August 10, 2023 Governing Board Regular Meeting

001e e e good I would like to call this meeting to order please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance followed by a Moment of Silence to honor the memories of and will and to to follow the memories of Les Thompson served pvusd as the D District's facility supervisor of construction and bond projects for 11 years Ms Tammy shank taught fourth grade Echo Mountain intermediate for the last 10 years Mr John ginty served pvusd as a facilities maintenance technician in facilities for 12 years Richard Deon served pvusd as a facilities main maintenance technician for 26 years and Ricky Rivas the second grade student at whisperin winds Academy please join me in the pledge I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for it stands one nation under

002God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you may I have roll call please Mrs Baker here Mrs Greenberg here Mrs Christensen here Mrs case here Mr panta here approval next on the agenda is approval of agenda Dr Bells thank you president casee 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 back of materials at least 24 hours prior to the meeting meeting and have time to review and consider all items prior to the agenda being adopted members of the governing board or audience may ask that an item be removed from the consent agenda and brought to the floor for discussion at the appropriate place on the

003agenda I would like to offer the agenda as posted with the following exceptions G3 from the consent agenda moved to items for approval G10 from the consent agenda to items for approval and G18 from the consent to items for approval does any member of the governing board wish to have an item removed from the consent agenda does any member of the audience wish to have an item removed from the consent agenda seeing none Mrs Baker may I have a motion to approve the meeting agenda and recommended consent agenda items so moved all those in favor say I I all those oppos say nay motion passes unanimously next on the agenda is governing board statements um Mrs Baker thank you president case first of all I just want to say welcome back everyone it's good to

004see everyone here um I hope everyone had a wonderful summer whether it was relaxing or adventurous or whatever you needed to get ready for the new school year and I hope everyone's back to school went smoothly I did hear from some teachers and principles and uh it sounds like everyone's had a fairly smooth back to school um over the summer I had the opportunity to attend the um all admin day it was mission possible it was a really cool day I got to know um some of the cabinet members better some admin better I learned more about the district and the roles of our administrators as well as their day-to-day responsibilities and goals so I was really excited to have that opportunity I also had the opportunity to go to the new um certified employee

005orientation pvea did a fantastic job at educating our new certified staff about our district professional development policies and what it means to be a pvea member and it was like it was just so much fun to welcome all the new faces and employees to our district uh I just want to end um my comments on this one note that when we are discussing topics and asking questions we we should remember that just because something is our experience doesn't mean it's everyone's experience every single person family child is going through something whether we know about it or not and we need to be mindful as we make statements make decisions um because we don't always know or understand what each person is going through empathy humanity and kindness should always be at the Forefront of our

006words our choices and our decisions thank you thank thank you Mr panta thank you again welcome everyone uh new school year uh it's kind of a different for me all the time getting used to not going back to the classroom again um that that whole anxiety and all the rush of of having to go and I don't have to so I'm still getting used to that one thing I try to do to normalize it for me is um the one tradition I can still carry on is joining the PTSA at my school I used to teach at for 20 years uh over 20 years at Eagle Ridge Elementary School uh the um staff even said oh it must be beginning of school year Mr panta is in the office signing up for PTSA glad to

007be part of their normal normal way of things I this time for the first year though I joined the PTO at Boulder Creek which I live five Street houses down from that school I said I should be part of that Community too because it's all about community Community Schools if you want to know your neighbors you want to know your community you want to see who's out there join your PTSA join your PTO the people that live and work and hang out in the neighborhood you live in find out who your children play with find out what their parents are like uh volunteer for their events it's very rewarding uh I one of my favorite is at Eagle Ridge where they have the holiday books where you come and read holiday books they have hot

008cocoa I love the hot cocoa part uh cookies that sort of thing and all kinds of events when I first started teaching back in 1978 they say oh here's the rookie teacher PTSA there made sure that I was part of their fundraiser for the beginning of the year which involved a dunk tank yeah so uh you know clown face in the dunk tank I enjoyed it but I had a feeling that I was kind of had a Target on me uh when they saw me walk in the building that year please reach out to your community join participate get to know everybody and we'll be all of us stronger for it thank you thank you Mrs Greenberg thank you Mrs case um also had the opportunity to attend um one of the two sections of

009our certified um orientation and and like Mrs Baker I want to congratulate pbaa uh all the officers all the members it was phenomenal it was great to see the new teachers I want to thank Dr Holmes and the HRC staff as well um for the collaborative effort that goes into putting that program on um also um had the opportunity um to participate in some interviews with some of our Educators this summer who were taking Master's classes and you know beyond just just knowing that you know we like to tell our students to be lifelong Learners knowing that our teachers are lifelong Learners is is um a phenomenal uh piece of of um being part of a district like PV and it was it was an interesting these are um Educators who are taking are in

010a master's program for educational leadership and so it was just interesting to find out what types of classes they're taking what types of questions they need answered um you know understanding the the role of a of a school board member for example and it was and I just want to say I really appreciate the opportunity and again I just you know welcome back um new school year is always amazing uh my now daughter-in-law is a high school math teacher in Virginia and she just started back this week as well so it it just feels great to say welcome back thank you Mrs Christensen good evening everyone and and thank you all for coming it's always so nice to see so many people get involved in these meetings to to hear your voices and to see

011your faces out there um I as well as um many of the Schoolboard members did attend the um new teacher new educator and certified employee orientation and it was wonderful to meet some of the new teachers so I saw some um some smiles and some anxiety and some fear in their eyes but it was all good because they they looked like they were ready to to get started and and so it's was fun to meet a lot of them I we also a few of us got to participate in um summer graduation that was really cool I had never um participated in we we were able to participate in graduations at the big high schools at the end of the school year but to see the achievement of these kids that some of them didn't

012think and and it was funny some of them had even said my parents didn't think I can do it but I did it so it was great to see a lot of those kids that have come that have come and and maybe struggled a little bit but but did complete their their graduation um as we embark on a new school year I look forward to um meeting new people hearing your concerns touring more schools and um I'm just so grateful to all of the people here because I as an elected official we represent you whether or not I agree with all your positions or not we all we all represent you and so it's it's great to see you guys getting involved and and being part of this um and when I was running and

013even now I I I've had three goals that I wanted to share and and I and I continue to um support the academic goals of our students is the number one academic achievement um to support Educators and try to help put more dollars into our classrooms and then to support our parents Bill of Rights to support parents um partnering with teachers to um raise academic outcomes for our students so thank you all for coming today thank you I I have a couple comments um I was gone most of the summer and when I was home I was sick but I um as I was traveling I always pay attention to schools and I saw some really amazing I almost brought them and showed pictures of them from Alaska of of little tiny school houses and

014and the importance of Education 100 years ago and I've always paid attention to those kinds of things but especially since I've been on the school board and yesterday as I was traveling traveling through Northern Arizona I saw school buses and I thought you know it goes on and we continue to have try to educate our students the best we can and I'm so grateful for the opportunities our students have to get a wonderful education and for the devotion of our teachers and I welcome everyone back as they started this new year and I also wanted to make a comment I'm not trying to say this to be negative I just want you to think about it because I don't have children in the schools anymore and so this is up to the community to choose

015but the last calendar chose to have early start and to have a fall break and a fall break time you'll really like it but you have to think now was it worth it to start early so I just want you to think about that and it was all that's not what we wanted that was from the surveys that was from the committee that they were following what the people said but I just want you to think about it I've never been one to want to start early school year I've been very consistent on that for over 24 years 25 years I've been really consistent on not having early start times because I want family reunions to take place and I've had nephews who went to MIT for special math instruction and I don't want to

016take away summertime opportunities so anyway with that said I wish everyone a fabulous year and I hope that everyone is just successful and that we have great outcomes and our students learn and especially that our younger children learn to love to read that is so important um there are no Awards and recognitions on the agenda tonight and so we are going to next on the agenda is call to the public please look at the video monitors for this next section call to the public is about to convene this portion of today's meeting allows the public the opportunity to address the governing board although state law does not require that the governing board hold a call to the public The Paradise Valley Unified School District and its board have chosen to do so because we believe

017it's important to hear about concerns and issues from our community while call to the public is not designed to be a discussion the board is here to listen due to Arizona open meeting law the governing board cannot respond to discuss or take any action on items brought up during this time however staff members may be directed to get back to you and address individual concerns as a reminder the point of this and every board meeting is to accomplish the business at hand and to be able to do so in an open and collaborative way all in attendance are expected to observe meeting rules as well as rules of politeness and decorum so that we may serve as an example to our students that issues can be discussed in a respectful and civil [Music] manner tonight

018we have six people who have submitted comment cards prior to the start of the meeting each speaker will have three minutes for remarks those who have asked to speak on the agenda items will be recognized at the appropriate time during the meeting 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 tonight will be Anne Evans and followed by Diane Neeman thank you it's been a long time since I've stood in front of a board and talked to you I am a former employee of 39 years with the Scottsdale School District so your former principal or superintendents were friends of mine so it feels just weird tonight to be here so thank you very much

019for this opportunity um as a counselor my concerns always were with the students and their and their needs so I have I want to address the work based learning placement I think it's a wonder it sounds like a wonderful program and I'm really happy that you're instituting that but I'm got a few questions number one is um in reading about the program July it says it started July 1st 2023 that you are going to and it runs to June 20th 2028 so you're doing both a consideration and approval when it's already looks like it's started on July 1st so I'm a little confused about that did you take bid and my question is did you take bids for that um learning program did you look for other um folks to do that or is this

