Lane just missing the connect onto the track. Just missing it again by matter of frames. A couple wall hits on to last lap. Looks like the peach from earlier that Lane was trying to overpass to get second is now holding first, who's right in front of Sebastian holding second, getting followed closely by Baby Mario. But Emma and Asher both following them very closely at that. EMTT passing the baby Mario to take second. I believe Sebastian actually took third final race. Let's see if we can round this off for the win. EMTT just barely going into the grass but getting that speed penalty. mushrooms through the grass. That's a pretty smart shortcut, especially if you have mushrooms to spare. That way you don't have to deal with the uh the speed. Lane snagged the the little gift box from Son Gunk on the opposing team. Looks like Asher has a pretty big lead in first.
Great. >> Thank you. >> Well, Yushi, thank you so much for chatting with us. Good luck on the move and the and the location here. And then I know we'll be very excited to share when you move back so people can see the updated location. I know I personally have been hearing from a lot of different volunteers that it had been very tight at the food pantry and even though it has sort of evolved over the years. I was thinking about a story we did probably five or six maybe even longer ago >> and I think the need has increased here in our town for the food pantry. >> Yeah. >> Would you say I mean you've been here for a couple years you've seen that. So >> I've seen it in just the last couple years. Yeah. the need has increased both for um new people coming into the food pantry and people who may have only needed it once in a great while when there was a >> um you know let's say Christmas time because expenses are higher >> are now needing to come more regularly.
>> Exactly. And I I did briefly read through that and they went all the way back to colonial times for the record of the right to organize people. So, it wasn't a a knee-jerk reaction. It was a well well thought out. And again, I I don't think either of us want to be arguing for people to be univil. That's not the point. The point is hearing from the public. And sometimes it may be >> maybe in a way that >> you don't like and that that's actually okay and our right. >> Yeah. And sometimes people can be sort of >> [clears throat] >> uh shamed or whatever for it's it's called univil, but it isn't. It's really just a different viewpoint, but it might not be a viewpoint people want to hear from. I think we have to be careful at these forums that the power the power distribution is not all powerful to the government or or and that it's distributed between the people and the government.
How kids feel about their school, their grounds, um and how teachers feel about those matter. And so these are really important and it's part of our our work together besides uh the big academic things that we usually focus on. So where are we with our current state of funding? So, for this school year, I just like to do a quick review of where our budget, what our budget looks like this year in terms of what we set for this this fiscal year, as well as what we have in our grants and then some of our reserves. So, as you can see, we had a budget this year of 172 million and change and the preponderance of that is in salaries and benefits and you can see and other purchase services. So if you look at the pie chart, that is largely uh how we operate is our main expense are salaries and benefits.
These are governance and planning failures. They are not the fault of classified employees. Yet, classified staff are being asked to bear the consequences. The district has been deficit spending for multiple years. VicMac explicitly warns that relying on reserves and temporary fundings to support ongoing costs is unsustainable. Yet, that is exactly what occurred when those funds ran out. Costs were shifted, creating today's deficit. despite multiple opportunities over the years to reduce expenses responsibly. At the same time, the tracking funds in a ABUSD's report confirms that declines in reserves were driven by interfund transfers and accounting adjustments, not excessive classified staffing or missing money. The numbers do not support blaming classified employees. When a deficit is caused by leadership and governance decisions, accountability must start at the top, not be imposed on the lowest paid employees who had no role in causing it. Despite this, the district is proposing to eliminate over 20 240 classified positions, most of them frontline staff, pareducators, campus security, custodians, clerical staff, and special education support.
Um, so if there's any questions about uh fund balance or any of the three recommendations, I think that's the time. >> Yeah, I have a question. Um, do we have any caps on any of these fund balances like capital reserve or maintenance reserve? >> Yes. So your your cap on your capital reserve >> is approximately 40.2 million. So you're at 20.1 million. So you're about 50% on your capital reserve. >> All right. And what about the maintenance? >> Maintains reserve. Um you're at approximately 6.4 million and your cap is 8.2 million. >> Okay. >> And that's based on your comprehensive plan. >> Thank you. Anyone else? >> Mrs. Bassford, if I may. Alex. Hi, Danny Robertsi, superintendent. Nice to meet you. >> Nice to meet you. >> Alex, you mentioned the recommendations are not um material or substantial. Could you just give us a perspective in a a budget our size with 300 plus million dollar budget?
