining whether or not first of all they're surmountable or not. And in all of the feedback we received, there was nothing that they felt was insurmountable. Just making sure that we process through each of these pieces and and provide support throughout. The next piece is our transportation department feedback. He's ready to
193go. I see him back there. Mr. Sean Webster is going to make his way forward. Uh this was also an incredibly important uh focus group feedback that we sought. This was a much larger focus group feedback. I believe the entire transportation department was invited. >> Uh the entire transportation department was invited. There were a few doing uh midday routes or field trips, but I would say we probably had 95% of them there. So just about all of them. Um when we uh brought the options to them uh they were all you could see a sigh of relief when they heard more time um which we don't get a lot in transportation that they all agree on something. Um so that was really exciting. and they were all very um excited and they said the stress
194level because um if you've ever been at a school on the second day of school in August while they're still trying to learn everyone with 45 kids outside with people who have been all day and it's hot and then they're trying to figure out what route they have and sometimes they're doubling. They were all really excited to know that that may not be an issue and it might just be a little bit of a we're 5 minutes late instead of 45. Um so they were all really really excited about um having that before and after uh the school day. Um as well as our special ed drivers were um really thankful because you may have a bus of 15 special ed kids that uh a normal transit bus can load in two minutes. But some
195of those kids you have to take one by one, buckle them in, get them in a harness. And so that can take um if they don't have an aid, it can be a long process. So, they were appreciative that there may be some more time to to go a little slower and kind of walk with that kid and if they're having a an off day, as some of our students do, that they might be able to kind of reassure them a little bit more and have time to um get them on the bus and then continue their route. Um they appreciate that they would be more efficient so that they wouldn't be doing two, three um routes on one bus um because this would help to stretch out the alignment from tier one to tier
196three. um as well as they did not like the idea of having four tiers. Um they felt that that would kind of recompress and give us some more issues um that we're currently facing. So they were all in favor um of the three tier option and we got uh a standing over or not standing, they all sat because it was their uh holiday lunch or breakfast, but they gave us a huge round of applause for this and they were all very very excited and happy that this was something that is um being considered and brought forward. That's all I have. You're welcome. >> Phone back up. Thank you, Mr. Webster. Uh, and he will also be here through the end of the presentation. Correct. C. Excellent. >> Okay. [laughter] And another incredibly important component in
197this is the parent focus group. And we also received um some feedback from them. Um again the tenor of all of that feedback was that none of it is insurmountable that but they want to make sure that we are considering all of these things. They understood and supported the need for a more long-term solution that was uh structural in nature and that the short-term fixes are those are no longer sufficient. Um they did raise some concerns about the impact on some specific programs including uh elementary field trips, half-day schedules, special education, afternoon therapies, um preschool, sun kids, and community education programs. And all of these we have either addressed or will be addressed either the start and end times. They're in alignment with the way that we currently do them, just moved according to whatever
198school or location they may be at. um elementary field trips we don't believe will have a significant impact because we have more time and can make our routes more efficiently. We should have the same amount of time to be able to do field trips. Um so just working through some of those things they wanted to ensure additionally our families with students in specialized program um in particular special education and autism programs. They parents just wanted to emphasize the importance of coordinating those dismissal times so that they have sufficient time to receive whatever additional therapies uh they may need um to support them. Um they did have some questions about the high school start times. Uh, you know, a lot of the focus had been on elementary, but certainly the additional 10 minutes to high school
199start times, uh, with students being, uh, starting that early, sharing research on later start times, but then, uh, the parents recognized that making high school start times later, either in the second tier or third tier, would prevent participation in some afterchool activities, namely in AIA athletics. So, school districts across the uh county um and even across the state almost always have their high school start times the earliest in order to be able to participate in AIA um with the start times as early as 3:00 for some athletic programs. Um there was some discussion about shortening the high school day. Unfortunately, we can't do that. We have a minimum number of instructional minutes we have to meet and we're pretty close to that uh for our high schools. And um perhaps the most important component of