020something that you've done many years with this group or is that anyway is that new um what is Elevate experience how long have they been in operation and what's this costing the district is is this limited to a certain group of students it says it's the CTE magnet program it sounds like that's only for those students the rest of the students would not be eligible for this program and I've got two more questions I'm confused uh it says it promotes a relationship between employee and School District I'm really concerned about the student what's the relationship that the district or this program has with the student uh where does the student come in and the fifth question is it says um is it talks about the scope of the services when I looked on the website

021of this uh of this group it says that they do internships in education in financial services in engineering and business but when you have in your minutes here it says the scope of ser services and it just lists clinic so I'm I'm wondering is it are you only doing this for those students that are interested in professions possibly in the in the sciences and not in the rest of these that this program offers so I would ask you to make those considerations as you discussed tonight whether you approve or disapprove this thank you thank you next is Diane Neiman followed by Nicole flut hi Bor um thank you for the opportunity to let us speak tonight and um my first uh someone mentioned uh the new teachers uh and they're being nervous and such and

022uh my my heart really goes out to teachers I am a teacher in church I teach Sunday school and I'm working on a craft for Sunday that will support the um the subject matter um Jesus healing the paralytic man so anyway the thing that I really want to do is encourage teachers to have a um a really uh Hands-On with the kids to help them and that they would get better test results we know the test scores are low uh all through Arizona uh and I think that um they want to encourage them to see the long-term effect of of just doing mediocre work they could have more of a a tendency to have uh quality um opportunities for scholarships or in this one thing that um an has mentioned is this elevated program education

023foreshadowing program so that they can learn a a trade or something um but they have to already be um doing well have good attendance and so I just think the I'd like to see that the teachers are encouraged to really help uh the students and I can remember back when I was in school I was in high school and the first assignment in the English class I had an advaned English class writing uh class and the teacher asked me uh asked for us to do a paper on our experience of the for the summer and um I remember I wrote a a letter about how we had a kind of a we were out on the lake and we really it was hero it was a um but anyway she made so many comments to

024this day I can remember the comments that she made on that paper they were encouraging I got an A minus um I thought why didn't I get just an A but anyway I just I just really want to encourage that that we get more focus on teachers um and that they can make such an impact on kids so I wanted to be a history major because of one of my history teachers and I I just think sometimes we we were looking at a lot of extraneous things but kids need to get that reinforcement that encouragement from a teacher and um so that that's one of the things um I want us wanted to mention and another thing is I would uh agree with the president that said Nancy K said to delay the start of

025school I think it's so hot and I worry about the the tires on the buses I just wor I think it's you know especially this summer summer was a really a difficult time to be going back to school when it's so hot and it hasn't rained since March where I live and I do live here I have three children that graduated from this area thank you very much for your time thank you n Nicole kwick followed by David Hickman Hicks I can't read his right um make sure this is at the right spot hi I'm Nicole kwick um as you know I have uh now I have two graduates from um this district from Horizon and then I have one uh sophomore um as I Was preparing for the meeting and going through the agenda

026um I had some comments that don't really necessarily they they apply to several agenda items it's kind of a a little theme that's going through here and it's really just the request for some more transparency in two specific areas uh the first one is on school closure boundary committee meeting I went and looked at the committee meeting minutes and literally this is it that's it I mean there's who's here and welcome and the purpose of the meeting but in terms of what they talked about this is it it's four bullet points as general as you can be and they specifically say in small groups discuss well within those you know what are your concerns nothing to actually inform the public and inform parents and stakeholders of what this process is going on it's it's um

027it's a boilerplate thing to just fulfill a requirement but it's not transparent and it's not giving us what we need which made me then as I was looking through at our construction update Wonder have we already made decisions do we as parents just not know that because I'm seeing that we spent $1.2 million on flooring um and mill work in addition to I don't know how much on parking lot I think a couple hundred, plus I think another couple hundred ,000 on playground for Liberty alone Liberty is on that list and they don't look great in terms of their numbers and yet we put at least over 1.5 million and we don't know if that school is even going to be a school in two years that doesn't seem responsible unless you already know what

028the decision is so I don't know what the answer is I don't know if it's irresponsible I don't know if you guys already know decisions I I don't know but that's what I mean by transparency is so that your constituents have a better idea of what's going on um the same thing at Vista birie the second thing is is bonds um I do appreciate that you guys are going out for a bond um but I want to call attention to the fact that you guys had 20 I think it was 40 270 I don't remember the amount five years ago and on your website you only detail 25 million that's been sent we don't know where the rest of it went 16 million went to Palamino but in this new Bond if you go on

029the same rate 340 million over for five years um that's you said that of that 250 million will go towards building and land which means $50 million per year on building and construction and land or whatever now remember palamina was 16 million and that consisted of a total remodel an interior remodel minor remodel of building a and b and a complete tear down and rebuild of a huge two-story classroom facility thank you next is David Hickman followed by Leo I don't know how to say this michelis maybe evening Dave Hixon um well first I want to pass out this letter to it's a notice um that I'm putting the district on uh concerning gender identity ideology and I do not I demand that this not be uh disseminated in the in this district and particularly

030to my daughters um I was up here last year concerning a book that uh uh so you've been publicly shamed and uh apparently you you uh didn't address the problem it came back a second time and so I bought that book and bought it used so um was very disturbed by the language in there um I did send an email out last month requesting a couple matters be discussed that I'm going to touch on here and I didn't get any response um I did get confirmation thank you Dan um but um I'm hoping that it just one person that hears what I have to say um who isn't aware of the evil evil that we are confronted with and our children our children are confronted with um they they actually start taking an objective look

031at what's going on I read this book bought another used copy of this garbage called gender queer it's a book it's a cartoon cartoons um this is Nea recommended reading um I don't know if any of you have actually read this cartoon strip of disgusting material um but I recommend you do and again that's why I distributed this letter out um um just graphic graphic language here um talking about and the sword and blood on toilets uh here's oral sex being performed so I I I ask this is for our Educators recommended reading and our Educators obviously are going to turn around and talk to our students our children and the the premise of this book essentially is question your identity and pursue gender identity uh and potentially change your uh sexual um get get

032the surgery done I guess so I want to demand that the board publicly condemn this material um consider consider it condoning if you do not it's too bad I don't have more time Leo micholas followed by Gina Griffith hello uh dear governing board members uh dear parents and other attendees my name is Leo mikis and I live in the greyh har neighborhood North Scottsdale I happen to be a pristin committee man in the legislative district 3 but more than anything I'm a father of two wonderful kids going to elementary school I have become a prison committee man because I realize that I need to step up into the political process because of the lack of accountability and or Common Sense on the side of those who are supposed to defend our rights as their constituents

033there seems to be a disconnect there um we have elected these people but if the disconnect continues and they don't stand for what their constituents request or what their parents want need um then they are aiding to the higher forces of the establishment at some point they will simply be selected by those running the country possibly a single party Monopoly which is called dictatorship or totalitarian system speaking of a totalitarian system I was born in socialist dictatorship in Eastern Europe maybe the worst one in Europe given the oppressions it achieved and the lack of Freedom so what does freedom have to do with school and education one might ask well in regards to the content of what would be taught in schools may be not very much but uh if there is common sense then

034the content uh that will be taught will not very a lot even if politically the country is governed by a totalitarian regime Sciences will still be Sciences two plus two will stay four and and so on the area where things would change in a social is the social and political studies uh Sciences um the common sense that free people know to be normal will be different in an oppressed Society the common sense is to shut up your mouth and Obey in an oppressed Society it's common to not have anything bad or controversial to say towards the ruling class actually I'm wrong you can say that once or twice then they will throw you and maybe your family in jail for as long as they decide is good no common sense as we know it it

035will die off no justice one might ask now is it possible that the whole nation can change from being open and happy to being oppressed and hateful towards each other well it doesn't happen overnight it transitions towards less and less Freedom by implementing more and more limitations in an oppressed Society you don't have the freedom to go to a school board meeting and issue honest concerns as a citizen and the board members take your concerns into consideration in how they Implement their policies or create such in an oppressed Society a school board would get their guidelines from from above from the ruling class or their minions the policies are made high above and they water to fall down to each School you are told what you have to do and as a citizen you just

036have to obey why am I mentioning all these facts well it will probably take another two minutes finish okay I appreciate that no yeah Gina griffus good evening president case governing board members Dr Bales and cabinet I think everyone forgot what the appropriate greeting is tonight but welcome back to the 2023 school year my name is Gina Griffith and I'm a parent who actually lives in the Paradise Valley Unified School District and I have children that attend school here I have a beautiful 20-year-old transgender daughter who graduated from pbhs a wonderful senior with an IEP at pvhs and a seventh grader at Sunrise he's also fantastic sad note I'm going to miss Whispering Wind that school's amazing but I have to leave it um so we're having a great start to the school year I

037wanted to let you guys know that the only thing that's an issue and they're handling it well is there there's a shortage of teachers and I think we all know that we're doing better than a lot of the other schools and I'm very impressed with how sunrise and PV are handling it but I wanted to talk for a minute about what that means we lost a teacher at Sunrise that my older kids had she was amazing she left over the summer because teachers are leaving because they're being vilified because good teachers want to teach all the students good teachers want to embrace the student meet the student where they are provide equity and a strong foundation for kids to grow up into well-educated successful inclusive adults and yall have so many teachers doing that but

