School Board - Regular Meeting

Thank you. Thank you.

Good evening, everyone. Welcome to our September regular board meeting. It's almost Christmas. Appreciate y'all being here. We will have a Pledge of Allegiance by Mrs. Stacey Anderson, followed by a moment of silence. And we'll go to that point. I pledge allegiance to the flag. Thank you all very much. I want to entertain a motion to approve the agenda, please.

Move to approve the agenda? Or a second?

Motion and a second. I forgot before we went in. I apologize. Motion second, all in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion passes, thank you. Item 4.1, we're beginning with one anyway, the consent agenda items. If there's any discussion, please, otherwise I'll entertain a motion for consent agenda approval.

I move to approve the consent agenda items as presented. I'll second.

Motion and a second. Any discussion? All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion passes, thank you. Item 5.1, student staff recognition. Dr. Ferrer.

We love having this recognition this time of year, so we are going to start with Whipple Elementary. Mrs. Douglas is here, and so she may call a few people down to be recognized.

I have a couple extra people. All right, if you guys will both stand right here so we can see your beautiful faces. Thank you.

Thank you for having us tonight, Board. So we had a tie amongst my staff. And if there's a tie, I'm kind of a fair person. I want them both because I don't want to have to choose. So I have an extra person tonight. But I want to start with our students. It's with great pride and excitement that we would like to recognize Roxy Price. This is sweet Roxy. She's a second grader at Whipple Ranch Elementary. She's truly a special young cougar who brings so much personality, joy, and energy to our school. She is sweet, she is tenacious, resilient, fun, smart, energetic, and caring. Her bright spirit and determination make her someone who is very easy to cheer for. One of the things that makes Roxy so remarkable is her tenacity and her resilience. She continues to work hard even when something is difficult. She shows us that being successful does not mean everything is always easy. It means continuing to try, learning along the way, and believing that you can keep growing. Roxy has a wonderful ability to bring happiness to those around her. Her fun personality, sense of humor, and energetic spirit can brighten any room. At the same time, she has a sweet and caring heart. She notices others, she shows kindness, and reminds us that being a great student is much more than the academics. It is also about how we treat the people around us. Roxy represents so many of the qualities we hope to develop in Whipple Ranch student, in every Whipple Ranch student. She works hard, she perseveres, she cares for others, and brings her own unique spark to our school each day. Roxy, we are so proud of you. Continue to be brave when things are hard. Keep sharing your kindness and your laughter, and never lose the determination that makes you uniquely you. Congratulations. Keep shining and showing everyone what it means to be a Cougar. Our next legendary student is also a second grader. So it's with great pride that we recognize Scott Schultz as our Whipple Ranch Elementary legendary student. Scott is a wonderful young cougar who brings curiosity, kindness, and joy to our school. He is quietly hilarious, kind, wondrous, inquisitive, intelligent, funny, and smart. Scott has a special way of looking at the world with curiosity and excitement. and he is always ready to learn, explore, and discover something new. One of Scott's greatest qualities is his inquisitive nature. He asks questions, he thinks deeply, and he genuinely wants to understand how all the things work. His natural curiosity and love of learning are wonderful qualities that will continue to help him grow and accomplish great things. Scott cares about the people around him and brings a gentle positive spirit to our school. His sense of humor and fun personality makes other smiles while his kindness helps those around him feel welcomed and valued. What makes Scott truly legendary is the combination of his kind heart and his curious mind. He reminds us that learning is an adventure and that there is always something new to discover. He approaches the world with a sense of wonder that makes learning exciting, not only for himself, but those around him. Scott, we are so proud of you. Never stop asking questions, exploring new ideas, and making people laugh and showing kindness to others. Congratulations, Scott. Keep wondering, keep learning, and keep being the amazing Cougar that you are. Okay, I have the most amazing staff in the district. I don't know if anybody knows this. But I really do, I'm very, very fortunate to have the staff. Today I would like to recognize Desiree Wapshaw as one of our Whipple Ranch Elementary's legendary staff members. As our Registrar and Attendant Secretary, Desiree is an essential part of our school. She is often the first person to greet students, families, staff, and visitors, always welcoming them with her kindness, patience, and always a caring heart. She is truly one of the people who makes Whipple Ranch the special place that it is. She keeps our school organized, I need a little help with that, supports our students and families, she helps our staff, and handles countless details behind the scenes that are essential to the daily operation of Whipple Ranch. Her work may not always be visible to everyone, but the difference that she makes is felt throughout our entire school community. What makes Desiree truly legendary, however, is not just everything she does. It's how she does it. She treats people with respect. She listens no matter how busy she is. She's always encouraging and she truly cares. She gives her time and energy freely, always willing to step in and help wherever she is needed. Her kindness and compassion create a welcoming environment where people know that they matter. We are incredibly fortunate to have Desiree as part of our Whipple Ranch team. She represents what it means to be unified in excellence, someone who serves others with heart, works tirelessly for our school, and leaves a positive impact on everyone fortunate enough to know her. Thank you, Desiree, for all that you do. Whipple Ranch is truly a better place because of you. And my last legendary staff tonight is Heidi Cipitello. She is our music teacher and our PBIS coach at Whipple Ranch. The impact she makes reaches far beyond both of those roles. She's helpful, she's patient, creative, compassionate, dedicated, and steady, and gentle-hearted. She's always working hard and encouraging everyone around her. No matter what is needed, Heidi is always willing to step in and help. Heidi puts an incredible amount of heart into her students. Through her music in her classroom, she creates a place where her children can build confidence, express themselves, and develop a genuine love and appreciation for music. She dedicates countless hours to preparing our students for musical performances, making sure each child has an opportunity to shine. The joy and pride our students experience during these performances are a reflection of the time, care, and dedication Heidi pours into them. One of Heidi's greatest qualities is that much of what she does happens very quietly behind the scenes. She does not seek recognition. I know she hates it, as most people. She doesn't end the attention. Instead, she just simply sees what needs to be done and she helps to make it happen. Whether she is supporting PBIS, encouraging a colleague, helping with school activity, solving a problem, mostly our schedule, and taking care of one of our many little details that keep our school running smoothly. Heidi can be counted on. Her calm and steady presence makes Whipple Ranch a better place. She approaches students and staff with patience and compassion and continually demonstrates what it means to serve others with kindness. She is someone who encourages those around her, gives freely of her time and her talents, and consistently puts the needs of students and school first. We are incredibly fortunate to have Heidi as part of our Whipple Ranch family, and we're proud to recognize her tonight as one of our legendary staff members. Congratulations, and thank you for your heart and dedication always. And now for you, we're going to shake everybody's hand if you would like to do that, and then we're going to get a picture, okay?

