And it helps us also um come into an environment that we're not solely unfamiliar with as we work in campuses. We see how campuses are set up. They see how classrooms are set up. they see the other spaces and our officers become familiar those that aren't in the school every day like our SRO's. Um and so this is a great benefit um as we partner continue to partner with um the active asalent training. Um so um we'll continue to uh champion these programs. We support them as an administration at the dis at the uh at the police department. I know Chief Goodman is um a very strong component. Um this this aligns with his community policing um goals and ideas for the department. Um and we will certainly help do those things that we'll continue to partner this um together as we move forward. So at this time I'm going to go ahead turn it back over to Miss Pastor as she talks about some community engagement issues.
That was just one example that was brought up last night. So um there is still absolutely an opportunity to come and advocate for the budget. Um you know the parent parental involvement right from our PTO and staying connected is is extremely important. Um you know when we put the budget together we knew this was I knew this was a great ask. Um this was something that I don't think we've ever done before here in terms of really just asking for what we need. Um in years past I I witnessed um very marginal asks knowing behind the scenes that oh we really need a lot more and you know there's a there's a give and take um between understanding the needs of the city and what taxpayers can bear and but also articulating what the school system needs. um this budget laid out what we need and um people can't say that we didn't put this forward.
So, as we close, I want to highlight some key structures that continue to support the district-wide safety efforts. The safety and discipline task force continues to meet quarterly. Uh we have a district safety team that brings together fire, police, and city of Maricopa emergency planning. Um, we held a safety town hall in the fall that was well attended and helped guide decision- making and engaging stakeholders. Uh, clear clear communication guidelines and um, a safety aspect is now included in the monthly volunteer trainings that we have here at the district office to help ensure consistency and shared responsibility of safety across all campuses. Safety is everyone's responsibility and we appreciate the board's support in prioritizing safety.
We're going to continue to work on this. Um I think people know um that we do have needs here. Um next year we'll be able to survive and cobble together sometime funds, but heading into the year after that, you know, the same concerns will remain um for us and will still be a challenge. So, while we next year will will survive again uh in the future we're going to continue to work on building sustainable funds. Um the caveat to that is I I do think that there is uh we're being heard um you know between my personal conversations and feedback that I'm getting um you know I feel like there's there's a good will behind behind the work and I'd like to continue to keep that bridge um going strong and uh but we do need we need to we need to close down this gap uh dramatically.
I want to thank Captain Jud and Chief Goodman for being here tonight and for all that they do and I open it up to any questions and feedback. Thank you. I have a I have a couple. Um thank you Captain Jud and Chief for being here. Uh the SSO program I I love this by the way. It's amazing. Um, just a couple questions. Um, how often are they at the elementary schools? Is it a every day thing, once a week thing? And when they come, are they there for the entire day or are they there just for small periods of time? Certainly. So e every day a shift is is picked up that school safety officer spends half of the day at one elementary and the remaining part of the day at another elementary. So the shifts that are picked up um we're able to equally as equally as possible distribute it across the schools and right now we're averaging about one to three total shifts that are picked up a week um at our different schools.
So, it's going to take a lot of effort and work uh and and relationship building, but also got to start thinking about revenue streams for the city and for the school district. Okay. I have another comment there. Carrie, you use the words and I think we've got to get out of survival mode because that doesn't help us. All that does is allow us to keep a head, you know, above water and treading treading water. We've got an issue in the district where we have a retention issue on personnel. We have a hiring issue because there's a lack of of bodies out there as well as perhaps a competitive thing. And so in addition to surviving, we continue, like I keep saying, is put the burden on our staff. And at this point here, I think at some point this staff has to be supported and shown that there is a willingness to support education.
That's awesome. Um and uh love the fact that we did um security guard and SRO training together um in September. Is this going to be um an annual training which I would really support um and support it better if we did it twice a year because we have turnover in our security officers and I think it would be really beneficial if we were able to offer that type of training twice a year. Well, that's great because we did offer it twice this year. I may have misspoke. So, yes, perfect. We did that and we will continue to do that. Thank you so much. Sure. So, two things. I want to thank uh Captain Jud and um Chief Goodman. I think it's really important for our community to have that healthy relationship with police officers in general. um and starting that at young ages and and growing that watering those seeds, giving them a different perspective than maybe what they hear on the news or whatever whatever life comes at them I think is is just really important.