038unfortunately there's a national and a local dialogue happening that's turning that into something bad when teachers want to want to give these little humans tools to be successful everyone's coming and attacking them and we're hearing it here tonight I'm so proud that this district has provided Equitable Fair inclusive education to my children who have different needs and don't fit into societal boxes and you're doing a great job and I just wanted to say thank you and I want you to keep doing it I want you to do it for all the other students as well thank you very much next on the agenda is superintendent comments Dr Bells thank you president case governing board members cabinet and guests welcome back as my friend and Mentor would say at this time of the year happy New

039Year on behalf of PB schools welcome to the 2324 school year and this first full week of school has been great uh in many ways some challenges still remain but our first full week I'm happy to announce was off to a great start I had the opportunity to visit uh several of our schools on the first day as did members of the cabinet all schools were visit visited by at least one of us that very first day and of course uh we saw many shining smiling faces that very first day lots of enthusiasm of course I did see a few tears too mostly parents dropping off their first born however the staff was very supportive and comforting to those parents and took really good care of them and their students all day so on behalf

040of our teachers our support staff and administrators a special thank you uh to our families for choosing PB schools together we're going to make it a great year speaking of that first day I hosted a segment for our district podcast PVB called Kinder viws if you have had a chance to listen along today I hope that you will if you haven't and in this segment I interviewed some of our very youngest and newest members of The Paradise Valley School District our kindergarteners their honest answers were so refreshing and really highlighted why we do what we do in PB schools after all we are a premier education destination and want to encourage and support and our youngest students to empower them for a lifetime of success and the journey of Excellence is well underway for those

041future doctors scientist and of course even the video Gamers that I got in an answer you can listen to the first day of school festivities by listening to PB be on Apple or and Spotify over the summer we received some terrific information about student performance this spring and while some of the information is Yet to Come regarding uh School uh letter grades District letter gr and set later in September or October uh we were notified and are celebrating 458 students who had perfect scores on the Arizona academic standards assessment taken this last school year the aasa is the Statewide achievement test for all Arizona public students in grades 3 through eight and each year the students are tested in the areas of English language arts and Mathematics and PB schools is proud to announce that

042the Stellar results in including 105 who received perfect scores for ELA 400 received perfect scores in math and 47 achieved perfect scores in both Ela and math congratulations to those students and families for a job well done recently I had the opportunity to jump into the driver's seat of one of our thankfully airconditioned school buses uh to get a firstand look at how great our bus driver training program is implemented as you know we have a variety of open positions within the district and our bus driver positions are certainly one we'd like to fill applying is just half the process though and we know that applicants may be nervous about joining the team because driving a bus can be a little intimidating well I'm here to tell you our buses ride smoothly and in the

043hands of our trainers any nerves a future driver may feel can be calmed it was a great experience uh that I'm happy to share with our community through our district podcast PVB and through our social media channels that little three minute video was released today I encourage you to go check it out please make sure that you like comment and share and help us recruit more members to our team finally as our mission moment in PB schools we engage we Inspire we nurture students through high quality instruction meaningful educational opportunities and dynamic learning experiences doing this requires a community a team of parents Guardians students staff and The Wider voting Community who makes significant impact on our lives of our students through their generous support of bonds and overrides as we head into the new

044school let's not forget we're here our mission I'd like to thank our entire Community for the things that you do to help and not harm to lift up not tear down and to support not impede Student Success here in Paradise together we can make a difference in the students lives and together we can Empower all learners for a lifetime of success those conclude my comments president case thank you Dr Bells we will have the three consent um items that we took off three 10 and 18 be placed after our other uh consideration and approval items so next on the agenda is items for approval the first item is consideration and approval of the governing board 2023 board Norms so um we have made a few um revisions to what we had had in the norms

045and um I don't it says if we have any applicable but we don't have any so I have a motion yeah may I have a motion to to approve the 2023 board Norms as as presented so moved thank you any board Miss uh member wishing to make a comment on the board Norms Mrs Christensen thank you president case um we had discussions on this earlier in January we were going to um have it but we decided to push it back I had a real hard time with at item number three lead a district of equity and access we did end up collaborating and working on um a definition because I don't know um we didn't have a definition for equity and um as as I was um reviewing and reading through these um I think

046what I'm having a hard time with is is um the connotation that comes with say Equity because to me Equity is not not fair and it's um giving different people different items for instance um we we voted early earlier this year um there was a tiered approach to um we were going to do some furlows for different teachers and different um we had different levels of Furlow and somebody had made a comment that's not Equitable well actually that's exactly what Equity means it's giving different outcomes to different situations for the same thing another example would be teacher pay so the teacher our teachers here in PV have a certain salary if you go to a different District that maybe have a um higher or a lower socioeconomic area such as Mesa or Phoenix Union their

047teachers tend to get paid higher but they're doing the same job that's equity and so this is what I have a hard time with um we did Define it so it it helped me get through this because we weren't going to get past the board Norms without um having some agreement but I I just would as a district I would just like to see us start calling our students students and not lettino students or based on the color of their skin or their gender because they all deserve love and respect and to have a high level of Education um everybody does and same with the teachers they all deserve respect and to but I I would like us to to start as a district just treating everybody um with a high level of respect and

048not having these different Equitable um items but but we did come up with a definition so equity in our district means that each student receives what they need to develop their full potential and I think as a group we we all came to that um definition it does not mean equal outcomes because that's impossible you can't give equal outcomes to people with different levels of um education and different different struggles so that's all I wanted to say thank you are there any other comments um i' just like to say the reason we have these board Norms so that we can be professional in what we do and that we can all strive to try to do what's best for the children in our district um so with that said all those in favor say I

049I I all those opposed say nay the motion passes unanimously thank you next on the agenda is the governing board to discuss and may consider actions to approve the Arizona School boards Association asba asb's draft of the 2024 political agenda and direct the district's delegate to the asba delegate assembly to represent the board's determined position so an would you want to riew kind of how Mrs greenber you're not oh wait who is the delegate this year Mr P that would be me yes okay you haven't done it before if Mrs Greenberg if you need to jump in and add anything to it because you've done it before I yes I have many times so Mr penter do you want to make any statement well I know we talked about all these um uh asba ASA

050um items we discussed it we decided which ones we had common ground as a board to support and when I go as a delegate I'll support the things that we all agreed on were the things that our district of the whole um agenda that they presented these are the ones that we as a board want to focus on I've got them written down you should all have them written down somewhere too right the the the five items we had well I mean we go they they discuss it we um it's a delegate assembly thing it's it's where everyone shows up and votes on and discusses the political agenda maybe I'm wrong with this so help me out with that would you Mrs Greenberg well once you get to the the assembly you'll actually be looking

051at everything right so the question simply become it's not simply what we you know that was asking for input so that the legislative committee could then take input from all member districts who decided they would provide input and then you know meet and decide what they wanted to do so if someone tries to change that at the assembly it can still happen yet yeah that's what I'm saying I'm going to defend the things that we've discussed upon and not try to add anything that we have not as a board agreed on altogether maybe that's why I didn't speak it properly and and I and I would also just um suggest that you know realize that somebody may come in with something we didn't talk about at all but that you know you and if Mrs

052Baker is there as the alternative and you text each other and have a little discussion may decide that it is appropriate to support based on what's come up so be uh be ready for almost anything right exactly okay pretty much just like a board meeting sometimes pretty much I thank you for that are there any other comments Miss Mrs Christensen oh I'm sorry you're right we need a motion I apologize may I have a motion to for this please so moved thank you um are there any other comments Mrs Christensen yeah I just um i' had mentioned this before but I don't I don't think that we should have a political agenda in Schoolboard Association I just I don't like the term so I was happy not to be the delegate because I um but

053I I really would like us to return to to trying to be in the Middle where we all there's a a lot that we don't agree on but there is a lot of stuff and I think we all want our kids to be successful I had a hard time with their list because a not a lot of them were focusing on academic achievement which is why education exists um and so I I really don't think we should have political agendas in in a School Board Association meeting and in the schools um but yeah but but we got to add our own so I was happy because we focused on I think we had one point that we added that focused on academic achievement that was not on their list so any other comments Mrs Baker

054yeah so this is only a political agenda because public schools are politics I mean there's no beating around that our money comes from lawmakers the rules I'm sorry it's my turn excuse me point of order this is this is the board discussing this thank you um teachers jobs are political the money comes from the legislature laws governing education comes from the legislator and comes from the federal government and so this agenda just goes to prioritize public education local control at the board level it does prioritize student outcomes educator retention and funding for our schools and while not everyone agrees on everything on here so much of IT addresses the needs of our schools our teachers our staff the issues that our students are facing and it focuses on requiring accountability for taxpayer dollars which I

055think I've heard here in other meetings accountability is a priority for so many of us and this agenda focuses on that and so everything we do is around politics what and I'm not saying it's democrat or republican I'm saying it's because our jobs are affected by laws and our lawmakers and this PO this political agenda just drives how we want to approach education in the state of Arizona thank you okay thank you any other comments over here Mr pent I have to agree with what a lot of what Mrs baker said is that um sometimes people when they see it's political agenda they think of a party they think of one side or another but this is just a political process the way laws are designed for us to do things anytime somebody come I've