Would you like to do this? Go shake hands.

Can we get a picture of mom and dad's people if you guys want to come up and take pictures?

Yeah, guys.

Thank you.

THANK YOU, GUYS.

THANK YOU. ARE YOU ROXY'S MOM? YES.

We know what you do at home is important. Scott's mom and dad, thank you for what you do at home.

Thank you for coming.

Thank you so much. It's my favorite part of the school board.

Thank you.

It's ours, too. We wish this was all we had to do was recognize the wonderful kids.

That's awesome.

Thank you guys for coming out and being supportive like that. We appreciate that. Okay, Item 5.2, Food Service Program Financial Reports. Ms. Davis.

Thank you. So we've talked about this for the last month or so about getting this information to you. So the first report that I'm providing to you is the overall financial services. And I wanted to give you a comparison over the last several years and how much it's grown over the last several years. And so you can see the difference. And so last year we actually ended the year, and I show a negative $5,000, but we actually got a refund from SFE of $2,000. So it ended up being a negative of only $3,000. $3,675, which is absolutely amazing. And I'd just like to give credit to Stephanie Joyner and her staff, and I did ask her to come. She hates to be recognized, but she's just done a fabulous job this last year and really turned our food service around. The kids absolutely love the food as well as the staff. It's just been amazing this last year. So give her credit for everything that she's done. And this year, we're starting off again in a great. And so she's got lots of great ideas for this next year. The high school has an extra a la carte, I guess that's what we call it, so that they can just pick up quick things. if they're in a hurry or in that type of thing. So we're just doing great things with the food service now. So I'm very proud of what we've accomplished. So with that, then, if we go to the next page, is the summer food program. So for multiple years, we've just done the summer The typical food service where the kids come in and have lunch or breakfast in the cafeterias at the different schools. And then last year when Stephanie came in, we went to the new program where they come, they pick up seven days worth of food. breakfast and lunches, and that started over at NHE. And that was very successful. As you can see, we made a profit of about $45,000. But they still had to get out of their vehicles and pick up the food, and it was a great thing. But then this year, she started the program where now we're over at the junior high, and people can just drive through. and pick up their food, just open their trunk, and we put in the food, and they just pick it up. And that has just, as you can see, has been an overwhelming success. So the overall profit and gain was about $213,000. So wonderful program. They service concho. So concho comes and picks up food for them and then they take it to their school and then they do the same type of thing as well as change point correct they come and get food for their facilities so we do it for many different areas which is great And as you know, Blue Ridge does it, Snowflake does it. So this is a great program. We serve a lot of our community and a lot of our kids over the summer. And then this helps us throughout the year. So you see a great profit from this, but without this, we would not have the opportunity the bottom line that we would. So we wouldn't break, we just really would like to break even and be able to buy the equipment that we need. And we haven't been able to do that. So by having this type of profit at the end of the year, then we can actually keep our equipment in the standards that we need to for the cafeteria. And that's real important because without it We'd have to try and find grants or donations, and so this money will definitely help us get our equipment up to the standard that it needs to be. So thank you, Stephanie, for all you do and your staff. We have a great staff, and we're very proud of them and for what they do. So thank you very much.

Thank you. Stephanie, would you please stand up?

I don't know if you'll be able to tell the difference, but...

Thank you so much. Please, would you express our gratitude, take that back to your staff, please, so that they know that we think of them and we appreciate them. Thanks.

Thank you.

Item 5.3, finance report. Ms. Davis. Thank you.