And all we do every single year is to for all the years I've been on this board, whether it's been zero increases or whatever they were, um it is able to adjust and makes do with what we're given and we get the pat on the back that says you guys do a great job. Everybody's got and we we've got to change that thinking. Thank you for your comments. We're going to put that down on the uh agenda. Okay. Yeah. Um I completely understand what um Mr. Chanel is saying, but that said, we've been in survival mode and we've had 21% backto back asks from the district and a $20 million surplus. That is where I believe we need to restore the confidence and trust of the community because we have been as I call it in Stockholm syndrome like we're 160 I think 8 out of 169 but we had been running at 180.
So, thank you so much for providing our community with that. Um my question for you, Miss Pastor, I am gonna pick on visitor aware a little bit. Okay. Is this 20,000 a year? Is it a one-time thing first? What is what is that amount? Is it yearly or was it a onetime thing? It so as um was highlighted in the presentation, visitor has several components and I'll have to follow up to get the board the breakdown of the annual subscription. Um there are certain parts that we had previously housed with different um companies. The anonymous tip line for example um was uh managed through another company. And so it has the drill manager component, the visitor and volunteer check-in component. It has the um um I'm forgetting one, the tip line, the visitor volunteer management, and then the drill management, but I'll follow up and get you those subscription costs.
In other words, we had the money and didn't know it. And so we've been in survival mode and we're still going to have to move accordingly because of the situation that we've gotten ourselves into. based on for finance, you know, directors, new programs, uh, you know, financial programs that weren't aligned properly. We've had a lot of reasons. CO, there's so many different reasons. But that said, we're asking the community again to look at it. 21% ask and that is historic. That is not the norm. And so, you know, as much as I think we all sit here and we try to figure out and forecast, again, it was made clear because of the audits and where we are today that we're we don't have the ability or the luxury to go back and try to predict what next year is going to look like because we have really no idea.
Thank you. Um so, I think we can do better. I I am, as a parent, I get really bothered with visitor aare. It is not user friendly. It is not um it doesn't work. So, here's here's my main complaint. The idea I love, right? I love the idea behind it, but practical use of it, especially in the grades that my kids are in, grade school, it has not fulfilled maybe what it does at a middle school or high school level. So, when I say this, I'm not I'm not dogging on the program. I think it's great. I think the idea is great, but you look at we're going to have um kinder promotions, right? And you've got a whole bunch of parents that are going to be coming for kinder promotions. And I'm thinking about the amount of time I'm going to have to get there early to be able to sign in and the lines to scan and get in where I think, well, why can't I just get on the app and click I'm here and have it autoprinted or just so the school knows backed up to say, hey, yeah, that person is on premise rather than having all these lines to scan in and get into a school.
We're figuring it out. So, with that said, I do believe that everybody needs to work together, find revenue streams. I think we've been talking about that for quite some time, all of us here. Um it's just it's in front of us all tomorrow night and um you know we're asking for a lot. We're we're basically going to continue down the same path of a shoestring budget to try to make the the you know the the makeup that ground and that is asking a lot. That's $20 million that is in this city's hands. We still don't know where it is but it did not come back to the board of education. So in that regard, I do agree. We need more money from the state and we need the money that was supposed to be allocated for the board of education back to the board. So while we're getting 12, there's 20 there sitting somewhere and we still don't know that.
There's there's just some things I just think we could do better and I need to just put that out there to our community that that I'd like some of that looked at. I'd like those tweaks fixed. Um I just think we could do better. That's it. I just want to thank again the captain and the chief for um taking the time and effort to be here. Um I think um the members said it cel said it really well. I mean I want to use the term thank you for the partnership but what came across was it's more than that. Um and it's not like we're forcing you to do it. You want to do it. You're getting a benefit from it and we're getting a benefit from it. And that's extremely nice to hear for the community and for this service. So, thank you, Miss Pastor, for pulling this all together and working on it for MUSD, but also for you and the chief for um applying resources, time, and effort um to supporting the community at large, Maricopa school district specifically and our our kids, our kids.