056said this before anytime someone walks up here with a yellow card or a blue uh paper to address us that's participating in the political process voting is part of part of the political process you all vote so if you don't want to have politics and education don't vote for Education if you don't want to be politically active with or have politics by that definition don't come up and talk to the board because that's part of the political process uh it's not about a party it's about doing whatever we can anything we can to make sure that the common desires of all the parents of this District can be met the common desires so our students can do all the things we want them to be able to do here not about a party it's about

057the laws and the ones that'll most help our students advance and do better and maybe opposing the ones that are going to put roadblocks in their way that's what we're all about here and that's what this organization is about Mrs Greenberg yeah um having served and actually LED this committee for several years and and served as a delegate to it as well um I do just want to reiterate that what the purpose of this is to provide IDE the government relations staff of the Arizona school boards association with direction should issues Arise at the legislature that these items pertain to um it then you know it gives them a road map as to what the association would like them to discuss with legislators want to use the word Lobby that's appropriate as well um I

058think advocacy is a good word as well that's what this is and in any given Year many of these things don't come up but if they do that's that is how Chris and his staff move forward because they know what the will of the association is that's what this is about thank you any other comments Mrs Christensen so yes I understand that schools are political that's why I ran for Schoolboard because generally they're political but only left leaning political and and there's a lot of people that are in the middle um and on more maybe more conservative that that um don't want some of these Political Items that the Arizona School Board Association are pushing for example um on requiring accountability for taxpayers support policy that that encourages all eligible voters to exercise their right

059to participate in elections what does that have to do with schools that and that's what some that the Arizona Schoolboard Association is pushing and as I mentioned um I I'm for all the students in the district and I'm I'm not against any community in our district I think we again as I mentioned we all need to have um high expectations I'm not against any item but in item one number 9 39 they say support policy that protects School District employ and students from discrimination they should have just stopped there because nobody should be discriminated against not one person but they go on to say including on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity and again I don't um think those individuals should be bullied or discriminated against absolutely not none of us do but

060why call out just one population um all our children deserve good education love and respect thank you um I'd like to make a comment because this will help you understand my vote in a few minutes I took some screenshots so that I could do it more quickly um in under 411 it says support legislation and access to funding that would allow school districts to offer School meals to all students free of charge I'm sorry I disagree age with that that's just something I disagree with but and here's another one that they had maintain exclusive local authority over any measure that would prop propose to consolidate and or unify any number of school districts into a larger District um I was raised in Central Phoenix and in Central Phoenix they have uh Elementary District and a

061high school district and I think Unified District are better for kids I really truly do and I think it saves money and I think it would be better for education so because of those two bases I'm going to not vote for these and but I would say there are a lot of things that I support that are in there there's a lot of mandated things from the government that I should think if they're not going to give us money to pay for What's mandated they shouldn't mandate it un unfunded mandated things I don't think should happen but I think there should be great local control but I also think it should be done um uh responsibly saving the most of money and I think that's one of the things that I think District should be

062K12 because I think kids get a better education as we do in Paradise Valley I've always appreciated the um Paradise Valley being a K12 District so um without further Ado uh unless there's any other comments um all those in favor say I I I all those uh oppose say Nay Nay Nay that's three eyes and two Nays next on the agenda is Dr Bells thank you president case governing board members cabinet and guests tonight we present approval memorandum of understanding between Touchstone Health Services and Paradise Valley Unified School District for the school year 2324 Dr Dr jerus president case members of the board Dr Bale's cabinet and guests tonight I present to you a memorandum of understanding with Touchstone Health Services this mou is being established in connection with SB 1523 which is also known

063as Jake's law and as you approve two of these Partnerships in the in June this will be our third partnership under this legislation this agreement will allow our schools the ability to refer students to this agency with parent permission and in accordance with the guidelines of Jake's law and we recommend your approval thank you um may I have a motion to approve resolution 548 memorandum of understanding between Touchstone Health Services and Paradise Valley Unified School District for the year 2023 to 2024 so moved any board member wishing to make a comment Mrs Christensen I think the schools should um focus on education and we we're it's a slippery slope when we try to be all things to all kids and I I do I would like all our children to be have have wellness and

064be healthy but we are we are a school district we're not a mental health facility we are not a um healthc care provider and when we do these Partnerships it's a slippery slope we had this discussion couple months ago same thing these Partnerships it worries me and I know you were all saying well you need parental approval you need parental approval but there are some some areas when um that parental approval can be revoked and when and and I can't remember the term I think it's um Loco parente I don't remember the I wrote it down I left my notes in the in my vehicle but um there are some cases where um if there are some concerns parental rights can be taken away or revoked or and and when you have these types of

065facilities and Partnerships it's it's just I I I don't like it I'm very uncomfortable with that and um I think education should stay in their Lane and educate our children and not try to do mental and physical health for everybody Mrs Baker uh just to clarify this is to comply with a law correct for access to funding for for families in need okay so so this would be political because it's a law that we have to follow so are you saying Mrs Christensen you would like to not follow the law this partnership I'm not saying I would not follow the law what I'm saying is the more when we keep doing these Partnerships it's it's a slippery slope and um it's it's one step closer to taking away parental rights we had a new speaker

066today and they were talking about um socialism and um being from a country that were you know it starts with just inching inching and making government run schools big and providing everything to every child and I I have a hard time um you know if if we were doing the best job possible and we had the best education system Yeah by all means companies do that when you're doing great absolutely expand out but we you know we're struggling we're struggling to um our test scores and teachers we don't have enough teacher support so there are things that we need to fix in our district before we keep expanding out to try to but this excuse me your interrup no actually I asked you a question I asked you a question and you took up a

067lot of time I just wanted to know if you wanted to with the law that's all I asked yes I I want to comply with the law so we have children from low-income families who don't have access to mental health care and this is all done with parental con consent we have students whose parents cannot get them to therapy we have students whose parents do not have insurance this provides can we do some sort of point of order or something excuse me you can't make com comments from the the audience this is a discussion of the school board yes go ahead thank you president case um and it's very explicit in our mou that this is done with parental consent a parent losing rights is completely separate from this and I know that in my

068classroom and when I was teaching my some of my students relied on this for the mental health services that they needed and the teachers in this partnership it's spelled out in theou that the students are given time to make up their assignments they are given um time to get the lesson that they missed this is an agreement between the school district and these mental health services to ensure that all of our children and all of our families in our district have what they need and I mean to me that is just so important to be able to provide that for all of the children in our school district plus plus it's following the law which is very important to me um I have a question for Dr jarus could you tell me why did this

069come before the board what was the impetus be behind it could you explain it in a little bit more detail please why would we bring this mou to the board yes for because this is a sensitive subject that does involve students being treated or considered for treatment for mental health and so we consider it a transparency issue that should be discussed and uh put to the public uh conversation okay and is there a need for this with our students oh yes you know the last time we talked about how certain student behaviors are are are certainly in the way but uh we're not talking about talking too much or or you know my student doesn't move around we have students coming to us with severe anxiety that makes it difficult for them to even get

070out of the car in the morning we have uh students who are having suicidal ideations uh and self harm through cutting as early as fourth grade uh we have parents who consistently come to us saying we don't know what to do to help our child uh and this provides us with a area to point him to uh once the referral is over uh it's between them and the provider uh for treatment for their child and and how that happens thank you um I myself have a a grandson who utilize these and a very my daughter is very aware and very concerned and works with her child but she needed extra help and I so appreciate that the school was able to give extra help to my grandson and I had a nephew who committed suicide

071and if we can help a child I am all for it knowing that the parent is giving parental consent and that's what I appreciate this any other comments over here well yes the way I understood this law came about because parents and parent groups brought it to the legislature to be for it to happen this is not something some politician somewhere came up with out of the blue a lot of parents wanted this and needed that access um especially the ones that can't afford it that's and it's very expensive expensive for mental health you don't have insurance yes very very expensive okay so let's go ahead and have a vote on this can I make one more comment um very quickly please yes um a lot of these students do have do have health care

072help with access Etc um and and I'm not saying that we shouldn't follow the law but there there are a lot of resources out there for different individuals it would be better in a referral type manner rather than having these Partnerships thank you um Mrs Greenberg yes um Dr jerus this is a referral situation correct that's exactly what this is the uh governor duy and the legislator set aside $8 million uh for families to have access to services that are being uh housed by access so in order for families to have access to that money the referral by law has to come through a school setting so uh access has those services and Mone is available for uh for these families but they can't access it unless it comes through a school referral thank you

073thank you for that explanation okay so all those in favor say I I all those opposed say nay and any extensions abstain abstain motion passes with four eyes and one abstention next on the agenda is Dr Bells president case governing board members cabinet and guests and tonight we present an exciting mou a memorandum of understand between St Marie basid that's right a school in France and Paradise Valley Andi school district for a cultural Exchange program for the 2324 school year Dr Corson would you please explain president case members of the board cabinet and guests this memorandum of understanding as Dr Bales pointed out is a new agreement between our dist district and St Marie bed a school from France to provide uh our school district and specifically Pinnacle high school students an engagement in an

074Intercultural experience 24 students from France will visit Pinnacle high school for two days as part of a 13-day visit to Arizona sometime in October or November these students will also attend Pinnacles athletic events as available these students will be partnered with uh Pinnacle high school students who are also learning the French language language these interactions both in French language and culture will benefit PB students in authentic communication while also expanding French students exposure to English and American culture this mou has been reviewed by legal council and we do recommend approval thank you um may I have a motion to approve res resolution number 547 a memorandum of understanding between everybody matter oops did I skip that I excuse me I apologize may I have a motion to approve resol resolution number 543 an agreement between

