July 19, 2006
Minutes of the
Governing Board Retreat Planning Session of Wednesday, July 19, 2006, beginning
at 8:30 a.m. in the Green Room at
Governing
Board Members Present:
Dr. Joan Fleming
Mr.
Mrs.
Mr.
Absent: Dr.
Also
Present:
Mr. Kevin J. Kapp, Superintendent
Dr. Chris Reynolds, Assistant
Superintendent
Mrs.
Mrs.
Others
Present:
Joe Moore Joe Heydorn
David Martin
Donna Norris Marianne Brooks
Lauren Millette Totsy McCraley Nancy
Martinez
Abbie Roses
Breakfast took
place from
APPROVAL OF
AGENDA
President
Fleming asked Mr. Kapp if the agenda was order.
Mr. Kapp responded that it was with the exception of removing the
BoardDocs Presentation, which will be scheduled for another time.
Mrs. Dee Navarro moved that the
Governing Board approve the agenda as amended.
Mr.
Mr.
NEW SALARY
SCHEDULE FOR CLASSIFIED EMPLOYEES
Mrs.
Mr.
Mrs. Rita
Brammer asked how they would set the starting salary? Mr. Campbell responded, through IBN.
President
Fleming asked the administration to set up some type of a meeting with a
representative from
Mrs. Brammer
stated that her concern would be where you start the salaries.
Mr. Joe Moore
stated that you’d have to have some type of starting point and asked what Dr.
Reynolds would do about new employees.
Dr. Chris
Reynolds stated that he would ask Bill Moss if he’d be willing to come up and
talk to the Board.
Mr. Campbell
noted that we have a proposed schedule, but there is concern about where some
individuals were placed and felt we needed to start working on that now.
Mr. Moore
stated that it was something the PCEA can’t do ourselves and that they need
help from the administration.
Mrs. Navarro
asked Dr. Reynolds if that was something his office could handle. Dr. Reynolds responded that it could be
handled by both Human Resources and the Business Office and that PCEA needed to
provide to them those positions that were changed and then he could take a look
at it.
Mr. Campbell
stated that he would like for Renee to come up with the costs so the Board
could make comparisons.
Mrs. Brammer
asked, you want to know where we moved people?
Dr. Reynolds responded, anyone that was moved.
Mr. Moore
stated that they had compared the salaries from seven other school districts
and that it was easier to compare certified staff than classified staff, since
there are groups of employees who compare with comparable jobs from the
outside. He used the HVAC repairman as
an example and stated that the district has a hard time finding anyone from the
outside because of our salary schedule.
President
Fleming asked, what is the next step you’d like to take? Mr. Moore responded, meeting with Chris
Reynolds and Renee Raskin, getting people on the schedule straightened out and
then looking at what it’s going to cost us.
President
Fleming asked what the cost would be for PCEA’s proposed schedule. Mr. Moore responded, about $300,000, except
that Food Service would have a difficult time coming up with the money, since
they fund their own people. He noted
that otherwise, we were right in the same dollar amount as PEA if you didn’t
include the Food Service employees.
Mrs. Navarro
stated that she would like to see Chris and Renee work closely with the PCEA on
this item.
Mr. Campbell
asked if it would be clear for the end of the school year for next year’s
negotiations? Dr. Reynolds responded
yes.
Mrs. Brammer
stated that she would be concerned about it taking a whole year and that she’d
like to see something done over the summer and because they didn’t know the
procedure, they got behind schedule. She
asked if there would be any leeway with the Board to get this done sooner.
Mr. Campbell
responded that the Board would be making some decisions in the next few weeks
and will have to set some money aside.
President
Fleming suggested that PCEA come to the Board as soon as they have something –
the sooner, the better.
Mr.
Mr. Kapp noted
that they would need to do that process within a month and then if we can agree
to some adjustments to the proposed salary schedule, have Bill Moss come up to
make comparisons.