200this was their emphasis on the clear communication and um allowing time for families to plan and we will certainly do that. Uh understanding if changes aren't made uh what may need to happen instead or what the um what else might occur I think is important in in the decision-making process. There are a few impacts starting with a financial or a staffing impact and it would be that we would need to if we if we don't change bell times one of the options would be to significantly increase the driver staffing that we have. Um that would obviously have ongoing higher transportation costs for additional drivers and uh routes. Uh the potential for increased overtime or the use of contracted services which is quite a bit more expensive. would say to all of that, just because we
201post more driver positions doesn't mean that we'll get more drivers. We already have driver positions posted and we still are not uh fully staffed. And with contracted services, they come to a limit to and there have been times where they have said even under current circumstances, let alone expanding uh the number of routes or drivers that we would have, they've not been able to meet our needs uh and and provide the contracted driving services. The other option is reduced service reliability. And this middle option here is effectively where we're at now. Uh we don't have a lot of reliability partic particularly in our second and even more so in our third tiered schools. They have continued late arrivals and um more particularly the delayed drop offs in the afternoon. And that uh obviously incurs loss
202and disruption of instructional time along with all of the other things we've talked about in terms of disruption to family schedules and things of that nature. Then the other option like I talked about a little bit that some other school districts have considered and made those changes is reduced offerings for transportation. That means uh expanding the transportation boundaries uh beyond what they are now. So, you'd have to live further away from the school in order to be able to receive transportation. Um, that would also include cancelling stops or routes and potentially eliminating additional offerings um or reducing additional offerings like field trips, athletics, fine arts and midday uh routes. So trying to look at uh financial impact because as a governing board part of your responsibility is obviously the financial solveny of the school district
203and so wanting to provide you with this important information as well. There are some projected costs, some projected savings and then sort of the delta of those with the projected savings. Um, a very conservative estimate is a saving of $120,000 for the afterchool supervision right now that is happening. Uh, that number is likely closer to double that. Um, it will also save on the private transportation costs that we've incurred. Again, this is a very conservative number, a minimum of $387,000 of savings for private transportation. In terms of potential costs, because we are adding 10 minutes to the elementary school instructional day, um we would need to compensate our hourly staff for an additional 15 minutes for those who aren't uh full-time, who aren't an eight-hour day. And that is probably the most accurate cost estimate.
204That's very easy to estimate at about $410,000. So, the delta of all those numbers, again, a very conservative estimated savings of $97,000. Uh, it's not the primary reason or not even necessarily a secondary reason that we're doing this, but we certainly didn't want it to cost the district a significant amount of money um in proposing a change like this. And so, this uh takes care of that uh consideration. In terms of the steps for decision- making, we have had our communication with the stakeholder groups, the reachouts that we did with each of those and presented the work of the committee and the recommendation. Uh some communication with staff regarding that recommendation has occurred and I'm forgetting if that was last week or this week, Dr. Holmes, >> this week. Thank Thank you, Miss Toppel. [laughter]
205uh with uh communication to staff related to that though as uh Heather had mentioned there's been some communication to um council of reps and other groups uh during that time as well. Uh the next piece is obviously this presentation that's happening right now to the governing board with the cabinet recommendation and agreement with the work of the committee. We will also be doing some additional surveying to our families to seek some broader feedback. We have that survey ready to go. Marcom has supported that and I believe that will be going out tomorrow afternoon, early afternoon time frame. So we should have that feedback for the February 12th governing board meeting. The final information and recommendation for the board will be made at that meeting. And then implementation planning um sort, you know, sort of seems
206like that would happen after that, but obviously those are things we're already thinking about. Um, we don't we don't certainly expect that this is a done deal, but to in in people who are in operations to wait until something's happening, we don't we generally don't do that. We try to plan and prepare for that as best ahead of time. As I had mentioned, we do the plus delta of a committee work to um ensure that it was a positive and uh rewarding experience for the committee members who attended and participated. And so this was the feedback that we received and I thought it was important for the board to hear some of this. Uh they liked the conversations to get focus group feedback that was particularly important to them. They valued uh we had various