075Paradise Val Valley Unified School District and St Marie Bes I'm saying that wrong I'm sure for a student cultural Exchange program as presented so moved thank you all those in favor oh are there any comments I think this is really exciting um all those in favor say I I I all those opposed say nay any extensions thank you motion passes unanimously next on the agenda is Dr Bells thank you president in case comany board members tonight we present for approval of memorandum of understanding between everybody matters and the Paradise Valley Unified School District for the 2324 school year this is a continuation of a previously approved moou Dr jerus is available to answer any questions we do recommend approval thank you um may I have a motion to approve resolution number 547 a memorandum of

076understanding between everybody matters and Paradise Valley Unified School District for school year 2023 2024 as presented so moved any board member wishing to make a comment Mrs Christensen I looked at this in detail it looks like a great opportunity for our students especially um for those that might want to go into college or others that want to do trade CTE types so it um I think this My Links aren't working I think it's is this the right one no this is everybody me all the social worker interns sorry my links aren't working I was trying to um okay we're done okay so um I I do have a question on this one is is this the one where their interns with um yeah and can you can you explain um how th those interns are

077selected uh they come from the University settings around around the state uh everybody matters is a a nonprofit organization uh that contracts with those a with those um universities and these students are required to get complete intern hours in order to earn their degree just like in education you have to complete student teaching hours these are these are intern hours uh and so the universities don't always have um people outreaching to the school so everybody matters coordinates the collection of these interns who are in need of hours each month or each semester um and then we contract with them to receive eight of them per year uh they provide additional training for these interns along the way and and weekly monitoring of their activities any other comments thank you so all those in favor say

078I I I all those opposed say nay any abstentions motion passes I vote NC oh I'm sorry yeah sorry um I'm going tostain on this one well oh and one okay so uh passes with four eyes and one abstention next on the agenda is Dr Bells president K Gover board members and cabinet and guest tonight we present for approval of partnership agreement with the Maricopa County and uh through the Department of Public Health uh Paradise Valley Unified School District this is also a continuation of a previously approved partnership Dr Jal is also available to answer any questions on this item we recommend approval thank you um may I have a motion to approve resolution 5 49 a partnership agreement between Mar Copa County buying through the Department of Public Health and Paradise Valley Unified School

079District as presented so moved um any board members wishing to make a comment all those in favor say I I I all those oppos say nay nay motion passes with four A's and one nay next on the agenda is Dr bills thank you president casee next we present for approval in IGA that's an intergovernmental agreement with the Arizona Department of Education and Paradise Valley UniFi School District to support project momentum this is a continuation of a previously approved IG although the IGA was previously uh awarded in partnership with the governor's office it's now been picked up by the Department of Education taking its lead Miss copen is available to answer any questions and we uh do recommend its thank you may have a motion to approve resolution number 545 inter intergovernmental agreement between the Arizona

080Department of Education and the county of Maricopa I don't know what DBA means Paradise Valley do business as thank you very much Paradise Valley Unified School District to support project momentum as presented so moved um any board members wishing to make a comment all those in favor say I I I all those opposed say nay motion passes oh are there any extensions yes I abstain okay thank you um motion passes with four is and one exstension next on the agenda Dr Bells thank you for those who following along this is next agenda item is the consent agenda item G3 which is now next on the agenda as I 8 that's consideration approval of a memorandum of agreement yeah which way is this wrong tab sorry this is G3 now is number eight is that correct

081H yes h8 as h8 I have uh G3 is that right G3 is that right chisman miss chisman this is the certified uh certific consideration approval of the non-administrative certified Personnel action items I believe you have a card for this one yes I do Lily Grisham has a comment on it was for forly G3 and now it's h8 it's the down did you have a comment on this we we can't hear you from the we go to the mic you need to go to the mic if you're commenting on G3 now as h8 hi my name is LLY gram um is this the certified board action yes agenda okay um I I noticed that there were 23 teachers that resigned um mostly from elementary schools and I noticed that the average salary for our teachers

082in the district are somewhere between like 45 and 50 something however um the Middle School physical ed teacher got paid 84 is getting paid $84,000 that's almost twice as much as most other teachers um making and I wonder why is 84,000 is like way I mean um yeah the next the the next lowest one is 76,000 so that seems like an awful lot and I I want to know why why does a Middle School PE teacher get paid $84,000 but all our other like science teachers um resource teachers um High School teachers um they're making like 49 anyone president C govern just for clarification um employees are hired or rehired based on their education years of experience and such and so that is taken in consideration uh the average teacher salary is available on our

083website I think it's around $58,000 or so um it's there for your review anything you would like to add Dr Holmes uh no thank you thank you um next is let's see I had to switch my papers around is number oh I'm sorry excuse me I apologize so any discussion from board members and may I have a motion first so moved thank you um is there any discussion of board members may I have a vote to accept these um consideration approval of non-administrative certified Personnel actions all those in favor say I I I any opposed any absent nope okay thank you motion passes unanimously next on the agenda is um G10 was moved to H9 I believe thank you president case governing board members uh in this item we move that the um governing board

084approved resolution 544 and IG intergovernmental agreement with the city of Phoenix for school resource officers for the 23 24 school year and we do recommend us present it okay um yeah which one okay um this is Lily Grisham also G10 I'm sorry we had to scribble letters out and move it around it gets confusing um so I had a question on this SRO situation it says that um there was an agreement between the school the City of Phoenix and State of Arizona um Police Department um to hire 16 SRO officers um and pay them two from the school pay $2.6 million um to for 16 SRO officers and uh they get paid $166,000 each and that's just for school time that's not you know seven days a week that's that seems like an awful lot

085I mean I don't think a Phoenix police officer makes $166,000 um where do we come up with two $2.6 million for 16 SRO thank you thank you um so president case uh governing board members uh just for clarification the rates of pay are set in the agreement by the City of Phoenix and their contract with the um Police Officers Association it does include salary and benefits so that's why the number seems much larger uh the City of Phoenix did raise salaries considerably I think police officers are now starting around $68,000 and of course people who are in these positions have years of experience as well uh to serve in the SRO role they are serving 21 schools and Dr osmanson is here to answer any additional questions you might have thank you may I have

086a motion on this so we can discuss it so moved thank you any other comments from yes Mrs Greenberg So based on what Dr Bales just said any District in the state of Arizona or I guess in the city of Phoenix I should say who may employ SRO is going to pay that exact same amount presumably board member case members of the board cabinet and guest and board member Greenberg that is correct so um all districts that fall within the City of Phoenix are abiding by this rate thank you question yes Mrs Christensen and isn't it correct that the SRO do more than just patrol around they they are members of the community in in the schools that actually teach and Mentor they're a they're a great um they're great mentors for the kids some

087kids have never had a a good you know an interaction with an officer and so to have these positive interactions with police officers isn't that part of this as well they have teaching moments board member Christianson that is correct that is the primary goal of the school resource officer is to build a connection very similar to our PBIS programming to connect kids to uh to school connect St students to law enforcement and to um provide that level of comfort in addition um right now the um state board of education is still determining what um if any Law related education um requirements there would be but I can share with you from speaking with our sergeant and with SRO that there is a commitment regardless if it's a requirement to continue to provide Law related education

088to our students thank you I just I just want to make a comment myself that I just think having this officer on campus is a wonderful thing it's also my understanding that most of these except for two are based on grants and that they had to go out and receive grants for these this is a competitive Grant process and uh Paradise Valley uni school district has been very blessed uh to be successful in our grants every three years uh and we actually have a higher success percentage in securing sro's uh I think than any other District in the state I'm kind of looking at Sergeant Wilson he's kind of noed his head he might know that fact but I'm pretty sure that we have the highest success rate and a lot of other districts look

089to us and say how do you write so successfully well I appreciate the opportunity we have to Sr to have s o people on our campuses it's been very positive for my own children so thank you Mrs Christensen I just want to make one more comment Pro SRO I just um I've met several of them including um Sergeant Wilson and they're all such lovely people I just wanted to shout out to our SRO because they're wonderful people and I've met many at graduations and just around around the schools as I'm touring um but and I wanted one more comment um can we put a price tag on on the price of a life I don't think we can um I think we can we need to do all we can to protect our our educator

090staff students and um this is a great way to protect them having somebody there thank you thank you um so all those are we ready to vote all those oh excuse me Mr panta yes uh being a school teacher I've of course had the um officers at various campuses and they've been very valuable I really uh love the way the students uh feel safer at school that how this program helps their mental health helps them feel emotionally better to be at school that they they can focus on what they need to do to study they're not worried about uh someone you know coming to school unwanted in an unsafe manner uh they're looking out for signs of abuse that might be happening at home Etc and things like that so our students emotional and mental

091health is greatly enhanced by their presence in our schools thank you for that comment so all those in favor say I I I all those opposed say nay any abson NOP extensions thank you motion passes unanimously uh next on the agenda is consideration and approval to renew the existing PV contract 1917 PV for turf tracks courts and other surfaces and I had one card for this uh Nicole glowick hello again um thank you for uh allowing this time and um so so this is uh particular memorandum item is to add um five six sorry six different companies firms um to contractors to provide and I'm going to quote right here from the memorandum various turf tracks quarts other surfaces and accessories Services include installation repair and maintenance of services such as natural or synthetic Athletic