Mr. Campbell
stated that the whole concept of
Mrs. Brammer
asked if the certified would also be interested in the
DRESS CODE
FOR ALL STUDENTS AND EMPLOYEES OF THE DISTRICT
Mr. Staley
noted that this stems from the incident that happened a couple of years ago
with the Mohawk haircuts at WTS, and then allowing the students to transfer to
TH since they did not have a real specific dress code, which he felt was
unacceptable. He stated that over the
last couple of years he’s noticed a real slide with more unacceptable haircuts,
earrings, symbols shaved into the haircut, teachers with pierced noses,
classified people in tank tops, and felt that something needed to be done about
this situation and that the Board should decide whether we stand for
traditional family values. He stated
that he has talked to the principal at TH and that his “hands were tied.” He stated that he’d like to see a dress code
for the three different levels – elementary, middle school and high school,
with the tightest dress code at the elementary level to set the example of what
we expect. He stated that he was not
trying to restrict individual expression or creativity, but there needs to be a
standard and didn’t see one.
President
Fleming stated that she agreed and that teachers must set the example and dress
for business. She felt that it would be
best to start at the school level with the parents and site councils, rather
than with the administration. She noted
that Casa Grande has uniforms and that uniforms cut down on discipline problems
and competition among the students regarding dress, but didn’t’ feel it should
come from the administration.
Mrs. Navarro
stated that she’d like to have the same dress code for all schools and agreed
that it should come from the site councils.
Mr. Campbell
suggested that the principals meet with the site councils and make some
recommendations, and that he also felt the same about staff, in particular, and
that it’s important for them to set a good example.
Mr. Staley
added, with no piercing, no tattoos, Mohawks, symbols in the hair and that he
felt those items should come from the top down and then let the principals and
site councils handle the rest.
Mr.
Mr. Staley
noted, that’s what I’m talking about – I’ve seen this slide over the last
couple of years and enforcement is a part of it and that the dress code, or lack
of it, affects the discipline, and that maybe we need to have the district
administration hold the principals accountable.
Mr. Kapp noted
that it’s much easier when developing a dress code to tell people what they
cannot wear, rather than what they can wear and that Governing Boards can come
up with the guidelines.
Mr. Staley
stated that in his opinion it was a parent problem, because it’s the parents’
choice.
Mr. David
Martin stated that regarding the staff, he was in favor of the dress code that
is in place, because whenever you start getting specific, then you need to
start thinking about the exceptions – ties, P.E. teachers, kindergarten
teachers that are often on the floor, shop teachers, art teachers – you want it
to be appropriate and professional, but the principals should have some
discretion.
Mr. Kapp noted
that the harder issue to put parameters on is hair due to cultural
influences. He stated that we can always
have legal counsel review any proposed codes.
Mrs. Navarro
stated that she was hearing that the Board would like to see all of the dress
codes revisited.
Mr. Campbell
stated that he felt the Board should get feedback from the schools and then go
from there. President Fleming added that
she’d like to brainstorm this item with the principals tomorrow.
Mrs. Navarro
suggested that any changes to take place would start the following year. Mr. Staley stated that he disagreed and that
they should be implemented this year.
BREAK
VALEDICTORIAN
AND SALUTATORIAN ISSUE
Mrs. Navarro stated
that she continued to receive correspondence strongly in favor of continuing
the valedictorian and salutatorian program and that she felt there were some
misperceptions and that the Board needed to be proactive and liked the Honor
with Distinction program. She noted that
the students know how to get around and manipulate within the old program.
Mr. Campbell
stated that he was in favor of what the site council now has in place and was
delighted with what he saw at graduation and felt the program that was
currently in place allows the district to honor more students – very much like
what happens at NAU with students having to meet a very specific standard and
he recognized the fact that change is difficult.
Mr. Staley
stated that he was in favor of having a valedictorian and salutatorian and that
he thought the current system was great, but thought that the district could do
both and not take away from either program.
He stated that he was a fan of competition and felt that a large aspect
of that had been taken out of the equation.