207documents that I had mentioned throughout that captured committee feedback and provided them information before during and after the meeting so that when they had thoughts they didn't have to wait for the next committee meeting uh to provide those thoughts. they had the opportunity to share those thoughts throughout that time and we would uh come back to that during each meeting. Uh they appreciated the meeting organization and having the materials ahead of time. I'm going to thank Dr. Corson for doing 99.9% of that work. They appreciated the district including parents on the committee. I think the parents in particular felt appreciated for that. Uh I don't know of a committee that we do in the district that doesn't include parents or doesn't include all stakeholders. that's always incredibly important um as they are a very important
208stakeholder. Uh they thought that it was a very well-rounded group. They believe that the conversations within the committee were great, that good data and good information was provided to them to help them make an informed decision. Um we had someone in there who say this was one of the best committees they were on in 20 years of being on committees in the district. that was Miss Topppel. Uh, and they were grateful that the transportation challenges are being addressed and in the words that they used was in an amazing manner. So, just to sort of round this out, why this problem requires a solution, if it's not clear already, I'm gonna just hit it home one more time. It's not just an operational issue. It is a foundational issue in the school district and reliable transportation
209and supports our instructional time. It supports student safety when you consider sometimes that students are waiting out. In particular, right now it's still dark outside when we have some students waiting for a bus to pick them up. It supports family trust. That is incredibly important to the school district as well as staff sustainability. When they're constantly being asked to change their schedule for the day and support after school and whatnot, that becomes a little bit exhausting to them at some point. It addresses our transportation challenges and enables us to use our resources better as well as provide an improved staff and student experience. While there are other levers that I talked about in terms of expanding uh route boundaries or adding uh staffing or the other pieces we mentioned, the bell time alignment lever is
210the piece that allows us to make the best use of our limited resources while providing reliability for our students, our families, and our staff. But it doesn't require additional staffing or increased costs or reduced services. and therefore we believe it is the uh best lever to use at this point in time. I know that was a lot of information. I am happy to one thing I I keep forgetting to mention this when I see my different points on the slide. There has been uh I just want to make sure we're clear. There's been consideration about community education offerings and paying attention to the schools in particular with the changes from tier 2 to tier three or tier 3 to tier 2 and offering additional um community education or if they don't if they aren't a
211community education school or not necessarily a school that would participate in that other offerings through grants such as uh as Heather mentioned before the bell or after the bell. So sorry for not remembering that thought. There was a lot in here. Happy to answer any questions you may have. >> Yes. Thank you for that very thorough presentation. Um talking about a lot of work and the butterfly effect. One thing affects another thing affects another thing. >> I think it's fantastic. So who would like to go first? Mrs. Christensen. >> Thank thank you President Pantara and thank you Mrs. Bergen and committee for the thorough work. Wow. It's very complicated and um thank you for all all your and the additional work that you put in with the other days. I found answer to one of
212my questions in the presentation as you were going through, but I'll just go through them as I as I wrote them down. Elementary school, so increasing 10 minutes. So I'm I'm assuming since elementary schools have home room classes, it would be the 10 minutes additional instruction to a home room class. that because I know they have specials and they have [clears throat] other or is it going to be spread out because that's really not a lot of instruction if you spread it out with all the classes, >> right? So, that decision has not been made uh and is not part of the recommendation. Uh we of course uh would be engaging our constituencies at the site level to do that and we have a process for doing that in place. Um and so that would
213be a stakeholder u discussion at the site level. Um while the you had indicated m um that teachers would love to have 10 more minutes of lunch planning, it would also benefit students to have 10 more minutes of recess. Was that discussed also by the committee? Because I I remember when my kid was in elementary school and he wouldn't eat and he'd bring back the same lunch that I would send because he wanted to to play and run or play flag football or whatever. Um has was that discussed by the committee at all to >> the the discussions that I was specifically involved with this with the the um uh the focus group certified focus group was that they had increased uh recess time uh several years ago. And so, uh, this was seen as
214an opportunity to recapture some of that instructional time that was lost, uh, back then, which of course in this day and age with as much conversation as we have, uh, about test scores um, uh, in instructional time, that that was an important consideration. >> Okay. Yeah, that's a complicated one because it's a it's a balance and those young minds also need a break and they need to run around especially our squirrely boys. They need to run around and play and do all that. It's hard it's hard to sit that long in a in a classroom. The >> but I would want to emphasize that will go back and and be part of a a stakeholder discussion at the site level. >> Great. Thank you. And then the high schools, I still have a hard time