092Fields track services surfaces Etc Okay so I'm going to refer you guys back um to your consent AG consent agenda item G13 on that you'll notice we have wholesale floors who installed all of our football field Replacements of turf for 3.5 million on the next page almost 900,000 for new um track surfaces so that comes to 4.4 million and and and while I do very I have a football player I very very much appreciate the fact that we got the turfrey done it very much needed to be done but it wasn't done well my son rolled his ankle the first day lots of people having issues it's not even um I just heard from another parent Pinnacle the same way um it should get evaluated by somebody else and I really question why are we

093having wholesale floor do all of our high schools track and field but we don't include them on our 1 GPA and the fact that they gave and donated to board members for their campaigns $2,500 each makes it really it's just not a good look right it's just not a good look so I just wanted to bring that to your attention it's again a transparency issue it doesn't look right um I would like somebody to look at those fields because like I said it is a safety issue when you have kids they add a bunch of cushioning and because the cushioning isn't even and the kids can't tell as they're running it's like running into a pothole right like your ankle twist so um although they're football players and so after the second day my kid's

094like it's totally fine Mom it's totally fine so so maybe it Smooths out but I've heard it from other people so thank you for your help thank you may I have a motion so move thank you are there any comments from board members I just have a question um this is just a um acceptance to renew the contracts we don't have any contracts this is to put them on the list to have them do the work is this correct this is this is the renewal of the existing Cooperative contract with one GPA president case so but there's not a current contract it means if we need something in the future no there is a current contract this is uh this was a 2019 contract oh 2019 yep so I think this is the last this

095is renewal of it correct okay that that's that's not what I I didn't I said it the wrong way that's okay thank you very much you're welcome any other comment yes Mrs Christensen yeah I would like to make two comments just um I I would um number one the cons consent agenda items are supposed to be items that are non-controversial and that are like field trips and things like that I as a board I I would like to see us have more discussions on some of these items that are that um we we talked earlier about transparency and several of these even um the some of the uh medical Partnerships were in consent agenda and and and I had pulled them out ahead of time and and I think that that is one of the

096things that we can do as a district just to be more transparent just have these discussions I mean we again we don't always agree on everything but I think we all want the best for the district and we want to be fiscally responsible and to be transparent and so I would like to see that happen more um the other thing is the the one I still am studying the 1 GPA I I have a hard time wrapping my head I would like to see us as a district to have more competitive bids rather than just having these consortiums and then just allowing them to um do their work and it it just it just seems that we could do better we could do better with our with our money and how how we're spending and

097and just to so those are my comments thank you um so those all those in favor say I I I all those suppos say nay nay motion passes with four eyes and one nay um next on the agenda is uh Dr Bells um consideration and approval of the 2023 24 superintendent goals and objectives for alternative performance pay plan thank you president case this evening I present the goals that I presented as a draft form to you in June based on your feedback input and revisions I shared those with you in July and they are presented here tonight for your approval uh first of all I continue to have the focus on student achievement and the first goal around enhancing teaching and learning opportunities to improve student achievements is outlined in four objective um first is

0981A to develop school Success plans uh for the implementation um of those uh each of the following initiatives these initiatives were developed uh as a result of our work in developing the Strategic plan uh the four initiatives are well underway so this is a continuation of a goal that began last year and at that time I told you that it would be probably a three to four year goal uh for full implementation although a multi-tiered system of support is not new to our district uh having a district expectation for implementation is uh the second initiative is around positive behavioral support systems PBIS also not new to the district but certainly uh new in terms of a district level expectation that all campuses would Implement with Fidelity third is professional learning communities once again not a

099new initiative but the implementation would have in each of these a rubric for implementation that takes it to the highest level possible and our final initiative which is new to the district and does create identity for both recruiting and retaining students staff uh is a science technology engineering arts and Mathematics initiative uh this uh initiative uh with a rubric and implementation provides the district identity and targeted resources uh for steam education the next objective is by June 24 and at your uh Direction develop some smart goals uh this uh is to increase student achievement and we identified three areas of greatest need and the first is in grade 2 early literacy and so uh the goal uh by and the objective by June 24 is to increase student achievement uh by 2% and for the

100students at or above core on the acadience assessment um this uh will actually be about a seven 7% increase for the students uh for this group of approximately about 140 students so uh 2% above what you know this year's group but in terms of looking at growth uh we look at the students coming in and they need to have uh at least 7% to to end up showing a 2% at or above on the acadians uh then the next objective is to increase student achievement in grade three Ela English language arts as evidenced by a 3% increase in students passing on the aasa ELA assessment uh this is not a growth group uh this is a third grest to third grade uh it is ambitious but it does put back uh to prean preco pandemic

101scores uh so this is another area that if we had taken a growth component it would not have put us above uh where this year's group did so U by setting this it's setting the bar higher uh in terms of using uh uh no groups but grade to grade the next objective is to increase student achievement in grade eight mathematics as evidenced by a 3% increase in students passing on aasa as well uh once again this is grade to grade comparisons too and accomplish this goal will give this grade level a high for a four-year Trend that's been increasing and so I think this is uh a stretch uh and doable but uh we can work hard to make it happen and the final is to increase the 2020 U 4 act composite score as

102you know we provide this assessment to all of our students in grades 11 and uh unlike that comparison it's a national score and unlike other places uh in the in the country uh that only certain students take the assessment uh here in Arizona it's part of our uh letter grade process and so just increasing it by a tenth would be an accomplishment um it's below the national average and one that we want to work on but it's also a little bit of apples and oranges in comparison so uh any increase here is moving Us in the right direction and buy um probably about 70 or 80 kids just to get another tenth of a point uh the next goal is to continue to improve communication with parents uh and our community uh we want to

103take the next step and developing some Frameworks and expectations we have never really developed our own internal um uh training program for customer service and we believe that we can uh take from our business partners that we have through business advisory and such and and develop some Frameworks for both our internal and external stakeholders uh creating that positive experience that whether it's by phone or iners in our electronic communication so uh in our recent uh spring parent satisfaction survey this was actually area of strength um but I think there's always room to uh improve when it comes to communication and customer service the next goal is to improve uh school facilities efficiencies uh and uh the goal here by February is to develop some recommendations from the school closure and Boundary Review Committee for board

104consideration uh the timeline uh to share that some of that with you would be hopefully as early as December in a study session um it takes a lot of work it's very complicated um we uh we want to be able to uh give you thorough recommendations and at anytime anybody has an idea working with a demographer to to take those considerations across the district in grids is complicated and it's not easy and so uh we are taking a comprehensive approach to this so that just schools that are identified as maybe the smallest schools in the districts are not necessarily schools that are you on any list there is no list there is no decision been made uh and that's why they're working through different scenarios and we'll have a board study session um our plan

105is to have that board study session in early December uh so that we can um give the board some some recommendations to consider in moving forward and finally uh the last goal is to increase student enrollment uh this is a this is a challenge in in a district such as ours that's been a decline for 20 years um but we do believe that um we need to have somebody from the outside uh take a look at our efforts so that our return on investment uh is getting the maximum um uh bang for our buck and our efforts uh we have a very small marketing Communications team uh we have very little dollars committed to advertising but we have uh plans we have playbooks we have strategies we have a terrific website that's been developed over

106the last year to recruit and retain students um but our our purpose in this superintendent goal is to conduct an audit of of our resources and we want that to be done by an outside group uh and so we've been reaching out to both large and small firms uh through the RFP process to secure uh services to help us do this and submit a report to the board with some recommendations um by June next year so those are our goals to be Happ to answer any questions and I do believe that they are reflective of the inputs you provided me in June very much so um may I have a motion to approve the 2023 20 2324 superintendent's goals and objectives for alternative performance pay plan as presented so moved any board member wishing to

107make a comment ladies first Mrs Christensen thank you Mr panta President case um on Dr bells on goal one the multi-tiered system of support Positive Behavior Support um how well first of all I appreciate that you're trying to make them more um specific and measurable achievable and all that so I I appreciate you taking that um input into consideration I was wondering how how do we evaluate how things are working out with the multi-tiered systems of support and the positive behavior those two in particular um and and you said that we're is my understanding the the P the plc's are still kind of a work in progress where it's we've yeah all four initiatives you know are continue to be a seconde focus Mrs Christensen president K's govering board member MERS uh in in terms

108of the mtss each of these uh but specifically mtss and PBS have their rubrics complete I believe all four rubrics are complete uh we have been collecting Baseline data that we'll share with you on where the uh each site is at in its implementation of these um I believe we shared with you the rubrics as well so you've seen what our expectations are uh for implementing these uh initiatives and then um at the October study session uh our plan is to share with you where we're at in those uh implementation uh initiatives with Baseline data and then we'll be able with Dr Corson and Dr jarus to work with principles and their site leadership teams to develop next steps you know how far can we stretch this goal so that we can get to a

109full implementation sooner than later great um and then are we getting feedback from our teachers and Educators on on these initiatives as well or as at this point we're just um evaluating the success of implementation is are is teacher input part of any of this has always been a part of it will continue to be a part of it they are part of the leadership team that does uh the self evaluation this uh spring and this uh this last month or about now I think the last two are being conducted so they are and have and will continue to be a part of that um implementation project with their feedback important in the process great thank you on um goal one the I had a question on District average ACT composite scores you had indicated

