Humboldt Unified School District Governing Board members on [date not specified] heard school- and district-level presentations on student achievement, STEAM programming and federal grant spending, received an update on the Yavapai Library Network opt-in form, and approved a suite of contracts and personnel changes including a migration of board services from BoardDocs to Diligent.

Granville Elementary principal Patricia Scarpa told the board that preliminary Arizona Academic Standards Assessment (AASA) results show measurable gains at the school, and that Granville
had reached an overall grade of "A." Scarpa said Granville narrowly missed the state's 50-point threshold by 0.44 points on the school-index measure and highlighted the school's growth metrics.

"There are some amazing high-performing kids," Superintendent Dahl said while congratulating staff; Assistant Principal Andy Busk and classroom teachers joined the presentation to describe enrichment activities and volunteer-led programs. Busk described hands-on lessons in the schools habitat program and other STEAM activities; Scarpa noted a $2,500 donation from Lowe's to build a sensory garden outside a classroom, and said volunteers and partnerships helped deliver repeated, standards-aligned lessons.

The board heard a districtwide STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art and math) presentation from Lisa Barnard, the district's STEAM instructional specialist. Barnard said STEAM lessons integrate at least two of those areas and described resources created last year, including "STEAM boxes" that teachers can check out with lessons and all required materials. She cited early data showing correlated gains where STEAM integration was robust: districtwide math proficiency rose from 23% in 2024 to 33% in 2025, and a Bradshaw Mountain Middle School program with strong collaboration between the math teacher and STEAM teacher saw proficiency increase from 18% to 30%.

"The data does show there's a correlation between the STEAM integration and that strong collaboration between grade-level teachers and the STEAM teachers," Barnard said.

Kate Johansen, who presented the district's federal-funding update, summarized the district's major grant streams (Title I, II, III, IV, school-safety grants and Project Momentum) and described constraints that affect spending timelines and allowable uses. Johansen noted Project Momentum closed on Sept. 30 and the district spent 98.8% of that allocation.

"That's what I'm doing as a team: making good on my promises when I say I'm going to spend down to the pennies," Johansen said.

On library access, Superintendent Dahl reported the district's Yavapai Library Network (YLN) opt-in form has generated 339 responses so far: 331 opted in and 8 opted out. He said the form writes to the student information system (Synergy) so librarians can check a student's status; Board member Dr. Dellinger asked that audiovisual materials (for example DVDs) be listed explicitly on the form as examples, and staff said they would follow up.

Board members discussed — but did not change — the scheduled start time for executive sessions. Several members and Superintendent Dahl raised concerns that moving an executive session earlier (to 4 p.m.) would disrupt instructional schedules, require staff to prepare the boardroom earlier and could force families and student representatives to remain at the district office longer. The board indicated a preference to keep the current pattern of scheduling executive sessions rather than move them to an earlier time.

On action items, the board approved a contract to migrate board meeting management and streaming services from BoardDocs to Diligent (the parent company of BoardDocs), citing the vendor's ability to automatically migrate years of archived minutes and the addition of a district-hosted streaming option. The board also approved a package of job-description revisions and personnel-level changes described by district staff as consolidation and realignment of duties; staff said the changes both create advancement opportunities for current employees and reduce district-level positions compared with prior staffing.

Votes at a glance

- Agenda: Motion to accept the agenda as presented — approved. (Motion carries.)
- Consent items (gifts and donations): Motion to approve all consent items as presented — approved. (Motion carries.)
- Contract: Approve Diligent contract for board meeting management services (migration from BoardDocs and optional streaming) — approved. (Motion carries.)
- Personnel/job descriptions and position actions: Series of approvals to revise the health-aide job description; add two full-time-equivalent related-services facilitator positions; revise the IT specialist job description; revise the administrative secretary/school improvement position; revise the finance manager job description; revise the district office receptionist job description; and create a lead attendance secretary position — all approved. (Motions carry.)
- Arizona School Boards Association bylaws: Motion to approve proposed ASBA bylaw changes — approved; one board member recorded opposition. (Motion carries.)
- Adjournment: Approved.

Board members said they will circulate follow-up materials on the YLN opt-in messaging to parents and continue to monitor federal-grant approvals and carry-forwards as staff develop integrated action plans at school sites. Several members praised the Granville presentation and the STEAM program for combining measurable outcomes with classroom engagement.

The board did not set a new executive-session start time at this meeting; board members said they will consider operational impacts further before proposing a permanent change.