215even increasing um the start times to 10 minutes, 7:20 because our our high schoolers, they they work, they have late night jobs, sometimes there's band, orchestra, athletics. So, one of the questions was addressed that it it would make it difficult for AIA because I didn't think about that until you brought it up in the parent focus group that you know we it's not just athletics within the district. We're having to coordinate with the other schools. But, um yeah, I and the other consideration is juniors and seniors drive. And so I I was thinking that it, you know, would be easy just to put them at nothing's easy. It's very complicated, but to to do actually a later start for the high school just because they they need more sleep and it's kind of Yeah. was
216was that considered at all? Yeah, that was that was actually probably more um of the first few meeting talking point because as we sort of ended it became a little bit more on the elementary focus, but we started off with a little bit of the high school focus and we did have high school representation in the room. Um and there were earlier times discussed and that was true that was a no-go. Um and even this one, right, we recognize that 10 minutes is 10 minutes. Um but and and it it was part of the information that was asked for in the committee about tardies, first period tardies, uh in particular for high schools. So it was a great question. We pulled that information. I was shocked when I pulled it and then I had to
217remember how I framed the question because I thought the number I got back was the num the percent of students that were tardy every day and that number was 54%. So that was very surprising to me. That is not what we asked for. We asked for the total number of students who had been tardy. So even if they were tardy or total percent of students who were tardy. So even if they'd been tardy once, they were counted in that 54%. And the conclusion that the committee came to about that is the students are already late. They're likely going to be late and not necessarily any later if the start time is 7:20 uh versus 7:30, but it's it's certainly a consideration. >> Okay. And I know it's late. This is my last question. I promise.
218the did for the high schoolers. Did you consider changing all the high schoolers to a block schedule? I know I've had conversations with Dr. Dennis in in the past and he just raves about PV's block schedule. I know it's different because they have longer classes they're needing for those specialized >> um you know crest programs, but >> we did not talk about that in the committee. Um I I don't know that everybody in the district would understand this, but having a block schedule does actually cost the district more money. Um so I don't think we were we were not trying to do anything that would cost the district any additional money, but it wasn't brought forward and I think maybe that was because people understood that that might be the impact of that. >> Thank
219you. >> Oh, Mrs. Wing. >> Thank you. Um I want to start by saying thank you to the committee. Um, I know obviously a ton of energy and work went into it. That is not lost on me. So, I want to start there. Also, just a huge shout out to transportation. I don't even you all are amazing humans and I have such an appreciation for keeping our kids safe and doing everything that you do day in and day out. That is a tough a tough tough job. Um, I have a lot I I'm going to be honest. I've like I'm like really not happy with this and I I'm really unhappy about the impact on high school students. Um we're going in the wrong direction. Like I I I don't know that I'm going to
220be able just going to be totally transparent like in getting behind an earlier start time for high school period. I understand this is complicated. I understand there's no easy solution. I understand it's going to be felt somewhere. But if we're hearing already and then one of my questions was about data and absenteeism and and I would love to have had that be part of this because I feel like I have tremendous concerns already about tardiness and absenteeism for our high school students. And so without even sort of having that information as a baseline, it makes it really difficult to even consider something like this as well as not having any information about well what kinds of supports or interventions or things are we what are we doing to try to mitigate if we have 54%
221and I hear your point that could be one tardy that could be right are we differentiating between excused not excused are we are we looking at all of those things because I worry that in trying to sort of solve a very real problem, a very real problem that impacts all students because I do understand that it it's impacting everyone regardless of whether they're a bus rider or not. That said, are we potentially exacerbating another problem which is instructional time and tardiness for our high school students? And to me, we're already we're already not from my perspective not doing enough or if we are, I certainly don't have that information and I haven't seen it. So, I'm certain I'm I'm so so concerned about that. we talk about, you know, sports and and and um you
222know, AIA and and all of that other other districts and maybe it's because they're making some of those other hard decisions. They I've I I did look, I didn't do like some comprehensive search, but I I researched. Doesn't seem like anybody has an earlier start time than 7:30. And in fact, most high schools in this area and in Phoenix have later start times than we do. So, I think there's got to be another way to do this. And if we are going to really be tasked with making this decision that I think a few of us expressed at the last study session, our reservations around the high school start time, I I really would like to see that data and I would really want to know what are we doing to help support those students.
