By Linda Kor The Joseph City Unified School District met on May 11 to discuss matters that have affected the district due to the pandemic closures. With the district under quarantine, there are minimal employees at the campuses, with a number of teachers working from home. According to Superintendent Bryan Fields the district just received information from the state on the opening plans. “It’s a three-phase plan and it has some guidelines about planning for schools to open in the fall or summer. We’re on track, we’re on Phase 1 now. The governor is supposed to come out with more information before May 16,” stated Fields. Joseph City High School Principal Eric Miller addressed how the school will be proceeding with graduation. The hope was to do a “partially live” graduation but that was decided against, especially with the guidance from the state asking districts to not hold live ceremonies. The school will now do an online graduation at 7 p.m. this Thursday, May 21 on YouTube. The link will be on the district’s website and Facebook page. Each senior will be interviewed for the video, as well as messages from members of the district administration and board. Business Manager Steve Mills addressed the board regarding a professional growth plan for classified staff and administrators. The plan would allow a five cent per hour increase for classified employees, or for full-time salaried employees $104 per year for each college credit hour earned for job-related college coursework, or 16 contact hours work that is for job-related professional development. When presented with the plan, board member Rhonda Roberson asked, “So, we’re paying for the training, we’re paying them to sit through it and then we’re paying them a raise? I don’t think that’s right.” Mills used the example of district teachers who are not paid for college courses they take to advance their skills. “Teachers go out and they get college credit hours so that they can move down on the salary schedule,” explaining that in that case, the district does not pay for training but for in-house training they may. “If there’s some initiative that we want to promote here in the district to get people certified in some specific area, then they can use that (toward advancement credit). But 90 percent or more of it is going to be on their own dime.” Roberson disagreed. “I just think we need to say it’s got to be on their own time, out of their own pocket, or we don’t give them a raise. Period.” Larson agreed. “If we’re paying them for 16 hours to learn something they want to learn, then why are we giving them a raise on top of that?” He acknowledged that the benefit to the district would be to have an employee with greater skills but noted that also helps the employee to improve their resume. “We’re just hoping they’ll choose to stay with us,” noted Mills. Fields interjected, “We don’t have a problem with classified employees wanting to overdo training right now. This will be an incentive to help encourage them to do training at a pretty minimal cost. They’re not getting paid a lot anyways.” Miller outlined the benefits, using maintenance employees as an example. “It only benefits us in the future because they can do stuff for the district that they are qualified to do. We lose maintenance guys all the time because they can get a construction job and make more than (they currently make).” “Why do we want to pay them to increase their hire-ability elsewhere?” asked Roberson. After the discussion, the board approved the plan, with the exception of Larson, with the amendment that employees must do the work on their own time and at their own expense. Any exception of district paid training would have to go through the board for approval. Miller informed the board that due to the cancelation of the senior trip the senior class has chosen to donate $2,500 of the funding earned to a project at the high school, and requested that the remainder of the funds be divided amongst the seniors that were eligible to take part in the senior trip. After consideration of the information provided the board approved the request. Miller went on to explain that for the past four years Northland Pioneer College has provided college courses on the JCHS campus through the TALON program, which utilizes grant funds to broadcast college courses to students on the high school campus. He explained that those funds have run out so NPC will be approaching the program differently. In an agreement with NPC, JCUSD will pay for the upkeep of the equipment that broadcasts the classes to the high school and all the students will be able to take the classes free of cost. The TALON program restricted how many students could participate and how many classes to offer but those restrictions have now been removed. Text book fees will also be waived. According to Miller, the upkeep for the equipment will result in savings for the district as there would be no costs for staff. “A student could graduate with 13 or 14 college classes if they wanted to get busy and take all that we offer. So that’s a big deal,” stated Miller. Fields reported that the district is also serving the community by providing starter plants from the high school greenhouse. Another project at the school is the construction of the handicap ramp between the vocational education room and the tennis courts to aid students who have difficulty managing stairs. Bob Winner addressed the board during call to the public regarding the district’s override and requested that the board address the matter to determine whether or not it is needed. When the item was discussed as part of the agenda, Fields explained that the bond election has an early June deadline. He noted that the power plant is still an unknown as to when it will close. It could be at any time between the coming year or as late as 2028, or perhaps even later. The board decided to garner more information on the different options including impact on the district if the power plant should close during a bond, the impact on the taxpayers and the district, and hold a meeting at a later date. In other business, the board: * Reviewed legislative topics to provide to the Arizona School Boards Association to lobby for at the state capital. * Approved a renewal of contract with Educational Services, Inc. for contracted staffing services. * Approved a renewal of contract with Holbrook Unified School District. * Authorized acceptance of a $5,000 No Kid Hungry grant to fund additional food and supplies for the Joseph City schools “Grab & Go” meals program. * Approved an agreement with Queen Creek Unified School District allowing for JCUSD to use equipment and supplies provided by Queen Creek USD for use in summer football camps offer by JCUSD. * Authorized acceptance of St. Mary’s Weekend Backpack Meal Program Grant to fund approximately 40 take-home backpacks with food each weekend for students and their families from now through July 31. * Approved an agreement with Vail Unified School District to provide access and support for the Beyond Textbook online curriculum, assessments, lessons for teachers and related services. * Approved an Arizona State University/Verizona STEM mini-grant. * Approved an agreement with the Northern Arizona Vocational Institute of Technology to provide post-secondary training programs in vocational education fields to Joseph City schools’ students. * Approved the resignation of Tiffany Bushman, Kenia Martineau, Peggy Reid and Kortni Flake. * Approved the personnel appointments of Adam Neat and Roland Hancock, both as JCHS teachers; Kelsee Hansen, Joseph City Elementary School teacher; Jonathan Nells, physical education teacher; Amanda Cribbs, van driver; and Connor Neal, maintenance worker. * Approved a revision of the district’s 2019-20 budget. * Approved the professional growth plan for classified staff and administrators. * Approved the updated pay schedules for fiscal year 2020-21. * Agreed to delegate authority to the superintendent to hire temporary student and event workers between board meetings. * Approved the issuance of gift cards directly to qualifying students from federal Johnson O’Malley grant funds in lieu of providing clothing and supplies under the terms of the grant due to the Coronavirus related school closure.