Again. So I haven't done the financial report for the last couple months because, again, we've been closing out the prior year and bringing up now the new year. The prior year still isn't closed. Next month I'll be presenting to you the annual financial report, and that will be closing out the year. But this is this new year. A lot of... Preliminary still because we need to bring over the carry forward from the prior year, but this has given us a good idea of where we're at right now as of August 31st. So our proposed budget right now is at $23 million. Current expenditures as of 8-31 is at $2.7 million. encumbrances are at $16 million and so right now our remaining budget is at $4 million. So we are struggling but we are going to be working on this and again we don't know what our carry forward is completely yet so this could possibly increase. We're looking at some budget to see where we can bring down our budget a bit. We're gonna put together a budget task force, which will ask the schools to come together and help us see where we can cut back some. not necessarily in personnel, because that's important to us, is our personnel. We've worked really hard to appreciate our personnel through raises and whatnot. But we think there's other ways that we can cut back and where we can do different things. But we're working on this, and I think we'll be fine. and then we have the capital budget. This is always a hard one because capital, and we just, I've been at ASBO, and we just got back from the ASBA Law Conference, and this is always a hard one because the capital budget was never meant to take care of our buildings. This is what we call soft capital. And so this was really meant to help with the instructional side, to help pay for books, instructional aids, but we've really, most schools have been using this to help with the buildings and for buses, and that's not what this was originally designed for. So our current budget is 3.1 million. Expenditures are currently at 700,000. Expenditures at 990,000. $997,000 with a remaining budget of $1.4 million. Again, last year's budget is not completed, so we don't know exactly what our carry forward is yet. So we will have that to you by the December, because we will do a revised budget in December. So we'll have a complete budget by then. But, yeah, this is really tough with not having the capital that we need. As we know, SFD does not have any money for capital items. They've already spent this year's budget, as they always do. So we're not sure if we're going to get any money for any of our projects that Mr. Rail has put in. So we'll just have to see. And that includes, unfortunately, Whipple Ranch's HVACs. which has been on there three years now. Yeah, so we'll just see how that goes. Any questions on the budget? Okay, thank you.

Thank you. Item 5.4, Show Low High School CTE-based Enterprises, Mr. Butler.

Good evening and thank you for allowing me to present on school-based enterprises. So of course CTE stands for, I learned this at summer conference, coolest teachers ever, or depending on which group you're talking about, craziest teachers ever. But career and technical education is comprised of many different components. So there's the technical standards just like you would have in any other subject area where students will show A and B by using C and D, for example. But it also includes professional standards, so professionalism, work-based learning, and leadership. So work-based learning is a component that's probably the most challenging for us because True work-based learning is our students would leave the classroom and they would go to work in that environment. For some programs that's doable, but for a lot of the programs that we have, that's just not feasible. So the next best option for us is what we call school-based enterprise. And school-based enterprise is just a way to give the students the experience of being in the workforce. So they would do some of the same things that they would do in the workplace. Students will get hands-on experience with responsibilities such as developing products and services, budgeting, pricing, marketing, customer service, inventory, completing orders, and maintaining financial records. And so the benefits of school-based enterprises in the CTE environment are that students are learning teamwork, communication, responsibility, time management, problem solving, professionalism, and entrepreneurship. Students learn that their work has real customers, real expectations, real deadlines, quality standards, and measurable outcomes. Now these are all things that I think society expects students to learn in school. but in the current technical education world, this is where they get the hands-on opportunity to do that. So this year we have proposed four different school-based enterprises that represent seven of our nine programs. And for the first time ever, we've actually had a group that's combined together. So in the past, we had our business and management students operate a school store, so a retail store, if you will. This year, they've taken on the task of marketing and sales for some of the other programs. So some of the other programs that weren't previously represented in our school-based enterprise for business will now be covered. So those programs are construction, program. So they're going to offer sheds, playhouses, and dog houses that the business and marketing students will market and do the sales transactions for and the construction kids will actually build the items. Our robotics and 3D printing programs Students are developing items to sell for the Cougar store. So key chains, fidget items, other 3D printable items. And then again, the marketing students will market and sell those. And then our media... program is offering photography so like event photography, dances, sports photography, other event photography and then they also do printing inside the school so we'll have programs other programs come to them and say hey we need posters made so And a lot of this has been going on previously at the expense of our CTE funding. So this is giving the students an opportunity to actually determine cost of items and to market those and sell those and recoup some of the costs of running these programs. Our culinary program has a long established history of service to our school and our community. In partnership with their Career and Technical Student Organization, FCCLA, which is Family, Career, and Community Leaders of America, students have opportunities to operate dining and catering services at the school. And so a lot of this, like I say, has been going on in the past. Like this has been pretty fundamental program. We have a new teacher that we're really excited about his enthusiasm that he brings to the students in the classroom, the program, but they want to continue with tailgating. So these are events at, you know, sporting events like home football games, for example, where they would sell food products there. Friday breakfast, which has been like a mainstay at the high school for a lot of teachers and students because this happens on our Mastery Friday when we don't have normal food services going on on that day. Other food products that they would sell, so they've done in the past cookies, pies, things like that, items to order. Catering projects where they would go and cater an event. CTE showcase evening. So when we have things like next steps where they would have like cookies or something there. And then cupcake sales. So this is a new one that Mr. Joyner has taken on where this has kind of been a thing that we've heard some grumbling from customers. other people in the community about, well, I can't bring cupcakes to my kids' school anymore. Well, Mr. Joyner's program actually will offer cupcakes that are free of the 11 banned ingredients so that they are compliant with the Arizona Healthy Schools Act, the House Bill 2164. So we're pretty excited about that. Our cubbyhole, which is our preschool, which caters to three to five year olds, and we have a lot of district employees that have their children in there. And it's a great opportunity for the students to have early childhood education experiences, not only for the young kids, but also for the high school kids. So the high school kids work in the cubbyhole during the day. So that's part of their internship that they do. They also receive college credit for this. And so it's kind of a win-win all the way across the board for that program. And Mrs. Kittle and Mrs.

Sorry, I lost my place here.