110that um we're below the national average but it wasn't comparing it was like comparing apples to oranges and I didn't understand that comment what did you mean I mean by that comment is that we administer the ACT uh to all students right and so not every District does administer it to all students when you look at across the district for implementation the they're selective about which ones take it and then that's what they report on the LA my last um question comment it's kind of a com combination of goal two and three with the goal of improving communication with parents and Community um is it possible to make that go three open to the public um and to abide by open meeting law because I think that's there's some angst around those School boundary and

111I and I get it we don't want hysteria but at the same time how how do we balance um and and I too have looked at the um the meeting minutes and I I don't understand the details of what's going on and and so if this is going to be presented to us I I'm the type of person that likes lots of detail and I in order to make a decision is is that a possibility in the future to consider that so uh these the conversations around school closure and bound review are complicated as I said and it's not possible to sit down in one session and to understand that so we do uh expect uh this committee to work over a period of time and come up with some recommendations for the board consideration

112the timeline will give the board information um and cabinet uh hopefully about a month to digest some of this before a study session we want to give you plenty of time to read the Des and develop some questions then uh the if there is next steps in this process uh it absolutely requires statutory uh guidelines that provide for Community input and so it's not just parent it's Community it includes mailers to all residents of attendance boundary that might change or a school that might uh consolidate close merge how whatever you want to say so there is uh statutory requirements that require uh Town Hall type forums uh we would uh present at a study session that timeline with dates times places uh for those Community meetings to happen uh in the spring if there's an

113interest by the board to to go farther uh depending on what the recommendations are and so um yeah absolutely we will follow uh Statute in providing the community lots of opportunities for input before the board has um uh an official vote on any recommendations my final question I'm um on goal three are there any other future are these all the goals all you mentioned so I'm assuming the answer is yes but any other improved school facilities efficiency goals um because to me the the goal the title of the goal is different from um what is what the objective is here are there other objectives in this goal or is this way the goal comes from the Strategic plan okay and so that's why the goal is written as is um and then the objective is

114more specific about what we're doing to support that strategic goal and and um of course we're always looking to improve and under Dr Davis's leadership Miss Baran we're always looking to imp improve efficiencies and so um the things that we do to manage our energy use uh is is part of of that efficiency conversation as well thank you are there any other question questions no just comment these are I I like these goals I remember we discussed them in depth at a study session all these questions we talked about previously to to now and and they're really great uh they're difficult though uh that PLC one the professional learning communities make sure teachers have the time to uh be able to do that without piling more onto them it's it's going to be very tough

115and create that time and you have my support on all those and remembering everyone these are just the things he's prioritized there's so much more that he does that also evaluated on a whole you know this thick of the responsibilties of our superintendent so I I'm confident I feel that you're going to do very well on these goals and I look forward to seeing these uh bear good fruit thank you Dr Bells thank you any other comments I just want to say how much I appreciate these goals um for years I have wanted specific academic goals and giving those and I cannot thank you enough and as with any goal I'm sure you want to at least to get that you'd like for more and I know you well enough to know that's what you

116will be seeking for so and um as to the ACT scores when everybody takes the tests those are kids who are not College Bound and that is why that changes so greatly as opposed to other school districts who only a College Bound students take the test so that's what changes that a great deal so but I appreciate all these goals are there any other comments so oops excuse me lot of paperwork here okay um all those in favor of these goals please say I I I all those opposed say n any extensions motion passes unanimously way to go Dr bills one of the Future Okay acceptance of gifts and donations we are grateful for all gifts that come to the district and I'd like to mention a few of them Copper Canyon Elementary PTO is

117given $7,800 to the Garden tables for school use I always like it when students do gardening and greyhawk Elementary School Emily and Eric Forest are donating $1,000 to the site discretionary fund at palom Palomino Intermediate School the Molina healthc care of Arizona is donating $5,000 for t-shirts for school spirit and healthy habits and at Crest PTO is donating $55,000 to the skills USA bioscience HOSA Robotics and Healthcare HOSA programs and at Roadrunner school Cheyenne Traditional School is National Junior Honor Society is donating $300 to the skite site discretionary fund I just think that's fabulous and we have many other donations and we are very grateful for them may I have a motion to accept these please so moved any board member wishing to make a comment all those in favor say I I all those

118opposed say nay motion passes unanimously next uh items for discussion next on the agenda is um we want have a discussion and consideration to move the start time for the government board regular meetings to 6:30 p.m. this is the first reading and I'd like to uh Begin by reviewing the recommended revision and if there's any public comment I didn't know if there was not on this one okay [Music] um motion there's no motion right any board member wishing to make a comment okay go ahead Mrs B I just wanted to explain why we're considering this and that's just because a 7 o'clock start time can be late and these meetings can go late and you know a lot of us are parents or we're teachers or we work and we have to get up in

119the morning and we have like I like to be at home to say good night to my children and sometimes these meetings go so late that I miss Miss bedtime and so I just feel an earlier start time can give us the time we need to do our business but also get us home earlier to be with our families and and get to bed so we can all go to work in the morning okay any other comments so this is the first reading so there is no action taken on this item tonight next on the agenda is consideration of revisions to the governing board policy BB agenda this is the first reading and I would like to begin by reviewing the recommended revision and we're going to we're the revision is to move let me

120see if I can do this looking at it BB to move yeah to move the call of the public from where it is at the beginning to move it to after items for discussion basically that's what it says and we have a public comment from two people Nicole kwick and Wendy mer so we'll have Nicole first hello again um all right so on this particular move um I I understand you guys probably have a lot of reasons for it um but in practice in practicality um it's really going to suppress participation and I it almost feels like that might be the goal um and so and so in that way I'm obviously against it but I wanted to give you reasons why you should be against it for your own personal self-interest right for your

121own personal self-interest So currently right now since all the open comments are at the beginning nobody can address any misstatements unfactual things you know um misinformation that happens during this meeting for instance um earlier today somebody said that schools are political versus educational um and that the asba is really not a Republican or de Democrat kind of organization well factually their donations go almost entirely to Democrats and their agenda is heavily Democrat so in the future PE you'll have an opportunity for people to be coming back and saying that or or they might come back and say regarding Jake's law Jake's law has no requirement for schools to have mental health Jake's law actually prohibits insurance companies from denying insurance coverage if the mental health care happens in the school so anyway you're going to

122have lots of comments like that if you put the comments at the end because now we have rebuttal time right and not only that but they're on the agenda and so there's no out to be able to say I can't comment on that because it's not on the agenda it was um so so from your own personal self-interest that would be a reason um and then lastly sometimes when we make comments during open comments there's inserted somewhere along the way some side com comment to an unrelated topic that comes up right like somebody might make a comment about oh I don't know transparency and then transparency comes up later where you get to say you know we really are transparent in this way if you move open comments to the end we will have the

123final word you will have no time to slip in a comment to rebut whatever we have to say so from your own personal self-interest I think it's a bad idea thank you next a comment by Wendy May I can't comment when went after this person wheny mayor good evening board cabinet please don't move call the public to the end of the meeting it does not allow the opportunity for a stakeholder to address the board before items of approval how can the board make a decision before hearing any input from teachers parents students or the community should not the board be made aware of all facts ideas and thoughts before making such decisions that will affect the stakeholders the board often talks about collaboration this seems like a move to remove any sort of collaboration on

124items that will be discussed by the board and voted on according to the board Norms that has been greed upon by all of its members you have agreed to lead a district that I'm quot from your board Norms that supports CommunityWide collaboration and student achievement the the school district's strategic plan collaboration I quote we cultivate respectful and meaningful relationships to support high expectations in a culture of growth which is demonstrated by respecting and engaging diverse voices from all stakeholder groups acting in trusting and trustworthy manner to ensure a safe exchange of ideas holding one another accountable to create Solutions being active participants in the collaborative process under the values umbrella is integrity and I quote exemplifying honesty fairness and trustworthiness being accountable for our words and actions I feel that the trustworthiness of the board

125will be severe C ly diminished by the action of moving public comment to the end of the meeting as the board will not be displaying fairness to allow the public to provide comment before voting on items for approval thereby losing more of the trust of the community since this is a move to suppress speech lastly according to the district's very own diversity equity and inclusion statement point five 5.5 reads ensure inclusive practices in the decision making process by involving stakeholders as appropriate I think it is fair and appropriate and inclusive to hear that the stakeholders parents teachers students and Community to hear them before and not after such decisions are discussed and voted on thank you thank you um so we're not voting on this so we have board member comments yeah I did I'm

126sorry I jumped the gun there apologize for that um this is call to the public only it's not AG genda items that we're talking about moving to the end see we can't do a rebuttal on call to the public no matter when is put into the agenda right now we can't re talk or ask questions about Call of the public items so no one's being robbed of their a chance to rebut or or or address those call to the public items you know um those are that's what the um things on the agenda people still can make those comments they can still make a comment on anything that comes up to the agenda for a decision that's the collaborative part the collaborative part besides the Committees and everything else we have you see something the

127on the agenda you want to talk about it you fill out use the blue card right and you come and talk talk about it and then we're having this discussion like we are now call to the public we can't respond doesn't matter beginning middle or end uh later on we can think about it and maybe uh talk about some cabinet members or people how we might want to go about what we've heard so it really doesn't Rob anybody of their voice uh it doesn't Rob anybody of their chance to uh influence us as to how we should proceed with with matters in the district I just wanted to say that thank you thank you any other comment Mrs Baker I just also wanted to point out that you can't talk about um an agenda item

