Scottsdale Unified School District Arizona’s Most Excelling Schools!

The Governing Board voted 5-0 on Tuesday night to adopt the resolution for calling for a special election for the K-3 Override to be held on May 17.

If voters approve the K-3 Override, the district would implement free full-day kindergarten in all 20 elementary schools beginning in August 2005. The district also would work to lower class sizes at the kindergarten level to 21-to-1 and hire instructional aides to assist in kindergarten classes. The Board heard a presentation from Dr. Ildiko Laczko-Kerr, director of Research and Assessment, showing research demonstrating that all students benefit from full-day kindergarten regardless of their test results before beginning school. Current full-day kindergarten offerings, whether funded by Title I funds or provided by vendors, exclude some students who cannot afford the cost of the programs.

To see the presentations made to the Board on this issue, or to view frequently asked questions, please visit the district Web site, www.susd.org.

In addition, the Board listened as Ernest Nicely, Information Technology director, discussed the replacement of the current student information system (SASIxp). The district is currently using SASIxp for tracking student information, attendance, accounting, grade reporting and student scheduling. This software technology is more than 10 years old and is no longer meeting the needs of the district. SASIxp relies on a decentralized proprietary database that makes it difficult to consolidate data for meaningful management information. Secondly, SASIxp software has proven to be unreliable in processing transactions.

SUSD has received a proposal from a company called Edupoint to replace SASIxp with their software product Genesis. This software system is being co-developed with Mesa Public Schools and is currently installed and functioning in 58 of their elementary schools. Genesis is a Web-based system developed on the Microsoft NET platform, and employs a centralized database.
This software system is available to SUSD through Mesa Public Schools RFP process at a very advantageous pricing. Moving to replace SASIxp with Genesis now will allow SUSD to participate in the development of this product, and will provide SUSD with sound management information earlier than would otherwise be possible. The item will be brought back to the Board at a later date.

In other action, the Board:

• Voted 3-2 to elect Christine Schild as Board President and voted 3-2 to elect Jennifer Petersen as Clerk.
   
• Appointed Karen Beckvar and Eric Meyer as delegates to the Federal Relations Network (FRN) and pay the cost to attend the FRN Conference Jan. 31-Feb. 2 in Washington, D.C.
   
• Approved the Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA) with the City of Scottsdale for ball field lighting at Supai Middle School. The City of Scottsdale and the Scottsdale Unified School District have worked jointly to provide increased services to citizens of both the city and the school district by effectively sharing resources to leverage the use of taxpayer funds and benefit the community.
  
  Under the proposed IGA for ball lighting at Supai, the city is given permission to install new ball field lights and poles in the baseball fields to replace existing lights. The new lights will be more energy efficient, will provide improved lighting levels on the fields and produce less light spill over onto adjacent properties. The city will pay all costs associated with the lighting improvements, their continued maintenance and the electrical utility costs associated with the lights. The city will also schedule the use of the fields during non-school times. The school will retain exclusive use of the fields during school hours and will have priority for use of fields during non-school times.
   
• Approved the issuance of a request for proposal (RFP) for Food Service Vending Machines. The RFP is to be used for the purchase, lease or rental of vending machines in support of food services operations. They will be used by the Food Services Department for the sale of food items in and around the cafeterias. Food Services wishes to pilot the sale of locally prepared food items through vending machines as an alternative to selling the items on a serving line. This will be tried in selected high schools and middle schools cafeterias for the purpose of improving customer service and reducing labor costs, particularly in the schools providing one lunch hour and limited numbers of service lines available. SUSD cafeteria(s) would be responsible for food preparation and stocking functions, ensuring product freshness and continuity with the menu policy. Only cold food will be offered, avoiding any student use of microwaves.
  
  The district feels the units could effectively eliminate the need for additional staffing and/or reduce current staffing levels, while generating positive cash flow.
   
• Approved the issuance of a RFP for Temporary Registered Nurses. The district is unable to fill the two nurse vacancies they have. Ingleside has been without a permanent nurse since early September and Saguaro’s nurse resigned in December. The district also has too few substitute nurses. To maintain SUSD’s exemplary standard of care for students and keep a registered nurse on each campus, the district must look to a nursing staffing agency. This service would only be used when necessary, and the district will continue to seek to hire qualified RNs for vacancies.
   
• Accepted gifts valued at $104,072. The gifts were received from Desert Mountain Wrestling Club, Ingleside Booster Club, Saguaro senior class, CHAPTS, Kiva PTO, Ingleside PTO, Laguna PTO, Mountainside PTO, Navajo PTO, Pima PTO, Carol Arnold, Butler/Scannell, Communities in Schools, Donald L. Chiapetti, Scottsdale Education Foundation and Patty Taylor.

The next Governing Board work/study session is scheduled for 7 p.m., Tuesday, Jan. 25, at the Education Center.

# # #