Zielinski, I've done a great job. Their classroom, the preschool classroom is right directly next to my office. And so all day long, I get to hear them singing and hear them laughing and doing all the things there. And then today they got to participate in the homecoming parade through the high school. So that was neat to see. Amazing program, they do a lot there for both the high school students and then the younger kids. And then our law and public safety kids, we have logistics and So Shola High School logistics program where the students learn just some basic law and public safety tasks. So they are involved with providing support for crowd control and security at some of our events so like sporting events. So we're just having a presence there with you know people in reflective vests with flashlights and that just kind of deters some of the shenanigans that might happen. We're excited about our new teacher coming to the program, and we'd like your support on these four programs going forward, and I appreciate it. If you guys have any questions about any of them, they each individually have their own business plans, which you may have a copy of, but I brought the SparkNotes version instead.

Jerry, how are they going to market this? And is it going to reach the community at large?

Some of them will be, yes. So some of the things are based at the school. So obviously, like at the Friday breakfast in the past, we've invited the community to come out. And I think we've seen you there a time or two in the past. So the business and marketing students now are going to take over the marketing aspect of that through social media and just through, you know, the community in general. So.

So the photography, is that going to be offered to the community at large?

I believe so.

Family needed family pictures?

I believe, yes.

Use our students to do that? That's awesome. Yes. What's mechanical chess set? Do it for you so you don't have to actually play? Because I can't play chess.

Actually, the chess set is something that the students in the robotics and 3D printing are going to design the chess pieces themselves. and manufacture them there, and then the construction kids will build the chess boards. So it's kind of like a joint effort between that, yes, and sell the site.

Awesome.

Yep. So to the extent possible, we've tried to have programs build together. Because a lot of the programs don't have the standards in them for students to learn marketing and sales. The business program, that's kind of what it's built around. So they've kind of joined forces and brought in some of the programs that didn't normally have a school-based enterprise functioning previously.

I think it's awesome. Yeah, thank you.

And our kids are amazing. And like I say, our teachers are apparently second to only Heather's kids over there, or Heather's teachers over there at Whipple Ranch. But we've got a great group and they're very excited about having their students, you know, apply what they learn outside of the classroom as well.

Thank you. I appreciate you taking this.

Thank you.

Mr. Butler. Yes.

Would you just mind sharing with the board the current data about the industry certifications that you're seeing across the board in the CTE program?

So what we've noticed this last couple of years is our students and our teachers have really stood up. So one of the things that current technical education students have to do, so if they are what's called a completer in a program, that means that they do two contiguous years. So they would take level one and complete that year. And then level two, they would complete that year. And then they take a state level assessment called the technical skills assessment. And then they also would take a industry credential. And so we've seen our numbers go up from I want to say a couple of years ago, I think we had like nine or 10. It was like almost single digits for all programs inclusive. And now we had this last year, I think we were in the 70s for the number of credentials. And that's just the ones at the high school. So that's what we call our satellite programs. That's not even including our NAVIT ones. There's probably another 40 or so. And these are industry recognized credentials that the students can take to the workplace and have that to present to their future employers.

Perfect, good, thank you so much. Thank you.

I want to thank you for your leadership and for your staff and your teachers for just bringing it up to the next level. You know, this is just one more step forward that you, by combining and joining forces, you know, amongst the students. So thank you very much.

And thank you for your support.

And I need a doghouse, please.

I'll put you on the list.

So yes, please write it down for me, okay?

Got it, thank you. Speaking of orders.

Yeah, Jerry's going to go back with a whole sheet of orders.

That's right. Top of the list, right? Got it. Thank you.

5.5, athletic survey data.

So I'm not Mr. Hoffmeier, but he is currently driving a white minibus back from Thatcher with junior high football players. So he's... Did they win? I don't know. He didn't tell me. um but i just wanted to i don't know if we can pull up the the data the spread the the bar chart so over the summer one of my conversations with mr hoffmeyer was hey it'd be nice to start getting some data from our parents and so at the beginning of the year he had a giant parent meeting and he had this survey that he sent out even though we had 34 responses which is which is kind of small because i was at the meeting and there were quite a few parents it's a good first step And I'm not going to go through the entire bar chart. I mean, you all have that information. I just want to go, if we can go to the very last page, it gives some pretty good indicators of where we can grow as an athletic department and where we're headed. And if you look at the first question, you know, our athletic program, does it make our community proud? 70% said yes. Represents SHOLA with integrity, 67% agreed. Provides positive environment for students, 65% of the parents agreed. Is moving in the right direction. This was interesting, 94% of the parents said that we feel like the athletic department is going in the right direction. is committed to continuous improvement, 76% agreed. And so this was a really good data set for the athletic department, the athletic director, to see where we can improve, how we can get better. But I just wanted to share that with you. Well, he was going to present it to you, but we're always looking to see how we can get better. And parent feedback is critical. And so I just wanted to bring that to your attention that we're trying to look at all phases of the district from food service to athletics to academics to see how we can always be unified in excellence.

This is very good. A great start to the new school year.

it gives us a starting point of how we can get better.

Absolutely.

Thank you.

Thank you. Item 5.6, Policies and Procedure Changes, Part 3, First Reading, No Action. Dr. Farnsworth.

So there's gonna be a part three and a part four, and we just approved part one and part two tonight. So these are just additional policies from the last legislative session. The Arizona Risk Retention Trust, who we're a member of, they provide us the legal guidance on how our policies should look. And so this is just a first reading. If you have questions over the next month, we're going to bring these back in October for formal adoption. Please let me know if you have questions or concerns. A lot of it is the legalese from the state legislature that we're just updating our policies.

Thank you. 5.7, part four. Same story.

Same story.

Anybody have any questions or anything? No. Thank you. 5.8, principal reports.