128that is up for approval in call to the public anyways and so that would also come with the blue card no no because that was the consent agenda item I checked with Dr Bales wow you are EX extremely rude anyways you might want to research open meeting law um the reason that we are considering this is people come they make comments and they might be disparaging comments and then they just leave without listening to how we run our meetings or the business at hand and I think the main reason that we've discussed um moving this is because a lot of times we have children and here we have people getting recognized we have principles being approved and they hear some pretty terrible things and call to the public and so this is also to protect

129the families and the students and the children that that come to our board meetings that's another reason that we've considered this Mrs Christensen um I don't agree with moving this to the end because um as as an elected official I took an oath as we all did to protect the Constitution of the United States of America as well as Arizona and part of that one of the big one of the big points in that is free speech and whether I I agree with the speakers and the comments I it's actually one of my favorite points in the meeting to to hear and even and I and I learn a lot from especially the individuals that I don't necessarily maybe run in circles with or that I don't agree with because it it's helping me get

130different perspectives and um and I think having it upfront there's more people here upfront in the meeting and I and um a lot of people as Mrs Baker explained um a lot of people in the audience do have families and they can't stay to the end to do public comment and so I think it does suppress Free Speech Mrs Greenberg well I respectfully disagree I don't think it suppresses Free Speech we are simply we are still saying which many districts do not that we will maintain call to the public and whether no matter where we have it on the agenda it the rules by which we have to operate under call the public fact that we can't engage etc etc will remain because that's statutory we can't change that um call to the public is

131not the only way our community can have their voice be heard as well so if somebody has something they want to say to us they can write us a letter we get notes all the time somebody wants to call and you know leave a voice whatever this is merely one Avenue to hear but it is call to the public for us it's Public's opportunity to present an idea information what whatever to the board so we're going to be here whether we hold it first middle or last it's not suppressing Free Speech any other comments um yes go ahead Mrs Christenson we are elected officials that represent all of the people here and they our constituents we are not kings and queens up here making rules we I it's important to hear those comments and I

132think we hear more when it's upfront because there's more people here and um so in in that sense um I think we get more individuals coming to to speak if call to the public is up is upfront and and it's kind of um a slap in the face to say hey we want we want to hear from people we we want you to speak your mind but we're going to put you at the end where um you know what where you may or may not be able to stay that long so that's just my opinion um but to me it it it does not promote a sense of community and a sense of um that the voices of the people sitting here are important um I'd like to make a comment um this spring I

133was in a principal's office and um when she was approved to become a principal she took her children out before the public comic comments because she had been at enough board meetings recently to know that they had become something her children should not hear and that is one of my main concerns is that there was some very graphic things said in board meetings and she didn't feel comfortable having a first grader and a fourth grader hear those things as I would not have wanted my children to hear those things and so point of order please um excuse me I'm speaking this is our time to talk so I'm talking to my fellow board meetings so that has been brought up and I remember talking to this principal and I and so she sat by back

134door so she could take her child out because of the comments being made were so graphic and so and I before I was elected I went to Schoolboard meetings for 10 years I often made comments I stayed for whole board meetings and uh both of our uh public members who made comments on this subject I appreciate their comments and I'm thinking about them I appreciate their thoughtfulness and what they said but my concern is when we hold it at the beginning before people are approved for positions that it becomes a difficult um in the last year so it's become difficult for children to be around those comments and I have concerns so that's what I wanted to say um we Mr panta I was talked about I'm a we're elected officials and we're here to

135do that job and our job is to listen to the public in in many ways as we can some are by law and some are we choose to do like calls to the public uh and that's what we do they're supposed to comment to us I think it's a slap in the face when you have visitors and guests here to do what's on the agenda take care of those items that they want to talk about or Awards or recognitions it's a slap in the face to them to make them wait to you know we want to honor them but they've got to wait you don't make your honores wait you take care of them first the people you're guest that you're honors you take care of business and uh they're going to talk to us

136it's free speech as a board member I'm elected and I will hear what you have to say at that time there's no infringement of free speech there's no slap in the face to anyone and may I make a comment that except when maybe I'm sorry except when some except maybe when someone's in the audience talking when they should be listening right when it's our turn to visit there's a slap in the face um but also um we still will have the blue comment cards that go with all of our various agenda items so any other comments we're not voting on it tonight this is the first reading so no action will be taken tonight next on the agenda is Dr bills case government members cabinet and guests uh this next uh first reading for policy

137B Rules of Order is at the direction of the board based on your conversations I listened asked questions and at your direction I sought legal councel uh to provide language to clarify when an item should require a second or not to a motion that language is provided uh in the revisions to this policy uh based on our conversations in legal council I published this to you uh back in July um and so it's there for your first reading in consideration tonight um may I take a moment and read this okay if a motion is subject to Amendment such a motion to amend requires a second if the motion to amend does not receive a second it fails if the amendment is seconded then it may be considered and passed by a majority vote if the

138amendment passes by a majority vote then the original motion as amended shall be considered so um and then it goes on that's a change and then the G is the current addition of Robert Rules of Order shall be the final arbitrator um are there any comments would any board member like to make a comment and I don't think there's public no there's not a public comment on this um any board member want to make a comment on this well I would I mean I really don't care what the The Rules of Order are just so that we know what they are and we have them and and and understand them that's um that's all I have to say about it so we have rules there's and we follow them I think this is going to

139provide some more clarity the fact that we look at it in the first place I'm glad we did that's all I want to say about that okay thank you any other comments Mrs Christensen yes I I did research on this because we most most school boards actually do require second for every every motion and the reason um that PB decided it was voted many many years ago before any of us were on the board to protect the minority Bo board member so that um people that want to make a motion um can make that and and the board can still do discussion and vote on it when you when you um when you have a um that I think we're adding language for an amendment so an amendment to an emot to a motion is

140is still a motion whether you're making the initial motion or you're making an amendment it's still the same and so for us to remove that or to add language that says that we have to have a second it it goes against the original reason of why it was removed in the first place and so um my point is I think that we should just leave the language as is or or make clarification that we should we do not require a second for any motion um and that's any other comment Mrs Greenberg um as someone who has served as a parliamentarian before as someone who has chaired committees and other bodies um you can make rules Robert's Rules allows that so for example when I chaired the legislative committee for asba the Rules of Order um

141had the chair of the committee present Whatever item was being discussed and it did not not require a second however if there was an amendment made and there were rules regarding amendments those required specific whether it was a second whether if it was somebody from the floor as opposed to the committee making an amendment you literally have to get 10 signatures from you know other Etc there I mean there were rules laid out um so the the the original Item B that just says each action item shall require a motion and not mentioning a second is it is common practice however it's rarely common practice when and that and that establishes the main motion when you have a secondary motion to amend it is rarely common practice that that does not that that comes in

142without a second that you need a second and so I think that is what we are doing is clarifying that amendments or secondary motions do require seconds main motions do not so you know if you would feel more comfortable if we look a little further and perhaps have the attorney look at it if we want to distinguish a main motion I think you know that's not going to change us that much it would just change that you know each Action Shot item uh to be considered a main motion sh or something I don't know if the attorney can come up with it but what what's being proposed here is pretty common practice so I don't have any issue with um I'd like to make it are you finished okay I want to make a comment

143on this um one of the things about this is if you let me just go back to the verbiage here if you make a motion and no one seconds it the motion's going to die right then I mean I mean even if you have even if you don't need a second on it the motion is going to die if there isn't somebody who can second it so the motion is going to die because of the quantity of votes needed to pass a motion so and I understand and we don't limit comments from anyone I mean all night long we talk have spoken and let everyone have their say so we're not limiting but a motion that can't to amend that can't get a second isn't going to go anywhere anyway it's a den it yes

144Mrs Christensen the the point is when you make an amendment to a motion the and if you don't require a second everybody has to vote on it and that goes on public record there's a big difference so say we had a motion on the floor then we may I propose to make an amendment to that motion so we have to vote vote on that um if nobody seconds it as we're going to write this language and change it then it it's almost as if that Amendment never never came up because we don't vote on it and so it it just gets dismissed whereas even if it's just one person we can still vote one ye one to four even if it's four Nays it's still public record that's the point the point is that it's

145still voting it's still public record right and and perhaps 20 years ago that made more sense because they kept minutes of the meetings but now we have recordings of the meetings so everything different differences were all recorded and you can look at those so any other comments tonight Mrs Greenberg well we still keep minutes of the meeting we still vote on them all the time so still have Mees I know what you're saying that is there is a more thorough electronic record been expanded from 20 years ago um you know it would seem to me I I hear what you're saying Mrs Christensen but it would seem to me that if you know a second is required nobody seconds it then you pretty much have a vote of one to four anyway whether it's public

146record technically public record it is public that that happen um I'd also like to say this does not preclude someone who wants to uh Mo set you know move a um an amendment to the floor and it doesn't happen to continue discussion and perhaps convince Somebody To You Know second it somewhere else down the line we're not saying discussion doesn't happen and we're not saying that motions can't be made just requires a second for an amendment thank you I think we're finished with the discussion then um before we adjourn I would like to remind you that the next regular board meeting will be held on Thursday August 24th at 7 p.m. it's still 7 pm. we have not voted on the 6:30 thing um may I have a motion to adjourn so moved all those

147in favor say I I all those opposed say nay motion passes you unanimously