He stated that in his opinion what the site council did was not legal
and that the information regarding the new program was not widely
disseminated. He proposed that this
problem be given to Mr. Peter’s class to come up with a formula – a weighted
credit in coming up with the GPA to distinguish the number one and number two
students. He suggested having Mr. Peters
take it through the process and then if it’s viable, put it in place and if
there is a tie, have co- valedictorians or co-salutatorians – take it out five
decimal places if necessary. He stated
that he felt we’ve taken away a tradition of high school and that there were a
lot of parents that were unhappy with the decision and in his opinion the Board
didn’t solve the problem.
President
Fleming stated that she felt both the parents and the students were adequately
informed.
Mr. David
Martin stated that he thought it goes back to micro vs. macro, that the site council
studied the issue for a long time and felt that it should be handled at that
level. He noted that you will never
satisfy everyone and that there will always be someone that’s not happy. He added that the site council had involved
parents, staff, students, etc., that the Board had designated this
responsibility to the site council and that it should stay at that level.
Mr. Staley
stated that he disagreed that the information was widely disseminated and that
the site council could change it every year, depending on who was on the site
council. He stated that in his opinion
it should be district policy.
President
Fleming pointed out that the site council is an advisory body and that the
administrator makes the decisions. She
stated that the counselors and Mrs. Krumbholz told her that colleges were more
interested in the GPA and ranking.
Mrs. Totsy
McCraley stated that it was one of the toughest things to determine which
classes count, whether to weight the grades, art students vs. academic students,
or just count the core classes and that every single school comes up with
different formulas. She noted that more
schools are doing what we did 4-5 years ago and setting a standard. She stated that the U of A has a graduates
with honor program and the students must reach those standards and it’s not
only based on their GPA. She added that
colleges recognize that there is no consistency to these designations. She noted that they had contacted Duke,
Cornell, etc. and they said that over 50% of high schools are now setting
standards and that some colleges won’t look at AP classes. She stated that she understood the idea of
competition and recognize it, but that she also recognized the need for a
standard and felt that PHS was ahead of the time when they made this change.
President
Fleming stated that she felt the Board should ask the site council to revisit
this issue and then report back to the Board.
Mrs. Navarro
stated that she didn’t feel the public was still aware and didn’t really
understand the new program.
Mrs. McCraley
reported that at the last site council meeting they had come up with some ideas
on getting the information out to the students and parents and that the
information has been in the student and parent handbooks for the last 4-5
years.
President
Fleming pointed out that the Board needed to have periodic updates from the
site councils.
Ms. Lauren
Millette noted that she had attended the high school site council meeting and
that they overwhelmingly wanted to support what the prior site council did and
that Mrs. McCraley has made the site council very aware that they are advisory
only.
Mrs. McCraley
reported that the counselors are personally contacting seniors and juniors who
are on track for graduation regarding the distinction with honors program. She also noted that she couldn’t force
parents to read the handbooks.
Mr. Staley
suggested that maybe any major changes made should be highlighted in the
handbooks.
CLOSED
CAMPUS AT
Mrs. Navarro
stated that she had hoped the cafeteria would be completed over the summer and
just wanted to make sure that the idea of a closed campus stays in the
forefront and isn’t forgotten.
Mrs. McCraley
stated that it would be her recommendation to close the campus for freshmen and
sophomores, that juniors and seniors would have privileges to leave campus, and
that the high school phase in the program and communicate the change to the
parents and public. She noted that the
cafeteria would probably not be ready until next year. She noted that the truancy rate was higher
for freshmen and sophomores, that some parents didn’t want their kids off
campus, and that it was important for the high school to develop a good
neighbor policy because they receive lots of complaints from K-Mart and Safeway
regarding students throwing trash, bothering the cars in the parking lot,
shoplifting, and property damage. She
stated that she viewed having a closed campus as a positive thing. She stated that she would look into it more
when the cafeteria is nearing completion.
Mr. Kapp
suggested that she have the site council start looking into the
parameters.
Mr. Staley
stated that he and Jay Collier would be meeting with Mr. Ernie Jones to ask him
if the district might use some of that flat land on the reservation for high
school parking.
Mr. Campbell
asked, how many parking spaces will we be losing? Mrs. McCraley responded, about 100.