223I don't see um high school principal representation on the committee. I'm sure that feedback was gotten from them. Um >> there was >> I'm I'm right. And I'm certain that that's true, but I also have concerns about what sort of like how broad and I appreciate there's more feedback coming, right? But I would have liked to hear more from from parents and community feedback. And another concern that I have is kind of similar to the concern that I I think a few of us raised and I know I raised with regard to the uh community ed, which is I actually I don't think this is enough time to give families. I I would prefer if at all possible that if we're going to make a change to bell times that's going to impact literally all
224of our our entire community that we give families an entire year to make that decision to actually vet and and we've have families already that are open enrolled and they've made that decision and they're making that decision right now and so they should have this information. I think we risk losing students for sure with an earlier start time. And I want to just also clarify. So is it correct because I feel a maybe it's me and I'm tired and it's late but I find this very confusing. 19 elementary schools then am I correct will be from move to a 9:00 a.m. to 3:40 and nine would be on would be on the tier 2 which is the the what 810 to 250. Is that correct? I'll get the slide back up. >> Okay. Because I
225was trying to add it together to figure out where we land with moving those times. So 9:00 a.m. to 3:40 for 19 schools. We don't know which schools they would be. I hear you that you're going to look at how this impacts special education students, but 19 schools basically not ending their day until almost 4:00. Like again, I I would like to have that information now for us to sort of consider and for those families to be talked to and and and are you looking at like the structured programs at the schools and considering which schools would be in which tier, right? And and which populations are going to be less impacted by a change like that. So, and again, I just I really I do appreciate that this is hard and there's no perfect
226solution and I I you know, nobody wants to hear about students being late and nobody right and then this opens up a whole other I think you know conversation which maybe you all [clears throat] are having that you know I'm not privy to or we're not privy to but you know are there other things that could be part of this broader conversation and maybe it's not a fixall and maybe moving to this bell schedule is is is you know the move no matter But no matter what school closures happen, no matter, you know, what reboundies could potentially happen, but it would be nice to have that bigger conversation and look at all of that as instead of like it feels like this is sort of happening in like kind of like this isolated silo or
227maybe you all are having that conversation, but it's not being presented to us that way. So it makes it really difficult to think about what even like collateral you know damage are we creating and are there other things we could be looking at. So I guess my again my biggest issue is again maybe you all are looking at that data. It would be really helpful for us to know more information about high schools, more information from the, you know, the the just parents and the community. And I also, you know, how many of our how many of our high school students are involved in before school practices that now are going to have to get up at god knows what time for for track or hockey or whatever it is that they're participating in. These
228are things that I I would like to know because I think that that's really going to impact those kids. And then does that result in right increased absenteeism, kids getting sick? I mean, there's just a whole slew of issues that I feel like the burden is is really shifting on high school. >> Any other comments, questions? Dr. Lynn. >> Um, so my mic's on. So I'll go ahead and follow up um one of Miss Swanie's comments of the question. So I think my question and comment is why are we not strategically coupling these changes with things like boundaries boundary adjust adjustments given we know some of our school boundaries are currently not ideal given those schools were built and those boundaries were structured in a way for the building but the building has and structure
