By Talaina Kor The Holbrook Unified School District No. 3 Governing Board met last Tuesday, during which they received a presentation on the Northern Arizona Vocational Institute of Technology (NAVIT), from its superintendent Matt Weber. NAVIT is a career and technical education (CTE) program done within Arizona high schools. “We exist for two reasons,” stated Weber, “The first is to provide an additional funding stream to your career tech ed programs here in Holbrook High School. And then second, we provide what we call ‘central programs,’ meaning that for students who have the time and can take a few hours away from Holbrook High School, they can come up to the NPC (Northland Pioneer College) campus here in Holbrook or go to Winslow to access some additional career tech ed programs.” NAVIT works to assist Holbrook High School (HHS) by paying $12,000 towards career technician’s salary, as well as $1,000 annually for HHS CTE teachers to be members of the Arizona Curriculum Consortium Wiki. The Arizona Curriculum Consortium Wiki is a program that creates ready to use lessons for CTE teachers. “Your teachers can go log in, access those lessons, make them theirs, meaning make modifications to fit their needs in their classrooms,” explained Weber. The CTE programs provided at the high school are nursing assistant, welding, cosmetology, medical assistant, energy industrial technician and construction technology. “So, between Winslow campus and NPC here in Holbrook those are the six programs that your students can access if they have the time and qualify to do that.” Weber also laid out how NAVIT provides help for HHS teachers. Due to changes in legislation, the major target for this year has been on preparing teachers for the new Arizona Department of Education (ADE) on-site CTE program compliance and quality monitoring. “Starting in April of 2021, we started having trainings for your teachers and your directors. And so, all our CTE meetings have been focused on that. We’ve also provided monitoring, development, and programming for your teachers.” Weber discussed some highlights in NAVIT over the past year. “You’ve expanded your CTE offerings, you’ve got more sections of engineering than you’ve ever had before.” Weber also added that the HHS has done well to retain teachers and increase the number of hands-on construction projects. HHS also has a large number of students participating in the program, which is estimated at 540. This is an approximate due to the configuration of the program. “Sometimes you’ll have a student that takes more than one program … or they might take construction for two hours a day,” explained Weber. During the meeting, Superintendent Dr. Rob Koerperich discussed the federal projects, which provide grants for the Holbrook Unified School District (HUSD). According to Koerperich, these grants equate to about 40% of the overall budget. “So overall, these are the grants that we have through the federal government that are called entitlement grants, or their competitive grants that allow us to spend money on a variety of things throughout our district,” he stated. Grants received for 2022-2023 include Title I, which is for schools in which children from low-income families make up at least 40 percent of enrollment, for nearly $1.2 million; Title II, which supports professional learning for educators and leaders in schools, for $145,520; School Safety Program, which is used to improve safe and effective learning environments by supporting the costs of placing school resource officers, juvenile probation officers, school counselors and school social workers on school campuses, for $256,576; Rural and Low-Income School (RLIS), which provides rural districts with financial assistance for initiatives aimed at improving student achievement, for $56,780; IDEA Basic, which assists in meeting the excess costs of providing special education and related services to children with disabilities, for $337,317; IDEA Preschool, which also helps with costs for special education and related services to children with disabilities, for $13,037; CTE Priority, which is for CTE programs based on enrollment, for $26,763; CTE Perkins, which is also for CTE programs, for $63,975; Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund (ESSER) II, which is to support schools to respond to COVID-19, for $3,381,049; ESSER III, which is also for COVID-19 support, for just over $6.8 million. The board also elected board member Claudia Jackson as president of the board and Dr. Craig Stuart as the vice president for the 2023 term, which begins in January. Superintendent Koerperich commemorated former board President Linda Yazzie for receiving a lifetime achievement award. “It’s called the Phyllis J. Bigpond Lifetime Achievement Award,” Koerperich explain, “I thought it was a great recognition for Linda’s lifetime achievement in leadership not only in the Holbrook School District Board but in many places throughout our region and through ASBA (Arizona School Board Association) and so forth.” In other business, the board: * Approved the supplemental reading program Newsela for final adoption after undergoing a 60-day review. Newsela is a supplemental reading curriculum to