District One Board Meeting at a Glance

The Yuma School District One governing board convened for its regular meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 14 and streamed live via Youtube. The meeting is viewable at https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=cajriw1j724 on the district’s Youtube channel.

RECOGNITION

The district’s High Five program acknowledges employees that 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 January, District One acknowledged teacher Penny Doten from Dorothy Hall Elementary, Counselor Veronica Mena from Roosevelt Elementary, Speech Pathologist Assistant Aixa Robles from Exceptional Student Services, teacher Cynthia Morago from Gila Vista Junior High and HVAC Technician Hector Ortiz from the district’s maintenance department.

DONATIONS

District One received a total of $15,100.96 in donations this month. The most sizable donations of the month included $1,300 to Mary A. Otondo Elementary from Texas Roadhouse, $1,557 to Palmcroft Elementary from Donorschoose, $1,400 in the form of food boxes to be given to 14 families from Elks Lodge 4676, $1,065 in the form of Christmas dinners for 25 families at Palmcroft Elementary from Cracker Barrel and $2,000 in the form of clothing, games and the like from The Rock Church to Palmcroft Elementary students.

ENROLLMENT AND FINANCIAL TRENDS

CFO Denis Ponder stated the district has reached its peak enrollment and finances are looking good.

“We continue to trend well,” he said. “We’re spending below our yearto-date percentages, our balances are healthy. As we approach the end of the fiscal year, we will start looking to right-size any encumbrances that we have out so as we approach June 30 we start to get a better picture of what money we have left so those encumbrances that maybe are a little too high, we can make some adjustments to those.

“And then I would like to point out that the AEL override was voted and passed by the (Arizona) House and Senate so we have reprieve for this year and it’s temporary so hopefully there’s some long-term solutions in the process that we can look forward to, but at least we did receive

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.

A second reading was conducted on a policy advisory that would enhance and formalize some of the district’s processes in serving foster care students and expanding and clarifying related definitions. The board adopted the policy change.

One considerable action item regarded the recommendation to award “RFP 1-23-4-5” medical insurance and establish self-operation for the District One employee health insurance plan.

Ponder explained that an evaluation committee had evaluated and scored available vendors using set criteria to make the eventual recommendation for Aetna and Matrix. The board unanimously voted to approve the written determination.

The recommendation involves the fiscal year starting July 1, 2023 through June 30, 2024 and has the option of four annual renewals in accordance with school district procurement rules.

“I think this is a good financial move and a good move for our employees and especially because they get to keep their provider network,” said Faith Klostreich, board president.

The board also voted to approve the 2022-2023 Results-based Funding Spending Plan, which involves funding based on student achievement scores.