The concern is that the entire population of deaf and blind students that are supposed to be served, educated, and cared for at this facility are not going to be transferred up to Ora Valley. Individually behind closed doors, we've learned that these the blind and visually impaired students are being asked to go back to TUSD, back to their classrooms where there simply is not the ability to care for them in the same form or fashion. And more importantly, as an attorney, um I want to be clear that under the state and federal laws, there are a plethora of different laws that are being violated through this entire process. Um and respectfully, I'd like to go ahead and name what those are, but I want to be clear. >> You're at two minutes, ma'am. >> From the time everyone stood up >> when you approach the podium.
Special education teams need adequate staffing time and resources. This positively impacts not only our students with disabilities, but also the general education teachers and classrooms striving to include and support them as well. With these, our programs for our students with disabilities are easier to sustain, and staff no longer feel the weight of these gaps. Our students do not need us to lower expectations, but they do need us to raise the level of support. They need educators who are supported, respected, and given the capacity to do their work well. They need systems that prioritize collaboration, sustainability, and thoughtful decision-making. I'm here tonight to ask for continued partnership. I ask you to always consider how staffing decisions, policies, and resource allocations are impacting classrooms, both general and special education, on a daily basis. I ask that all voices of educators closest to the work continue to be included meaningfully in decision-m.
Moving on to our last lap. This Peach and Baby Mario are pretty dang good. holding first, third, fourth, fifth, and uh sixth. There we go. Fourth is not what you want to call it. I think baby Mario is forest. Looks like Lane couldn't catch first in time, but he did get second. And it looks like we held not first, but second through fifth, which is pretty good. And that makes a win. Thank you for joining us tonight on an amazing day of a bunch of Mario Kart. Unfortunately, we had to reschedu our uh Rocky League due to some technical difficulties and poor Wi-Fi, unfortunately. So, we will be back with that sometime within the next weekish, two weeks. >> But yeah, [snorts] we'll be back with that. So, thank you for joining us again. We'll see you not Monday, but tomorrow for another stream at 5:00 p.
So kind of from both ends that need has increased. >> Okay. >> Well, thanks for chatting with us >> and we're going to go chat with some of your volunteers and keep up the good work. We really appreciate it. >> Oh, thank you. They're the best ones to chat with. >> Okay, great. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> We are now speaking to one of the very many volunteers that are here helping with this temporary with this move for the food pantry to this temporary location. Bob, thanks for taking a few minutes to speak with us. How long have you lived in Ashland? >> Uh about 13 years. >> About 13 years. Uh how long have you been a volunteer here at the food pantry? >> Uh coming up on one year. >> On one year. What brought you to the food pantry as a volunteer?
Um so anyways uh >> well I I I just have one thing to say about that. Ideally the government is reflecting what the people want. We shouldn't actually be yeah >> different ultimately. >> Right. Right. because we technically we are the government. I mean I always say that. Um all right. So our next related topic is uh providing the public with public data. And we have this this is actually broken down into economic development revenue fund report and then public records. And uh so in I think it was back in maybe 2018 uh we took the money from the restaurant tax and we did our first uh at a town meeting. It was our first like Ashland economic revenue uh fund and it was said at the town meeting it was going to be for economic development, the library, social services and then some open space and then they came back like I want to say a year and a half later and wanted to change it and they had a new name for it.
So um hold on to that 102 number in your head and the 34 million in benefits because those numbers are going to change a little bit in our proposal and we'll explain why that is. So um our grants versus general funds. So we rely very heavily on grants funding. Um so 25.9% of our of our funding sources to operate um with that have core staff in it are are funded through grants. Um so in total between our 172 and our 60 million we have 232 million in operations. So there's quite a bit of money that flows to the district. Um and those all of those are funding sources that create a very complex but robust um way to sustain the district. Of those grant sources, we have 50 million that come from the state directly, 9.3 that come from federal and about 635,000 from other sources.
These employees are essential to sa student safety, learning and daily school operations. Cutting them does not fix a structural deficit. It shifts the burden onto the workers and directly harms students. As I reviewed the layoff list, serious questions arose. Are sports and student clubs being discontinued? How will classrooms function in IEP services be maintained? How will student safety be protected and maintained? How will schools meet and maintain daily student and parent needs? There are also legal concerns. Under California Education Code 45117F1, classified employees may not be laid off if temporary or short-term employees are retained to perform the same work. Has the board been presented with a plan to address this? And if these classified positions are laid off, the board must be clear about which programs and services are being reduced or discontinued. >> Can you finish your topic? It's it's three. Just finish your thought, please.