ENRICHMENT
PROGRAM THROUGHOUT DISTRICT AND FUNDING FOR GIFTED AND ENRICHMENT PROGRAM
Mr. Kapp
reported that funding had been increased by the state for gifted, which is
misleading since there is no funding, no weight for gifted students. He clarified that there is a small grant that
went from $6,000 to $12,000 and that M & O has never funded the gifted
program.
Mr. Staley
reported that the district has a gifted program for a very select group of
students – the top 3%, and that if a student even misses one question on the
test, they don’t qualify for gifted, but may receive enrichment services. He noted that the district can control the
enrichment program, which needs to be looked at very closely.
Mrs. Nancy
Martinez noted that gifted students meet with Dave Deutsch and Louise Clark
once a week for an hour, that the curriculum is standards based with a theme,
and that it’s one step beyond their classroom work. She stated that enrichment is for 20-30
minutes a week and that Dave and Louise meet with each grade separately at each
school. She reported that for those
students there is the Math Olympics, guest speakers, verbal skills, etc. She noted that the middle schools provide
honors classes and the high school provides AP classes and that enrichment ends
at the elementary level.
Mr. Staley
noted that enrichment stops at 2nd grade, that they then take a test
and they either qualify for the gifted program or not. Mrs. Martinez noted that the students can
retake the test every year.
Mr. Staley
suggested that more money be spend on those kids who do not qualify for the
gifted program by doing more for the enrichment program, by improving the
weekly program, starting the program sooner, and increasing the funding for the
enrichment program.
President
Fleming stated that she believed we were not alone in not doing enough for our
high achievers. She asked if there was
anything that could be done for this program through professional
development. Mrs. Martinez responded
that teachers could be trained on differentiated teaching where you teach to
the high, medium, and low spectrum. She
stated that there are wonderful workshops available for this training and that
all special education teachers have training in this area.
President
Fleming stated that the district needed to encourage our teachers to take
advantage of workshops that affect gifted students and make it easier for them to attend these
workshops.
Mrs. Marianne
Brooks noted that the district also has the Odyssey program that teachers could
take advantage of for these students since the program can be geared for
whatever spectrum of students you are teaching.
She noted that this program is available at the middle schools and all
of the elementary schools with the exception of Taylor Hicks.
Mr. Staley
stated that he believed it was needed for all of our schools. He stated that we’re making decisions right
now to add teachers due to the growth – let’s make decisions and get more
teacher for the enrichment program so they can meet and spend more time with
these students.
Mr. Campbell
stated that he felt one of the things that drives this is that the state will
weight special education students, but not this segment of the student
population.
Mrs. Martinez
stated that she would keep looking for grants and thought that the district
could improve the curriculum.
Mr. Campbell
stated that the Odyssey Program should be used more and that maybe we should
combine 1st and 2nd graders to increase the time spent
with the gifted teachers.
Mr. Staley
stated that he felt the district should look into going after enrichment money
through grants.
Mrs. Brooks
noted that the lab configuration at Taylor Hicks could not support the Odyssey
Program and that Brian Moore was looking into that and that grants could help
fund something like that. She noted that
this program can be accessed at home by parents and students, that it’s
available at
Mr. Staley
stated that if more parents knew this was available they would use it. He asked Mr. Kapp to please encourage the DLT
to let parents know about the availability of this program.
President
Fleming asked, do all teachers know how to use this program well and could it
be part of professional development?
Mrs. Brooks
responded that there are teachers at each school that have been trained
extensively.
BOARD
VISION FOR PUSD – THE BIG PICTURE (MACRO VS. MICRO VIEW)
Mr. Kapp
stated that he hoped when we start developing the Board goals the Board would
think macro – something like analyze and study the current enrichment program
and that there is a need to look at the long range, rather than micro – add a
gifted teacher. He noted that the Board
needs to set the big goals and then let the administration work on the details
of accomplishing those goals. He stated
that he felt this past year the Board got bogged down dealing with small
details. For an example he used the
dress code: micro – eliminate something;
macro – analyze dress code, doe some consensus building, report back to the
board.