229out especially past the 101 has changed. So why are we not coupling some of those changes simultaneously that we're able to communicate not only that there's going to be a bell time change, but there also may be a change to whether they're open or nonopen enrollment in that area. So I I know this is a larger conversation and I I feel like I'm worried that I don't have the information of what is our long-term plan. It feels like we're like let's just attack this little thing and not think big picture, but making this change will anger parents even if it has the best intention. and then making other changes down the road will again anger parents. And it feels like we're just going to keep angering parents by changing things about our pickup times or
230our routes or all of these different things. And why can't we do a simultaneous change at the same time so that we're communicating? Not only are you changing whether you're open enrollment, but also your bell time has changed or that these things are happening simultaneously. We get cohesive communication that is not just three months of communication because let's be honest, we only have three months to commun communicate with them because by May we're not communicating with parents. Be honest. I don't check my school emails. Like my my communication goes down in the summer. And so we're got to capture parents before they leave in May for a change that's happening at the beginning of the year. And that feels like too short of a window to do that, especially when we could be looking more
231long-term at substantial changes that have the most bang for our buck and may actually also save us money in that process and increase that that savings that we're doing by making these other incremental changes together at the same time. So, it's my comment question as to why we're not looking bigger picture here. So closing schools and bell-time changes being done simultaneously are sort of >> So I don't think I'm talking closing schools. I think I'm saying looking at our boundaries as they exist to make sure that these are the most ideal boundaries for our schools, >> right? which >> without a closure- >> which well so the boundary changes tend to come with school closures and as we've talked about as I've shared in previous meetings we do need to look at school closures again
232and and other board members have made statements related to that at this point in time those school closures would not likely happen until the 2728 school year so we'd be an additional year out before making any additional transportation efficiencies and we felt it was important that it was now the time to start to make some transportation efficiencies. Additionally, when we close schools and reboundry at the same time, it doesn't change it changes the way a route may look. It changes um maybe who might pick up the stop, but when we closed schools last time, it did not change necessarily the number of routes that we had. It just sort of changed who was transported and where they were transported to. So they are obviously related as it relates to the overall structure within a school
233district, but they don't necessarily need to be paired together. I >> I guess my question is why are we not looking at it to make sure that it doesn't need to be done? Like either you've done the assessment and you can tell me there's no need to change boundaries or we have not done the assessment and there aren't other cost savings elsewhere. Like it feels like if we're going to do one change, why do we not do multiple changes? If you have the data to show that this change is not necessary, then I'm happy to to support moving forward if we have all the data. But it feels like I'm given a small piece and told to ignore this other thing. And you're not actually answering my question because I'm not asking about school closures.
