Cartwright board adopts multiple ASBA policy updates, approves employee handbook; ADE flags $39,389 in ESSER disallowed costs

The Cartwright Elementary District governing board voted on Aug. 19 to adopt a package of Arizona School Board Association (ASBA) policy advisories, approve the district's 2025'26 employee handbook and review a fiscal-monitoring report from the Arizona Department of Education that identified disallowed federal spending.

The actions were taken during a regularly scheduled meeting at the Cartwright School District boardroom. Lydia Hernandez, school board president, moved the principal policy and handbook measures; Rosa Cantu, vice president, seconded several motions. Ms. Romero, a governing board member, repeatedly objected to the board's makeup during the meeting and recorded absentions on multiple votes.

The policy package included second readings and adoptions of ASBA advisories across several volumes. The advisories adopted or moved forward addressed staff certification and credentialing, support-staff qualifications, curriculum development language, procedures for administering medicines and seizure-management training, student records and technology-use rules. Hernandez described the work as "the bulk of our policy work," saying the advisories align local rules with state law and administrative code.

Superintendent Watson summarized the advisories for board members before votes. Among the specific changes noted by administration were: - PA 803 (professional staff certification and credentialing) updated to reflect statutory language cited in the packet; - PA 805 (curriculum development) removed language that had required certified personnel on curriculum committees because, per the advisory, no statutory basis was found for that requirement; - PA 808 and a set of advisories in volume…