Mr. Dave McGee
stated that he felt everything is always about money and that since
Mr. Kapp
responded that one of the reasons for that is because most of the districts
receive the same funding for students, but that some of the districts in Phoenix
receive desegregation money, something we’ll never receive, which puts us in
the lower spectrum for money spent on students.
He added that over half of the districts are working with money from
overrides at 5-15% above their funding level and that other districts receive
extra money because they have career ladders.
Mrs. Navarro
added that the tax base can be different from area to area also.
LUNCH BREAK
MARKETING
UPDATE
Mr. Kapp
reported that marketing still has a budget of $75,000 and that about $20,000 of
that was used to make Janice Snyder the fulltime web master. He noted that the district has continued to
update and print both the brochure and the activity calendar. He added that the brochure had been
completely paid for through advertisements and that the calendar had received
about two-thirds of the printing costs through ads. He stated that the district is continuing to
use advertising on TV, Cable One, KYCA, and KNAU. He stated that the entry surveys reflect that
the TV ads are most often checked and that the district needs to re-do the
television commercials and come up with a different theme.
Ms. Abbie
Roses added that the district is continuing the school fair, which is good for
community relations.
President Fleming
noted that the Communications Committee was developing a schedule for the radio
spots, their topics, and who would be doing them in order for them to be
changed more frequently.
Ms. Roses
noted that the district also used KAZ-TV and that the same should be done for
both radio and TV.
Mr. Kapp
reported that he wanted to cut back on some advertising in order to have money
to hire someone who is trained to run focus groups with 15-20 parents, staff
members, students, etc. with no administrators involved at a neutral site such
as the public library and the idea is to get a pulse check on how the district
is doing. He noted that they had done a
mystery shopper again last spring with excellent results, but that there is
still room to grow and that they didn’t want the marketing program to flat
line.
Ms. Roses
added that one of the most important things we did at the beginning was to
listen to our customers and that it was planned to allocate about $5,000 in the
marketing budget for focus groups and mystery shoppers. She noted that some areas the focus groups
might look at would be class size, facilities, college prep, and the calendar.
President
Fleming asked, how would people be selected?
Ms. Roses responded, we want people who are familiar with the schools,
but have strong opinions – not our cheerleaders and that they would probably
ask the principals to suggest some names.
She added that they wanted to do parents and students first, then
teachers and community members. She
noted that they were planning on producing new cable spots, new telephone
messages, and wanted to maximize what they could do with Janice Snyder. She stated that the district needs to provide
a really complete registration packet for all schools and to continue the tax
credit brochure that was so successful at the elementary level and now focus on
helping the middle schools and high school.
She stated that they wanted to start the focus groups soon so we can
start with improvements.
Mr. Kapp noted
that he had done a marketing presentation last November for personnel directors
from around the state that was well received and that he was considering doing
something similar at convocation since we have so many new staff members. He added that we need to remind staff that
we’ve accomplished our goal of 2% growth over the last four years.
Ms. Roses
stated that she felt there were some teachers that have seen how that has
affected their paychecks.
Mr. Staley
stated that he’d like to see updates on the bond projects included in the
marketing program. Mrs. Navarro
suggested there was a need for informing the students also about those
projects.
President
Fleming stated that it might be helpful to have Abbie attend some of the
Communications Committee meetings so we can coordinate these things.
Mrs. Renee
Raskin stated that she has been asked by parents why the district continues to
accept out-of-district students.
Mr. Kapp noted
that they were submitting a capital plan to the SFB and that it’s the student
numbers that will qualify the district for a new building and that without
growth a district stagnates.
Mr. Staley
suggested holding forums with Board members.
Ms. Roses
stated that anytime you have ideas to let them know – that they are always open
to new ideas.
BRAINSTORMING
FOR 2006-2007 GOALS
DEVELOPMENT
OF GOALS FOR 2006-2007
Tentative
goals for discussion with DLT:
1. Academic Achievement
2. Professional Development
3. Dress Code
4. Completion of Bond Projects
5. On-going Goals
6. Stand Alone Goals
President Joan
Fleming adjourned the meeting at 3:17 p.m.
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