provide tiered support for reading instruction and interventions in grades K-6. * Approved Fiscal Year (FY) 23 budget revision No. 1 to be sent to the Arizona Department of Education School Finance Division. Budgets are developed with projected Average Daily Membership (ADM) until current year enrollment is calculated which requires budgets to be revised due to current year funding for school budgets. * Approved the FY 23 federal grants. These grants have been approved by the Arizona Department of Education and other entities that administer the grants. * Approved the Holbrook School District’s Title I Family Involvement Partnership plan. * Approved a 60-day review of the Number the Starts Reading Reconsidered curriculum proposal. * Approved Andrew Hukow for practicum experience under the direction of Speech-Language Pathologist (SLP) Karalyn Reidhead for the spring 2023 semester. Hukow is a speech-language pathology assistant at Northern Arizona University and has proper fingerprint clearance and student liability insurance. * Approved the terms and conditions for a building renewal grant to design weatherization for Holbrook Junior High School as approved by the School Facility Oversight Board. * Approved support staff employment of Shurell Nardi, Hulet Elementary School special education aide; and Jasper Tunney, computer services Tech II. * Approved support staff resignations of Lynnie Bielefeldt, HHS attendance/registrar; Veronica Dale, HHS secretary; McKayla Korkosz, HHS assistant cheer coach; and Holli Salley, Holbrook Junior High School (HJHS) ISI monitor/in-school interventionist. * Approved the certified employment of Jerald Burgess, district substitute teacher; Jeff Meeks, special education director; and Chantel Taylor, HJHS music teacher. * Approved extra duty for Byron Bateman and Estefana Chavez, both for HJHS tutoring; Davina Begay, Indian Wells Elementary School (IWES) assistant boys basketball coach; Julie Berry, HJHS Sparklers Club; Lea Gishie, IWES assistant girls basketball coach; Tobias Herndon and Ina Overson, both as HHS game help; Galen Knight, HJHS tutoring and wrestling assistant; Vanessa Morgan, HHS assistant cheer coach; Jerald Nez, tutorial; Rochelle Nez, IWES game help; Dan Orton, HJHS head girls basketball coach; Greg Perkins, HHS mentor teacher; Merissa Sullivan, HHS game help and Pat Kenny Tournament help; and Chantelle Taylor, HJHS spring musical. * Approved volunteers Talaina Kor, HHS Grow Arizona transportation volunteer; Shane McGraw and Ruben Serna, both HHS wrestling; and Stephanie Szemerei Etchey, HHS cheer choreographer. * Approved professional leave for Lori Williams, deliver food from food drive, cost to the district is use of a school vehicle; Donna Campbell, CTE/Counselor Symposium, cost to the district is use of a school vehicle; Ray Ann Terry, PBIS coaches training, cost to the district is $230; Andrew Tomlin, Debbie Koerperich, Patty Singer, Bernice Gover and Ray Ann Terry, PBIS training, cost to the district is use of a school vehicle; and Cheri Grau, John McDaniel, Beth Baloo, Adicia Paschal and Karen Estridge, BT Data Big, cost to the district $75 and use of a school vehicle. * Approved expense and revolving vouchers totaling nearly $1.2 million. * Approved payroll and expense vouchers totaling nearly $1.5 million. * Approved personnel pay for class size stipend, $14,571; Prop 301 second quarter, $155,981; bus driver incentive for Nov. 2022, $4,520; Dr. Jeff Meeks, addendum for 25 additional days, $9,357; Park/Hulet deseg PD, $9,000; Park/Hulet TLAC PD, $880; Debbie Koerperich, Bernice Gover, Patty Singer, and Ray Ann Terry, PBIS training, $100 each; and HJHS deseg PD, $8,500. * Approved requests by Beth Baloo, crowdsourcing with Donors Choose, item requested is a microscope with an eight inch tablet; Estefana Chavez, crowdsourcing with Donors Choose, items requested are highlighter, two six hole pencil sharpeners, 15 boxes of colored pencils and four boxes of pencil tip erasers; Kris Manning, crowdsourcing with Donors Choose, items requested are 150 Mead spiral one subject notebooks; HJHS student council hot cocoa fundraiser, with expected earnings of $500; and IWES student council candy gram fundraiser, with expected earnings of $300. * Approved gifts and donations received from Arizona Public Service (APS)/Phoenix Suns for $2,500 to Monica Sanchez for a Lego STEM after school club; Sara Chee for four Trailmaker school bags; Peter R. Marsh Foundation for $1,000 music grant to the HJHS for the 2022/23 school year; Shutterfly Lifetouch, LLC for $306; School Connect Community Thrives Campaign for $400; Navajo County Education Service Agency for two books entitled A Little Spot of Kindness! written and illustrated by Diane Alber; and Donors Choose for $3,759. * Approved adoptions of Policy JLCB Immunizations & JLCC Communicable/Infectious Diseases, Policy DIA Accounting Systems, Policy EEAEA Bus Driver Requirements, Training, And Responsibilities, Policy JF Student Admissions, Policy JICFA & JICFA-EB Hazing, Policy JRR Student Survey, Policy JLDA School Counselors And Psychologist, Policy KB, KB-EB, & KB-R Parental Involvement In Education and Policy JJIA Intramural Sports, JJIB & JJIB-R Interscholastic Sports.