You know, again, I just want to publicly thank our principals. It's a tough job, but a very rewarding job, and I appreciate the reports that they put together. There's a lot of good things happening across the district and continue to work, and it's because we've got great leaders at the top, and they're building their people, and I just want to thank them for their reports and thank them for what they do.

Thank you guys very much. 5.9 Superintendent Goals FY2627, Dr. Farnsworth.

So I wanted to bring to the board my goals for this coming year. And these are directly aligned to the strategic plan that we just approved this summer. So the strategic plan is built around really four main pillars, the identity of the district, the culture of the district, academics of the district, continuous improvement of the district, plus operations and finance. So there's seven areas. My goals are around those four first pillars of identity, culture, academics, and improvement. And I try to align some KPIs, key performance indicators of what would be the metrics of a successful outcome of those goals. Again, I'm open to feedback. If over the next couple weeks or months you have feedback on these specific goals or would like me to look at different things specifically, Please call me, text me, email me, and I'm happy to look at those things. But I just wanted to bring you my goals of what I'm looking for this year. In addition, there's lots of other things I'm doing, not just these four goals.

Thank you. Thank you. 5.10, Superintendent Report.

So just a quick snapshot of what's going on. I was involved in the bus rodeo at the beginning of the year. I actually drove a bus. I don't know if that's legal or not. I don't have my CDL. But I was going under the speed limit. And I did very well. Some of the bus drivers were surprised. Were you on private property? I drove it backwards without hitting a cone and weaved in and out of several cones. I was pretty proud of myself. Okay. I've been trying really hard to be more visible on the campuses and substitute teach. And so I was thankful for Becky Clark. She allowed me to come and substitute teach a couple of periods where she took another teacher and they went and viewed other instruction. So I was super happy to do that and help her in her goals. I recently substituted in fourth grade at Nicholas, and that was a fantastic experience. Monday, I'm going to substitute in first grade at Mrs. Gillespie's class. And I'm excited about that and scared at the same time. So I'm trying to do more of that. And one of the great things about doing that is I'm completely always reminded of how difficult it is to be a teacher. They have a really challenging job and they do it really, really well. And it just makes me appreciate our teachers even more and what they do every single day. We were able to fix our auditorium. That was kind of an emergency situation where we had some lightning issues and it burned through our fire alarm system or short-circuited and we had to get that repaired. I wanted to make sure you're aware of that. I've decided I wanted to start an aspiring principal program cadre, if you will. I was surprised. I emailed the district. We had about 15 people express a desire to see what leadership opportunities they can be available for. So my first meeting is this Friday. And I'm excited about... seeing how I can help future leaders wherever they may go. We had the Nexus Coalition come in and talk about what they can do to help our students, staff, our community. That was a good presentation. We also had the FBI We had Special Agent Ty Woods come out and present to the community. Mr. Paul Wyatt was there, so I want to thank him that we looked at what are the dangers of what's happening on the Internet. particularly sex exploitation of minors. It's a real thing. It's happening in Sholo. The FBI gave some startling statistics. And so I would like to see if we can really do a better job of educating our students at the secondary level of all the dangers that are lurking out there. And it's scary if you don't know what's going on.

Did they by chance say an age that these kids are having their first encounter?

It's in the elementary age.

Yeah, so we probably ought to be looking maybe a little bit younger than just the secondary.

We definitely will be. And I just want to let the board know I'm going to be getting a presentation from the FBI. And my goal is to then see how we can scale it down to different age groups. And then if parents want to opt out, they can opt out. But we're going to start educating parents or kids and parents. There's so much danger out there online. And what we're finding out is that parents don't know what their kids are looking at. Parents are letting kids have phones all night. And they're doing it all types of searching, all types of chats. And it's just scary what's out there.

It's very scary.

I also want to thank President Larson. You set up a meeting with the CEO of Summit Healthcare, and so it ties into what Mr. Butler was talking about, about work-based learning. So I'm going to be communicating with him to see how we can strengthen that partnership of doing work-based learning for HVAC maintenance, for nursing, for human resources, for clerical, because the hospital's like a miniature city. And we could send a lot of students over there on a lot of different career trajectories to get work-based learning experience. So thank you for setting up that meeting. We're going to try to continue to grow that relationship. And that's, you know, I'm trying to meet with our elected officials and trying to get a head start on the legislative initiatives that are going to be happening at the Capitol and just trying to help local area superintendents have a stronger voice at the Capitol.

Thank you very much.

Thank you for all you do. You're a busy man. I'm excited to see if the principals invite you back to the institute.

Yeah, next month.

Can you bring a report? I have not had a repeat yet, so that may tell you something.

Yeah, we'd like an eval, written eval next month.

Second time. Maybe next time.

Perfect. Moving on, item 6.1, Dr. Farnsworth, settlement agreement and release in OAH case number. Administrative complaint currently pending against the district.

Based upon the advice of our legal counsel, I would recommend that the board approve that settlement.

I move that the board approve the confidential settlement agreement and release in OAH case number 260-DP-115-ADE. I'll second.

I have a motion and a second. Any conversation at all? Discussion? All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion passes. Thank you. 6.2, Certified Employment, Dr. Farnsworth.

So we would ask that the board approve these recommendations. And as you heard tonight, we're very excited about Caleb Davis, who's gonna be recommending him be our new CTE law enforced public safety teacher. And we're excited to also recommend Summer Murphy as a Dean of Students for Whipple. And as you notice on the bottom, there's a transfer for Ms. Regan Roach. She's not going anywhere, but she completed her certification as a full legitimate administrator with the ADE. And so we're just changing her title from WMI coordinator to WMI principal.

Perfect. Congratulations. And for you.

