At the Sedona Oak-Creek School District Governing Board meeting on Tuesday, March 5, two agenda items generated the most discussion: The adoption of the Advanced Placement Capstone for seniors and district personnel contract approvals.

District Curriculum Director Deana DeWitt proposed a plan to replace the Sedona Red Rock Senior Exhibition with the AP Capstone model. Currently, all Sedona Red Rock High School seniors, regardless of post-high school trajectory, are required to craft a research paper and orally present their findings as part of a 0.5 credit known as the Senior Exhibition.

According to DeWitt, this program faces several challenges that include: A demographics shift entailing an increase in students who learn English as a second language, students with disabilities and students who enter SRRHS with childhood traumatic events; a staff stretched thin by having to create and evaluate Senior Exhibition standards and criteria and competition with nearby and online high schools that don’t have the 0.5 credit requirement of an exhibition.

In the AP model, seniors will be encouraged — but not required — to enroll in an AP Seminar class that will focus on the tenets of collegiate-level academic research and writing. Also in this preliminary course, to be taken in students’ junior year, research topics will be chosen. As long as they produce thoroughly researched, properly cited and well-written papers, students are free to choose virtually any research topic that interests them. Then, those students are encouraged — but not required — to enroll in the AP Capstone class for their senior year and complete the project for college credit.

There is no cost for students to take these AP courses, save for the regular costs associated with taking AP exams, for which there is financial assistance.

Board member Lauren Robinson said that she was impressed by a video of student testimonials about AP Capstone that DeWitt played.

“You can tell they’re really starting to think about what they want to study at university. We have too many kids going to school and paying so much money these days and they really don’t have a clue what they want to know … to me, taking two years with kids who are very focused on learning what they want to learn and finding their passion, and then being connected to a college program that is recognized across the world gives them a leg up.”

The board moved to implement each part of the AP Capstone pathway. When it came time to vote on the removal of the Senior Exhibition required credit, however, board member Karl Wiseman voiced apprehension, stating “That’s asking a lot.”

He had already raised doubts about the number of students that would sign up for the program, and DeWitt was hesitant to project specific numbers when asked.

“Do you think that we will have 10 percent of the kids sign up?” Wiseman asked.

“Well, that would be eight kids, so I do believe we will have more than that,” DeWitt replied.

DeWitt explained that the Senior Exhibition and the AP Capstone couldn’t run concurrently and seniors would benefit from having the recognizable AP standard on their record. Board members Robinson and Hawleyvoiced supporting arguments. The motion to remove the Senior Exhibition passed with Wiseman dissenting.

The board started off the meeting by approving this year’s West Sedona School sixth-grade field trip. WSS teacher Barbara Robles told the board that, in May, Sedona sixth-graders hope to travel by bus to San Diego to expand upon their science curriculum objectives through the study of marine biology, which students will experience at SeaWorld and on a research boat out in the ocean with experts.

The academic calendar was the next item on the agenda. Last month, DeWitt presented a nearly completed 2019-20 calendar, but wanted to delay seeking board approval until after she and Superintendent Dennis Dearden conferred with other districts to ensure that calendars were aligned regarding districtwide events. The board approved the revised calendar, which includes an extended Fall Break and a shortened Thanksgiving break of Wednesday through Friday only.

For one of the last agenda items, board members were provided a list of employee contracts that required action. Wiseman asked what the proper procedure would be if he objected to a name on the list. “We’re not going to talk personnel in an open session,” Hawley stated, adding that Wiseman should then vote no on the whole list, even if it was only one or two contracts he objected to.

In referencing the year before last, Hawley said, “We had a board member ask for a couple people to be taken off the list that we voted on, and we did that, and, in my opinion, that should not have happened. I spoke with our attorney about this and he agrees, I think it was an unfortunate situation and I apologize for the people involved. I don’t want to do that again.”

“What if I, as a board member, have some deep reservations about one particular employee,” Wiseman asked.

Hawley asserted that, if Wiseman had qualms about an individual on the list, he should’ve discussed the matter beforehand with Dearden.

Hawley added that, according to SOCSD attorney Ben Hufford, individual staff members could not practically be discussed in a closed session either; for every name mentioned in closed session, the board would legally have to invite that person to meet — a potentially uncomfortable process that Hawley expressed no interest in pursuing.

When Superintendent’s Secretary Sally Cardigan asked Wiseman how he had been voting on the last two personnel-related action items, Wiseman confessed that he hadn’t been, stating, “Oh, I’m just so upset.” He told Cardigan that he would abstain from the vote.

Despite the decision to not discuss the names of personnel, one board member did stop to talk about a certain staff member’s departure and proceeded to reminisce on their career. Another staff member’s name was dropped in a query regarding a typo on the list of personnel.

The board also approved an intergovernmental agreement between the district and the city of Sedona wherein SOCSD would cease to charge the city a nominal fee of $3.25 for activity space [e.g. the Parks and Recreation Department’s presentation of the Missoula Children’s Theatre] in a gesture of good faith; the city has been covering the costs associated with SOCSD’s use of Sedona Community Pool.