234I'm asking, have we assessed that our boundaries are ideal regardless of school closures? And if they aren't, then why are we not making those adjustments? or do we have that information that each school is feeding the best way into each school that surrounds it and are we boundaried correctly? >> So, when we last closed schools, we looked at all of our boundaries and made additional boundary adjustments uh in addition to school closures and that was just a couple of years ago >> to just our schools surrounding those closing schools or to all of our boundaries >> to there were some that were additional recommendations beyond schools that were closed as well. >> Anyone else have any comments? Mrs. Greenford. >> Um, I want to thank the committee again. This is a lot of work. We
235all know it was a lot of work and it's something that we obviously need to do. I It's really late and I'm probably not going to be massively coherent here, but I'll try. Um, I agree with some of my colleagues. I'm concerned about moving the high school start time, too. It's like, you know, all the research says later. So, it feels like we're going against the the the research grain there. Um, I know it's been a while, but you know, when my oldest was in high school, we were at the, you know, we we just hit the point where he could take the bus, but he would have had been on the bus for like an hour. And you know, we were he could walk it faster than that. And so, um, you know, the
236thought of even inching it 10 minutes up, um, is a little concerning to me. Um, you know, moving just looking at some of the other changes. I appreciate the, you know, the consolidation into three tiers. I think that's a great way to go, but it does feel like we're going to be putting some um you know, pretty substantial change on some of our schools. The the two um middle schools that are in tier three. Um I know you addressed Mountain Trail, but it I mean that's n excuse me, 50 minutes earlier for a start time. And then we potentially have uh that happening with um you know a small handful but some of our our elementaryaries and um and we don't [clears throat] even know which ones those are yet. So that's a little concerning
237to me because every as everybody has said you know we need to plan you know families need to plan for next year as well um and what that may potentially impact. So, um, as much as I appreciate all this and I I agree we need to do it, I am concerned about timing in terms of, you know, being able to adequately communicate the way we need to um to our families. So, just thoughts for the moment. >> Thank you, Mrs. Greenberg. Um, just a couple things I would say. Um, this is the timing we did use for school closures. So we thought that it would be a similar appropriate timing um for you know equally potentially as large of a measure as it uh was for school closures. Um there was some convers while there
238was conversation with the committee around the additional or earlier start time of high schools of 10 minutes. There was also a lot of conversation around already um with the tier 3 schools going until 3:40 and that being rather late in the day and there's study and research about those and so like I talked about at some point in the presentation. Um there's there's not a perfect solution here and the committee did try to balance all of those factors. They they really and truly did consider all of these pieces and believe that this is uh the best solution moving forward. they understand um that it does have some negative impact and making changes is never uh usually wellreceived. Um you know I I don't know if the committee's preference is to delay the elementaryaries and push
239them back to 350. Um I don't know I don't know what other what other lever to hit for you guys there. So I'm not sure. >> Dr. Lim. >> Yeah. So I I want to follow that up just thinking more strategically to if we move forward like with this. So so enrollment for things like mascot and that are going to come before this decision is made. So I kind of have two questions around there. Some of these schools may be our schools that fill up instantly and have insanely long wait list. So, how are we going to accommodate those families that suddenly need mascot because they may have a very earlier start time and their schools are at capacity either because we don't have the staff or the other reason I learned we're at capacity,
240those schools can't take any more students because of the DHS um limits at that school. So, they literally couldn't take any more students. So, uh, first would be kind of what are we going to do to help support those additional families that may need this and how are we going to message and support what is probably going to be a really hard year for those families because hopefully by the following year it's kind of worked itself out. But that first year is going to be very challenging. What steps are we taking to make sure those few elementary schools that are going to change do have the supports and the parents are getting exactly what they need without having to go to outside programs to bridge. >> Yep. So we um in fact um Natalie Wilcox
241was was on the committee so she was aware of potential changes um all along and so can as I was trying to mention this at the end of the presentation is what I was trying to refer to in terms of additional offerings for before and after school programs whether that be through community ed or uh before the bell and after the bell uh all of those considerations will be made for those schools. So, so in making decisions like this, I I don't feel super comfortable making the decision just being told, well, we're going to do it. It would be nice to see the plan of how we're going to do it, which does mean divulging what schools and what plans we have. And I get that's getting a ahead of the horse to approve this,