I move to approve certified employment as presented. I'll second.

Motion and second, all in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion passes 6.3, classified employment, Dr. Farnsworth.

Our principals have been very busy. We've had a lot of paraprofessionals that we've been needing to hire, and so we've got three pages of paraprofessionals and other variations. We would ask that the board approve those positions as well.

I move all classified employment actions as presented. I second.

Motion and a second. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion passes. Thank you. 6.4, certified resignations and terminations. Dr. Farnsworth.

We have one resignation. Mr. Campagna, who was our public safety teacher, he did an amazing job for us. Kids loved, he grew that program to hundreds of kids, and they just really enjoyed his leadership. We're sad to see him go. We wish him the very best, but we would ask that you would approve his resignation.

I move to approve the certified resignation and terminations actions as presented. I'll second.

Motion and a second. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion passes. Thank you. 6.5, classified resignations and terminations. Dr. Farquhar.

Again, we have four resignations. And again, we wish these individuals the very best in their future and ask the board to approve those resignations as listed.

I move to approve all classified resignations and terminations as presented. I'll second.

Motion is second. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion passes 6.6. Substitute employment, Dr. Farnsworth, please.

So we have a list of certified substitutes. They're different than the emergency substitute. So they have the certified credentials, and we would ask that the board approve these certified individuals to be substitute teachers for the district.

Do, you've got a classified list there also. Do we need to do both of them or two separate? Can we do them in one shot, it looks like? We can do them in one shot, yes, yes, sir. Okay, so certified and classified. I'll entertain a motion.

I move to approve certified and classified substitute employment as presented. I second.

Motion and a second. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? 6.7, motion passes. 6.7, coaches, volunteers, and interns. Dr. Farnsworth?

We have one volunteer that we're asking for the board to approve to be a seventh grade football coach, and that's a volunteer position, not a paid position.

I move to approve the coach, volunteer, and interns actions as presented. I'll second.

Motion is second. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion passes. 6.8, new job description for human resources position classification and compensation study. Dr. Farnsworth.

So, you know, the last couple years we've been looking and analyzing different positions in the district. As you know, we did a salary study and then we looked at our classified folks and we implemented a classified salary adjustment over several years. One of the areas that we didn't address right off the bat was our human resources. After further investigation, we did do a market analysis, and you can see that 20-page document. And the focus of that analysis was, how do we compare to other schools on the mountain? We don't want to look at the county. We don't want to look at the city. We don't want to look at private business, because frankly, we don't compete financially. But when we look at other districts, how do we compare in terms of our staffing and in terms of our compensation, in terms of the job description? And so what you have before you is the analysis that we're bringing to you that we believe that it is an expense, but we're already doing overtime. I'm asking that the board would invest in the stability and infrastructure in the human resource department. In rural school districts, it's very unique. Ms. Boyer, you know, you have positions where one person is doing that job for the whole district. Like we have one person doing payroll for the whole district. We have one director over grants and programs for the whole district. We've got one person doing data entry for power school in the entire district. And we also have one person doing HR for the entire district. We have tried the last six months to see how we can flex job duties to increase staffing from just one person to a half a person. So 1.5 people helping and that other person being cross trained as a payroll clerk backup. So we're trying to help support HR, but also support payroll. And so we just feel like this is an appropriate time to ask the board to approve the revised job description and ask that you would approve it. And I'm here to answer any questions.

I move to approve the reclassification of the human resource specialist to human resource executive manager as presented.

So I will second this so that we can talk about it. Are you telling me that we're spending enough on overtime and whatnot to compensate for this?

In my initial analysis from July, August, and part of September, we've accumulated 133 hours in overtime. So if you extrapolate that out and the rate at which we're paying overtime, It justifies a change in job description, adding additional duties of supervision, transitioning from an hourly employee to an exempt employee, which would also incur this individual would then supervise three other people in the district to justify going to an exempt status. And for those of you who may not know, exempt status means you don't qualify for overtime anymore. Like, I'm an exempt employee. All of the administrators are exempt employees. You work until the job gets done. 9 o'clock, 10 o'clock at night, 5 a.m. in the morning, whatever that is. So that's what we're asking the board to approve, that currently on the current trajectory, this individual is accruing a lot of overtime. And it was like that with the previous person. We were trying to help mitigate that with other people. It's just a very demanding job. When you look at 300 employees and you have one person doing all the reporting, all the onboarding, all the paper documentation, the background checks, the I-9 forms, I mean, there's an extensive amount.

But I don't think it's just one person doing that, correct?

We have tried in the last couple months.

We have a payroll clerk. We have... OUR NEW PERSON AND THEN WE ALSO HAVE SOMEBODY WHO'S AN ASSISTANT.

That's been a recent adjustment. So we've taken one of the accounts payable person and said, okay, we're going to split them to train as a payroll clerk, as a backup, but also help them flex to HR to help with onboarding, paperwork, filing, those types of things. So that's a recent develop within the last four to five months. And I forgot your other question, Kelly.

Well, I guess that was just, we have the same, well, we have two and a half people.

So we also have payroll, right? Payroll does data entry.

Payroll also is very automated anymore. I mean, we do have, what is the name of the program that we utilize?

Visions.

Visions. I was going to say Visions, but I wasn't sure if it still was.

So we have Visions and we have TCP that helps with the payroll.