Um can you just give us a general overview of the the fiscal state that that we're in? we're in or is it we're in a good state and these recommendations are relatively just minor clerical type things that are easily taken care of. >> Yeah, I think finan you know financially just going through the reserves and you being at your 2% you know uh maximum amount um you know we feel that you're you're in a healthy position financially. Um the recommendations you know for example the first one being um has to do with you know uh classifying accounts payable and incumbrances a certain way. Um you know the the purchase order for example we found uh was listed as an incumbrance which means that the services were not rendered. Um but then we looked at the invoice we saw that the services were rendered before June 30.
>> Okay. So, would you like me to not name all of the different state and federal? >> That is correct. Your two minutes is over. Thank you. Thank you, MISSY. [applause] The next comment is Trish Ross speaking on behalf of uh Harvey. Trish Ross. Speaking on behalf of Belinda Harney, who was a supervisor here. These are her comments. I worked for ASDB for 36 years. In my observations, there are multiple factors that have resulted in a decline of a once robust and wellrespected agency. I truly feel this could have been prevented, but it would have taken ethical oversight foresight some 15 to 20 years ago. This is where I will focus my attention. I pose the following question to the board because families, alumni, staff, and all community members deserve answers. Why was there an influx of people who are working for the Arizona Department of Education hired to ASDB administration, HR, professional development over the last 12 to 13 years, most, if not all, had no education, training, background, or experience in deaf or blind education.
And I ask that we continue to commit to solutions that are not only compliant, but also sustainable. When we invest in educators, we invest in students. When we protect educator capacity, we protect instructional quality. And when we center collaboration and support, we move closer to the outcomes we all want for our community. I am beyond proud of the work being done in this district. And I want to continue that work with integrity, with excellence, and with the support of our students and educators deserve. Thank you for your time and your commitment to serving all learners. >> Thank you. Next, um, Marie Og. Good evening and thank you for your time. My name is Marie Og and I wanted to share my disappointment that students who participated in a protest earlier this week are facing suspension. I believe that these students do not deserve disciplinary action.
Well, I had retired and uh my wife said I can't sit around the couch all day, but you know, working in the corporate world for so long, um chance to give back and you know, feeding people is a great way to give back. >> Nice. Um how has the move been so far, the this temporary move to this this location? >> We're still partway through, so now we're trying to figure out where stuff needs to land for a while. Um but it, you know, the volunteers that have come in and stepped up really made a big difference. So, uh, you know, Doc, Dave and I have been working the working on the move and starting the packing since last week >> and then everybody came in on Wednesday for the big packing day. Got everything out and uh by the time I got here around 9:40 today, everything was almost all.
Uh the first do you have the Oh, the first bill was uh House 5014. This went through the legislature and that one required the town meeting town manager shall annually provide or report to the town donations or appropriations received, amount of grants and loans made and to whom. Then in I believe it was 2019 that was changed and you know people definitely talked about that town meeting. Um and the new one which was house 3953 in 2020 and you can download these um [clears throat] that one uh the it was at the very be very end. Do you have the very >> because >> the treasurer of the town of Ashland shall until such time as the economic development special revenue fund ceases to exist provide an annual financial report to the town which shall be publicly posted on or before October 1st of each year.
That other source line changes daily. Um, small grants that come in, little awards, one-time funds, competitive grants, and I'll I'll show you some examples of those for a total of 60 million. And of the state amount if you look at the green um the green pie chart of the 60 million um 50 is state but 39 point 39 a.5 million is alliance which is a significant portion of what we do. So we have a lot of staff in our alliance grant and uh it's part that is how we get our ECS a portion of our ECS that comes directly to us but those are also uh restricted funds meaning we can't just spend on whatever we want we have to make sure that it's in line with the scope of the grant and it goes through an approval process with the state. So um in alliance itself so drilling down a little bit in alliance because Alliance is a key player in our in our finances um of the 39.5 million in Alliance you can see that we have 26.3 million in salaries slated and 7.9 million in benefits.