District One Board Meeting at a Glance

The Yuma School District One governing board convened for its regular meeting on March 14 and streamed live via Youtube. The meeting is viewable at https://www.youtube. com/watch?v=7f4a74gcp1e on the district’s Youtube channel. Here’s a look at what happened.

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 February, district One acknowledged teacher Laura Gauna from Palmcroft Elementary, health assistant Jessica Guerrero from Pecan Grove Elementary, teacher casey Stock from James B. rolle Elementary, cafeteria manager Jasmin Letendre from Gila Vista Junior high and ELL coach Elizabeth White from the district’s learning services.

DONATIONS

district One received a total of $24,643 in donations this month.

The most sizable donations of the month included $15,000 from the rolle PTO for a new marquis; a value of $1,500 from cocopah rv and

Golf resort’s 9-hole Ladies to Pecan Grove Elementary; and books valued at $1,717 from the Lowe family to be used in district One libraries.

ENROLLMENT AND FINANCIAL TRENDS

CFO denis Ponder stated the district’s enrollment has hit 9,000.

“That is the highest enrollment we’ve had since 2014-2015,” Ponder said. “It’s been a while since we’ve been there so definitely a good number, strong indicator. Just a couple of points, we do track western sector, eastern sector. The western sector is approaching the 19-20 pre-covid numbers so those are coming back in and then our eastern sector is the highest. We go back 16 years on the report that we have and this is the highest it’s been in those 16 years so enrollment numbers look good for us.”

he also reported that the district’s financial position is strong and its balances look good.

“One thing I do want to just remind everyone on the board is those ending balances also take into account for specifically maintenance and operations and capital,” Ponder said. “The m and O balance has $2.3 million currently encumbered to hold a place for those teachers that we’re paying out of ESSER (Elementary and Secondary School Emergency relief funds) so that money will actually be a little bit higher as the end of year approaches because we’re not spending that money we’re just holding a spot for it as we know that’s money we have to spend when ESSER runs out.”

he noted a similar situation for capital, of which a million has been encumbered.

CALL TO THE PUBLIC

Gilbert hernandez was the only speaker at this call to the public. he recounted that he participated in a local Tea Party booth during the weekend and encountered many youth aged five and above, whom he asked general knowledge questions about the u.s. his questions ranged from what colors are the american flag and how many stripes are on the flag to what state is the Liberty Bell located in and what city is home to the Empire State Building.

“What is the capital of america? a lot of them didn’t know,” he said. “Washington. Washington, what? Washington. Washington, what? There’s two initials to Washington. They couldn’t figure it out. I said d.c.”

hernandez said he was disappointed with some of the answers – although he did note there were some great ones as well – and suggested that the district make an effort to teach more basic u.s. history and social studies.

NEW ASSISTANT PRINCIPALS

“The most important thing we do in a school district is hire great people,” stated Superintendent

James Sheldahl.

after an extensive selection process, Jennifer Stanley was approved by the board to become assistant principal at ron Watson middle School for the 2023-2024 school year.

“It is very exciting for me to join the administrative team and to give back to the Yuma community,” Stanley said. “my heart has always been here though I’ve been other places so thank you very much!”

Similarly, Luz rubio was selected and approved by the board at the meeting to become assistant principal for Fourth avenue Junior high, effective July 1, 2023.

“I’ve had the opportunity to go to Fourth avenue Junior high and see all the wonderful things that were happening,” rubio said. “I left and I was like ‘Wow, wow, wow.’ I was like wow and I didn’t know those things happen in middle school! … I had taught middle school but I was like ‘Wow, it’s changed a lot since I’ve been there’ and I said I’m humbled and honored to have this opportunity to serve Yuma School district One and the students at Fourth avenue Junior high and all the stakeholders and parents.”

CONSENT AGENDA AND REMAINING 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 delegation of authority was conducted on a policy advisory regarding bidding and purchasing procedures. Few remarks were made but Ponder noted that language about restricting splitting purchases to circumvent purchasing requirements is already available in a section of the board’s policy manual. The delegation of authority was subsequently approved.

Lastly, denis Ponder presented the uniform system of financial records compliance questionnaire, the single audit reporting package and the annual comprehensive financial report to the governing board. he explained that doing so is part of an effort to increase transparency and communication with the governing board. The reports have been filed with all appropriate organizations and governing bodies and will be uploaded to the appropriate websites with board approval.

during discussion on the item, board member anthony Gier took a moment to commend Ponder and the entire business and finance department staff.

“I was reading through this today … I see all these numbers and I notice where it says the association of School Business Officials International awarded a certificate of Excellence in Financial reporting to the district for its annual comprehensive Financial report for the fiscal year on June

30, 2021 so the 29th consecutive year that the district has received this prestigious award so kudos to you and your team,” Gier said. “That needs to be recognized.”

The governing board accepted the reports as presented.