Right, and the fact, so I'm probably not in support of doing it and I've discussed it with you because I don't want to approve any more directive, director type situations or administrative. I want to approve positions that are directly involved with our students and helping our students out. So I guess that's kind of where my mindset is. because we're constantly being told that we don't have a whole lot of money, which you indicated that earlier, you know, and that we're trying to find different ways to find money, and this is how do we find money for an administrative position. So I guess I'm more likely and inclined to approve positions that are directly affecting a student's education. We've had 300 employees in our district since, what, 2010 maybe, you know. And so we don't have more students that are supporting, you know, in our enrollment. So we really, 300 is max. I remember at one point having like 330 employees. And we only did have one person who did it and somebody who double-checked payroll. So, you know, I've kind of, I have a hard time justifying it at this point in time. So that's just kind of where I'm at.

Joe, the previous person or persons, however many you want to go back. And then the current.

You in the last year or couple of years, it seems like.

I'm curious, are these folks carrying any sort of. certifications in the particular field, degrees?

So let me give you a 30,000 foot view. Typically, if you say you have a HR director, that comes with at least a bachelor's degree, if not more. And that's what a director level position, you can demand that, right? And that's pretty standard in the HR field. When you don't have that position as a director, so for example, we have a director of federal programs, master's degree. Director of curriculum instruction, master's degree. Director of technology, I think that person has more than a bachelor's. I don't know. But when you say you now label a director position, that, in my experience, you can demand a bachelor's or higher position. So if you don't do that, now you're paying below market value. And if that's the direction you want to go, that's fine. Then you're basing your qualifications on, do you have certifications? The previous person did not have certifications. And so that was the conversation I had with that individual is, I need you to go get certifications. I need you to go back to school. And it came down to a livable wage. I can't go to school and also put food on the table and pay for tuition and things like that. I financially can't do that. And so my experience or my investment in this position would be if we don't do that, that's fine. That's the board's prerogative. But I think we're rolling the dice into constantly having somebody every one or two years. Because it's a demanding job. And when you get somebody in the job and the salary doesn't equate to the hours, they're going to go, you're not paying me what I'm worth. Because I know what they pay at Summit. I know what they pay at the county. I know what they pay at the district up the road. And we're not comparable. So that's what I'm asking is the board to look at it through the lens of investment. Now, is there any guarantee that anybody will not leave? No, there's no guarantee, right? But my approach would be, can we invest in that position? Because it is a critical position. A lot of compliance, a lot of reporting, a lot of legalese, a lot of employee investigations that I help with. But I'm also supposed to be the de facto appeal person too. And if I'm involved in the investigation, there's no place for the person to appeal except for outside counsel. So those are just my observations. Those are my recommendations. I feel like we did a very in-depth market analysis where we took a very strategic approach to see – What is the market telling us about this particular position? If we're not going to make it in a director position, okay, fine. Then we can't dictate you got to have these credentials or these. And frankly, it's very hard up here on the mountain to find people with that level of expertise unless you're going to pay them for their expertise.

I think we should advertise that when the position opens up, not after we've hired someone and then addressed it to accommodate them. And the only pushback I have on this is we just talked for a year and a half about our budget, and this didn't come up once. So if it's been a priority for a while, why wasn't there any conversations about it?

There have been internal conversations where… It should have been part of the budget conversation.

We talked about all of our budgets.

At the time, it was not a priority. The priority was taking care of our hourly folks that were severely underpaid.

But at that point in time, we also increased that position, the payroll clerk, by quite a bit of money.

We increased a lot of salaries for a lot of hourly people.

And so that was based on the salary survey that was brought to us. And we did, as you guys recommended for us to do, and I believe it was over $80,000. Wasn't it over $80,000 or maybe even been more? I don't, I'm kind of going.

Oh, you mean total compensation for?

Yes, when we just did it for classified employees.

Well, I'm happy to take the blame that I did not have the foresight to bring this up. I mean- I'm sorry, I didn't bring it when we talked about all the other compensation. My priority was all of the grounds, facilities, custodians, and I apologize, I did not bring that up at this time.

But we get it across the board. So, you know, for me, I feel like it's all of a sudden, ooh, this is urgent and this is something we need to act upon right now when... Yeah, we should have been given some notice if this was going to be. So I don't know. Maybe we need some time to think about it as well. I don't know. But anyway, thank you.

So, Joe, I've heard the word director. I don't see the word director in this.

This is not a director-level position.

This is not a director? Okay, I just want to clarify that.

It's an executive manager position that we were asking the board. And I hope the board's understand. I'm trying to take a pragmatic, strategic approach. And if I can solve the problem before bringing it to the board, that's what I'm trying to do. It has now come to my attention through this market analysis that I feel we need to make this change. And so that's why I'm bringing it to the board at this time.

Okay. Is there any other discussion? Angela, do you have anything?

I don't.

Okay. So, Angela motioned. I seconded so that we could have this discussion. I'll call for a vote. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Aye. Okay, so that's 2-2. What I'd ask you to do is bring this back to us. Either, I don't know if you want to schedule a special meeting or whatever between now and October. I just, you know, however you want to work that, we'll see.

Next meeting.

At the October meeting when we're that much closer to Christmas. Okay. All right, please do that. And in the meantime, any and all information that we can get together and learn and whatnot, I would appreciate if we did that. 6.9, Arizona State Seal of Arts Proficiency, Dr. Farnsworth.

So if you may remember, the high school has multiple seals of excellence. And so this is another seal of excellence put on by the Arizona Department of Education. And this is a proposal from the high school principal, Mr. Marchant, that the board formally approve this seal of excellence for the fine arts. And I think it's a great idea.

I move to approve the Show Low High School as an officially recognized participating entity for the Arizona State Seal of Arts Proficiency Effective for the 2026-2027 academic year as presented. I'll second.