242but it really makes a hard time to make a decision where like we'll solve it. Well, we say we're going to solve a lot of things and they don't always get solved in the grand scheme of things. So it would be nice to see those solutions on paper and that these are the plans we have for these particular schools and we understand that this school's constraints are this and this is what our initial plan is for this and I know we may have to pivot but it would be good to have an understanding because that gives our principles the space to communicate right away versus being a little handwavy which I've already been in one of those meetings with the hand wavy the change might be coming but we don't know what it is and
243we don't know when it's coming and we don't know what it's going to look like. So, it actually is significantly impacting decisions that are being made at those schools. And then my other question is again about mascot. There may be families that choose to use mascot because they're Bell Time but now no longer need it the program. So, are we going to allow those parents to get back that $90 refundable fee? and are we going to make sure we communicate well to those sites that parents know that if they have selected to these programs, they may have three or four kids that they're using those programs for. That is a large sum of money they would get back by choosing not to use the program because the time now magically works for pickup and drop
244off for them in a way that didn't >> work before. >> Yep. That's certainly a possibility and we will be refunding um any of those fees at that time. >> Okay. >> Are there any other comments here? Um >> I just so um I appreciated the the questions from Dr. Lamb, you know, sort of further diving into, you know, are we looking at the do all of our sort of um boundaries and feeders make a lot of sense? Without calling out any particular schools, I can tell you that in my neighborhood um students who live on my same block can walk to one school, but they get picked up in a bus to go somewhere else. So I feel like I would enjoy and appreciate as a followup just some whether it's even bringing out
245some of the information that was come to right recommendations from when you all looked at boundaries the last time and what went into that because I and I you know I truly do believe that the everything was looked at but in my literally in my own community like I I watching kids get picked up at in a bus that could walk to the school. So, I just feel like this is where I I would appreciate really just kind of feeling like all of the data has been looked at, right? We're not missing some opportunities and maybe at the end of the day, maybe, you know, maybe there are other reasons, right, why you would pass on reboundering that have nothing to do with distance, right? I appreciate that. There's a lot of reasons why you
246might want to keep a cute certain community boundary for a certain school, but without without being privy to any of that information. Again, it just really kind of feels like we obviously we want to make sure that we're not missing anything. We're doing our due diligence and that there isn't anything that could potentially be on the table, right, to sort of try to offset some of this and provide maybe possibly even a sliver of another solution that doesn't involve right again like whether it's putting it on the high school or maybe maybe moving fewer elementary schools to that later time just just minimizing disruption wherever we can. So, I guess my ask would be, you know, as part of a follow-up, if there is that data that you've already done that great work, if if
247you could share that, I think that would be helpful or in advance in whatever way you think appropriate. >> I thought you asked a question. You're just make it's a comment. Yeah. For the uh the school choice seems to be a big problem with this because like you said, the kids could walk to school, but the parents choose to take up another school. >> No, that's not what I'm saying. >> Well, then what are you saying then? I'm saying that in my neighborhood every there are kids on my street who get picked up for to get in a bus to get transported to school when the geographic that they are that is their bounded school when geographically there is a closer school that they could walk to that their siblings go to the middle school
248right next to it for example. >> So sometimes we have special education students who are able to be picked up. So, >> I they're my neighbors. So, I just I wouldn't bring this up if I it's been mulling around in my head and I just would like to understand that if if we're saying we've looked at all of those things and there's nowhere to pick any right routes up or or consolidate whatever I just would like to be brought into that, you know, to have that same information. >> Thanks for clearing finding that for me. Yeah. Uh, any other comments? I just like the fact that that um we're talking about increasing instructional time. This whole thing will make our students have more time in the classroom and save us some money. There's some bugs
249that have to be worked out and I know that the committee is doing that, working at it. I really do agree about some of this high school startup times. I remember trying to get my daughter up in the mornings to go to high school back over there in Scottsdale. Forget about it. So yeah, I I get that and the studies have been showing that for a long time about high schools and their and their sleep cycles, but I appreciate the work and I look forward to what's going to happen next with this. Any other comments? All right. Thank you for your work and and all the time you put into this. I really appreciate it. I know we all really appreciate that. do um our next board meeting. Make sure I'm on the right page.
250Yes. Our next regularly before we adjourn, I would like to remind everyone that our next regular governing board meeting will be held on Thursday, February 12th, 2026 at 6:30 p.m. May I have a motion to adjurnn? >> So moved. >> Um okay. Okay. All in favor say of adjourn say I. >> I. >> All oppose say nay. >> Motion passes unanimously. We're adjourned.