So I just want to say that, you know, we're asking for a lot of the community standing committee relations. I have no update at this time. correctly. I have no update either. Finance, Mr. Janella. Um we had a meeting Monday night uh where first I want to thank Mike and his team for the tremendous amount of work that he's been doing cleaning up not only the the information and providing the year 24 but also the financial cleaning that uh issue up for the current year 25. Mike presented the statement for the period ending March. Um, surprisingly the big take away from that, if you recall, I think there was a unarmed balance approach to $2 million as opposed to last month. I think that number was $9 million. And so that was a shock. Mike went on to say that there was a tremendous amount of adjustments that had to be made for charges for individuals that were charged erroneously to different I'm going to say rents and could have been charged against the operating account.
And hopefully I suspect your officers are are giving them just by being there. But I suspect from the passion you're reflecting the insight, these words of encouragement and the structure to a certain extent that will help them through the school years and I hope and beyond. So thank you all. Thank you. We now move on to item seven, call to the public. And we have several call the public. So I have to um read this read this. Members of the board may not discuss items that are not specifically identified on the agenda. Therefore, pursuant to ARS 38431.01i. Actions taken as a result of public comment will be limited to directing staff to study the matter, responding to any criticism, or scheduling the matter for future agenda. The board requests that all comments be limited to 3 minutes or less and that the public refrain from using speech or language that is offensive or inappropriate pursuant to board procedure 3-203.
So it's a continued process to get these patients that they are in in good order. The other thing on the agenda, we asked Mike to give us an update on the status of where he stands on the 24 work. He took the initiative to start working to clean up those balances until the actual audit engagement letter. I think at Monday night you said there was a surplus of about $11 million and I understand if I'm correct that today that number is down to $9 million and and Mike made it clear that the number is a COVID number because you continue to work on that. The the other issue on the agenda that we talked about is a particular closing statement, a monthly closing statement so that the board is aware of the different functions that are necessary and that we can hold the financial accountable for so that we don't have any surprises of I can get them going back.
Please state your name and I'll just highlight only your name. The card asks for your address, but you just have to give your name whenever you come up to speak. And first up, we have Amanda McVey. Good evening, President Downey, members of the board, Dr. Lopeman. Um, I'm exhausted. I'm sure all of you are as well, and wish you could be home resting. Um, but I need to be here tonight to share some information um that you will be addressing later. As a quick background, I've been a Maricopa resident for 20 years. I have been an MUSD parent for 13 years and an employee for six. I genuinely appreciate the district's efforts to provide highquality education and employment. I'm deeply concerned by this month's federally mandated certification relating to title six and federal grant funds. The board will decide tonight whether to authorize Dr. Lopeman to sign the certification.
So where you know Mike is making a tremendous amount of headway. We certainly appreciate the the work done and I think if a short time we'll get down to ground zero where we can start to have a tremendous amount of confidence in the numbers going forward to enable us to then work on and truly a threeyear budget. So that's April policy and I can see uh the policy committee has been at work. We have all these action items that we want to hit up tonight. We sure do. We're trying to keep up that momentum and I just want to thank Kelly for her uh her partnership in that work. She's really uh she comes to every meeting uh prepared beyond uh anybody else's capacity and I really appreciate it. Um our next meeting is going to be May 12th and as Mrs. Cooper said, there's a bunch of policies on here for second read uh that we hope will pass this evening.
The certification refers to nebulous and undefined diversity, equity, and inclusion programs while stating that these same noble qualities, equity, inclusion, and diversity have no place in education or society. This is ludicrous. Our district already complies with established legal guidelines such as Title Six. Signing the certificate is unnecessary and counterproductive. I know how important federal grants are. However, our principles and values should not be for sale. I stand by MUSD's current strategic plan, namely the goal that every student graduates, maintaining access and equity for students and staff, a commitment to an organizational culture of excellence and fostering community pride.
Thank you. Thank you. We um just had our meeting uh prior to this meeting. Um we have uh two um items that are on the agenda tonight. Uh we have um the Ellsworth Avenue uh school roof replacement and a new elevator edition at Hasttown Avenue which is uh really exciting that we've got these two projects going. And also want to thank uh Dr. ceiling for a great presentation. Um gives a really great um background on how the facilities works in our district and the work orders and just gave us a better understanding, you know, so we can better kind of um when somebody comes to us and says, "Hey, this isn't working." We kind of know what you guys are running. So, thank you for that. Thank all my committee chairs. Thank you uh for really working hard to bring um this information to the board.