I have a motion and a second. Any discussion on this? All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion passes. 6.10 gifts and donations, Ms. Davis.

Lots of gifts and donations this month. So Show Low High School, O'Pyle Prints, $44.35. Show Low Auditorium, Show Low Fine Arts Booster, they donated a piano, $2,500. Show Low Junior High PBIS Sonic Drive-In, Sonic Swag of $1,645. Sholo Junior High PBIS Hatch Toyota items for PBIS store $2,457. Sholo Junior High PBIS Beeler Orthodontics items for PBIS store $1,095. Sholo Junior High 6th grade social studies Amber Jones school supplies $45.54. Sholo Junior High Girls PE Donors Choice PE Equipment of $176.73. Sholo Junior High School White Mountain Women's Club School Supplies of $100. Sholo Junior High White Mountain Women's Club of $1,000. Sholo Junior High PBIS Kin Baker Items for PBIS Store, $259. NHE White Mountain Women's Club $1,000 Whipple Ranch VFW Show Low School Supplies $94.40 Whipple Ranch Bill Harris School Supplies $33 Whipple Ranch White Mountain Women's Club $1,000 Whipple Ranch White Mountain Women's Club School Supplies of $88

Wonderful.

Awesome.

With a big thank you to our donors, I move to approve gifts and donations as presented by administration. I'll second.

I have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Thank you all so very much. All in favor?

Aye.

Opposed? Motion passes. Thank you so much. Without the community's help on some of these things, just, you know, there were so many things that we couldn't do without pointing out any one in particular, but there's so many here and so many that are multiple, they do this multiple times. Item 611, fiscal year 2027 capital plan for AZ school facilities, Dr. Farnsworth.

Every year we need to bring to the board for approval our school facilities plan. And so Mr. Rayl has done a great job in capturing that. A lot of these are new requirements put on by the school facilities board. And so we need governing board approval so that we can upload this so we can be in line for hopefully future building grants. Because if we don't, they won't give us any building grants.

I move to approve the FY2027 capital plan to the Arizona School Facilities Oversight Board as presented. I'll second.

I have a motion and a second. All in favor?

Aye.

Opposed? Motion passes. 6.12, Preventative Maintenance Guidelines. Dr. Farnsworth.

Again, this is one of those annual plans that we also need to submit to the board for approval so we can upload our preventative maintenance guide. This is meeting the expectations of the minimum guidelines for maintenance that the school district or the state is asking us to complete. And so I would ask you to approve this preventative maintenance guide.

I move to approve the preventative maintenance guideline and plan as presented. I'll second.

Motion is second. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion passes. Thank you. 6.13, future board agenda items. Anybody have anything?

I do not. No?

No. Okay, you have listed here next board meeting, October 8th. And then you're wanting to look at a work session?

So, yeah, a couple things. If the board is looking, I would love to have a work session with the board after fall break. So probably the last two weeks of October. I don't know if one week is better than the other, but. I'm hoping we can come together and have a work session. The topic of the work session would be capital projects, school facilities, and potentially looking at a bond. I have some information I want to share with the board that you may not have, and then just start talking about our facilities and what that may look like going into the future.

You want to do this the last two weeks?

If that would be agreeable, one of the last two weeks of October.

28, 29 would be difficult for me.

Tuesday, 27.

31st is my birthday, so that would be difficult.

You're born on the house.

I am, yeah.

We can party.

You wondered why I was witchy. Now you know.

That's awful.

Is there a week that would be better, either the 19th or the 26th? It sounds like...

I'm okay there. I just have stuff on the 28th and 29th that I won't be able to get out of. I just wouldn't be sure that I'd be back in time.

Can we look at the 19th, the week of the 19th? Does that...

Pick a day. Any of that works for me.

Do you want to shoot for a Monday or Tuesday or is there a day of the week that works better?

Tuesday?

Can we do a Tuesday, the 20th?

That sounds like a great day. Stacey, will you be here?

I think so.

Okay. We'll pencil in Tuesday, October the 20th for a work session to look at capital improvements and facilities.

I wonder if we could get the students to facilitate what we Munch on.

Some gluten-free cupcakes? I'm sure they'd be happy.

Oh, we've been wanting to do that. Have they? Anyways, we've been wanting to do a taste test.

So maybe an assortment? Aw. Is Jerry still here? Gluten-free.

We'll do some with them.

Okay.

With gluten in mind.

Yeah, can we only do gluten-free? Are we going to talk?

Okay. 22nd. 20th. Tuesday. October 20th. October 20th. And then also the November board meeting, I will be out of town.

Okay. I'm sorry, what did you say?

So the November board meeting, I will be out of town. So you're more than welcome to host the board meeting without my presence. Okay.

I wouldn't like to do that. I like to propose we move that to the 19th.

Yeah.

Is the 5th too soon?

That work?

I mean, I don't care. I don't want to crunch the time. Work for everyone?

Why don't we check and see if city council chambers will be available and then let us know, Candy.

Okay.

Yeah. 19th or 5th?

We'll pencil in the 19th. We'll check with the city. And if that doesn't work, we'll communicate. Perfect.

Perfect.

Okay. Awesome. Okay. Item 7.1. I didn't give any paperwork, so cool. Great. All right. 8.1. Adjourn. I'll entertain a motion to adjourn. Our next meeting is October 8th.

So moved. Second.

Motion to second, all in favor?

Aye.

Opposed? Motion passes. Thank you very much. Thanks for coming out. I need to speak to you, please.