District One Governing Board Meeting at a Glance
The Yuma School District One governing board convened for its regular meeting on Tuesday, Nov. 8, and streamed live via YouTube. The meeting is viewable at https:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pn3UJ7aRgXE on the district’s YouTube channel.
RECOGNITION
The district’s High Five program acknowledges employees who demonstrate the district’s values of professionalism, positive attitudes, “sees it, owns it, solves it, does it,” demonstrating district pride and going above and beyond. For the month of October, District One acknowledged teacher Michaela Hernandez from Woodard Junior High School, reading teacher Charlene Roche from Desert Mesa Elementary, school secretary Tammy Babb from Palmcroft Elementary, general maintenance Jesus Villegas from the maintenance department and paraprofessional Danielle Schlager from Dorothy Hall Elementary.
DONATIONS
District One received a total of $33,872.11 in donations this past month.
The most sizable donations went to: C.W. McGraw Elementary, which received supplies valued at $2,000 from Crossroads Mission and $1,874 from DonorsChoose; Dorothy Hall Elementary, which received a total of $4,333 from DonorsChoose; G.W. Carver Elementary, which received $3,200 in support of its garden project from the Yuma County Public Health Services District; James B. Rolle Elementary, which received $2,000 from DonorsChoose; Mary A. Otondo Elementary, which received $3,390 from DonorsChoose; Palmcroft Elementary, which received a total of $1,687 for the library from its PTO and $3,394 from DonorsChoose; Woodard Jr. High, which received a total of $1,524 from DonorsChoose; and Sunrise Elementary, which received $2,827 from DonorsChoose.
ENROLLMENT AND FINANCIAL TRENDS
CFO Denis Ponder noted a dip of five in enrollment numbers from the 40th to 60th days into the school year. But that number isn’t concerning since the Average Daily Membership (ADM) is projected to increase by the 100th day.
“Looking at the ADM estimates for the 100th day, we built the budget on 8,122 – that was a flat enrollment from last year; our flat ADM from last year,” Ponder said. “And the latest report we have from (the Arizona Department of Education) has us at 8,431, which is an increase of 309 students, so that’s significant. At $4,700 as a conservative number per student, that’s $1.45 million, so next month we’ll have an updated budget for (the board) to review and approve that would reflect that as well as the carry forward from last year that’s been finalized.”
Overall, Ponder considers the district to be in a strong financial position because of a healthy gap between year-to-date spending and the amount of time that has passed.
CONSENT AGENDA AND ACTION ITEMS
The governing board unanimously approved the consent agenda, which consists of items of a routine nature that generally do not require deliberation.
As for the action agenda, a second reading for a policy update was given as required by the Arizona School Boards Association followed by the adoption of the changes as previously discussed in the first reading.
The board also voted to endorse Board President Barbara Foote for the ASBA Honor Roll.
“This one is a little bittersweet,” commented Superintendent James Sheldahl. “We all know that Mrs. Foote will be finishing her term next month and has chosen not to continue and we, of course, are going to wish her the best of luck and maybe a send-off next month … My recommendation to the board is that Barbara Foote would be nominated for the ASBA honor roll award for her exemplary service as a board member. The minimum requirement is eight years but she will have been here right at 10 years almost to the day.”