Um adults uh state adult ed, bilingual grant, priority school district, interd district magnet, that's the magnet grant that uh supports the our current AIS program. Um and a few other extended school summer school grants. Our other grant category right now currently has some uh they could be private grants, they could be one-time funds, temporary funds, uh you know awards from the state from competitions. Um you can see these are not reliable grants uh by any stretch and they're more often um very very very temporary. That number changes on a monthly basis. Okay. surpluses and reserves. We don't usually talk about this in our normal budget workshop. However, I think it's a little bit of an elephant in the room when we talk when we talk about surpluses. So, again, no secret that we have turned up um a few surpluses over the last couple of years um and through a lot of our auditing u learnings um and through better control of what we're doing and getting our handle on the financial aspects of things uh accounting for turnover even our finance department.
I'm a par profofessional at Victor Valley High School. When classified positions are eliminated, it is not an abstract budget decision. It is a direct loss to students, classrooms, and school communities. This is frontline student support, not executive management. Cutting hundreds of classified roles while preserving layers of management sends a painful message about whose work is valued and whose is considered optional. These decisions land hardest on those who are closest to the students and who have had the least power in the system yet carry the greatest responsibility. We recognize that districts face financial pressures, but fiscal responsibility must never come at the expense of dignity, equity, or the essential services that allow schools to function. Classified employees are not line items. They are people, family, and trusted adults in the lives of children. The district once recognized classified employees as essential to keeping schools functioning during CO.
And I think it's important, especially in light of some things that happened this week, that I speak to the fiscal health of our district. Lately, we've heard in the news about neighboring school districts facing sudden, massive deficits. These situations don't happen overnight. They're typically a result of repeated mismanagement over many years, neglect, or ignorance. A neighboring district laid off 100 teachers and staff as of December 31st. Another neighboring district was threatening to lay off 90 teachers and staff until just last week they received an emergency transfer of $6.5 million from their from the city. which is unheard of. Another district found a $20 million hole. I want to be very clear that is not the case here in Clifton. We are fiscally stable. There's no emergency. There's no shortfall. As tonight's audit demonstrated, we run a tight operation. Our controls are in place, our oversight is active, and our financial practices are sound.
I'm speaking as a teacher employed for the Arizona State School for the Deaf and the Blind Tucson campus. I'm one of the only teachers that teach deaf and blind. I think it's important to acknowledge that by putting our students ASB in a different site, they will get O andM braille and their assistive technology. They will not get the full campus experience which these families behind me deserve. I teach two different classes. I teach a coffee shop and a shirt shop. These are real life skills. I don't just teach deaf. I don't teach blind. They are together in a realworld situation. Learning how to communicate, learning how to work, learning for the future. Please don't tear it apart. Today, when I went off campus, I had a student that was deaf and a student was blind. They're not separate sitting in the van together. They are together, working together, learning together, shopping together, helping each other.
Uh this week marks National School Counseling Week. So, I did want to take this opportunity to express my gratitude and to let our counselors know just how fortunate we are to have them in our district. I think we can all agree that no student can reach their full potential without the foundation of safety, belonging, and the support that our counselors provide to them each and every day. So, thank you to our counselors. Your impact is immeasurable. This past week has also allowed us to celebrate some additional outstanding staff members from across the district. Uh we are proud to announce that four additional uh nationally board certified educators have achieved their certification. Uh NBCT is the most prestigious professional uh credential in K12 education. This achievement signifies a rigorous commitment to the highest teaching standards and to a proven impact on student learning. So, I want to wish uh congratulations to Robin Ule at Morirana High School and Lauren Lundberg at Rattlesnake Ridge Elementary School, uh Charlene Proer from Roadrunner Elementary School, who put me into some jump roping during the delivery.
That's great. So time frame, we were talking with Yushi and we got an update at the select board meeting. So you're expecting to be here till May or June. Yes. >> How are you going to keep the public informed of that timing as you go through this? >> Yes. So we have various means of communication. So we put flyers in orders. We have our information on every order form online. Um we have signage at both the community center and here. We'll make sure people know via social media platforms. We're also going to run a couple campaigns with our PD, which I'm not going to give away all the details. >> Okay. >> Um just to bring awareness that we're here and then we'll do, you know, everything sort of in reverse when we move back. >> Okay. The one thing is so this was this is the Ashlin substate police substation.
>> I've done public records requests. Um, I will, it's interesting how it's evolved over time because back in I want to say 2012, people who were asking for public records were almost like >> it was bad. >> They were like publicly shamed. I had seen I mean I was one of those people who was publicly shamed. So, I'm speaking from a a personal experience here >> where they would mention um your name and and Jim and I because we were doing this show be in 2014, we did a lot of records requests um to get the information to get to share with people. I mean, I would hope that our podcast listeners uh want to be confident that we've actually got actual information. Um, and then they would list, they created this, I don't understand it. It was like this money amount that we were costing them money when we did a public record.
I I believe Mike is number five in a very short uh time period. Um and uh but we have a great team that's in place right now and thank you Angela for coming, our assistant finance director. Um but there's a lot of folks working very hard to clean up years of of what can only be described as you know a little bit of a um backend mess. So we're cleaning up some of those those things. But in the process of that um in the last two years um legislation has allowed us to retain um all superintendents all school boards to retain 2% of any surplus that has that emerges. Um and so for us um sort of the uh you know uh the the blessings if you will um that in this situation is that we do have some reserves set aside um on the board side uh from the last couple of years.
That reality has not changed. Standing with classified staff is standing with students. Standing with classified staff is standing with fairness. Standing with classified staff is standing for the future of public education. We call for transparency, shared sacrifice, and solutions that protect those who do the most with the least recognition. Our schools cannot thrive without classified employees. and they should not be asked to carry the cost of decisions they did not create. What has fundamentally changed about the necessity of this work? I respectfully request that this question be addressed publicly at the next meeting so it is part of the official record. History will remember whether this board chose to protect students by standing with classified staff or mistook essential work for convenience. Have a great day. >> Thank you. >> [applause] >> All right. Next will be Jennifer Klene, followed by Amy Carter, and then Jenna Kad Kadras.
We are a district that consistently does more with less. If you look at state data, districts of our size often employ significantly more administrators and instructional staff. We choose to operate lean, ensuring we meet every obligation to our students while remaining mindful that every tax dollar we spend represents the hard-earned money of our residents. Stewardship of these dollars guides every decision that we make. However, while we are stable, we are not immune to the economic pressures that are impacting every school district and every municipality in New Jersey. There are two specific areas that are driving recent current adjustments. The first is health care costs. Rising health benefit costs are a statewide challenge, if not a national challenge. This year in Clifton, our usage has significantly exceeded projections. Increased claims and higher utilization have driven costs well beyond normal growth trends. In January of this year, the state health benefits plan went up 30%.
Just because I'm deaf, if I'm signing, gee, orientation mobility is great because I watched them almost hit into a those big pillars that are Costco. Anyways, so please just realize we work together. We are better together. And these families behind me, a little bit of my parent hat, deserve that. Thank you. Thank you. [applause] Thank you. The next one is Elizabeth Smith. [cough] >> President you can if I can make a quick comment. It's a baseball thing. If we have a person coming down and we call the next person on deck, at least they can be prepared to come down a little more quickly, so it'll save us some time. >> Okay, Linda, would you like to let the next person know that they're on deck? >> Uh, no problem. Next person is Biata Terasuk. >> Terasuk. Hello members of the board. Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to speak this evening.
I don't know if maybe less worked me out. Uh Jana Akens, who's joining us tonight from Dove Mountain. and of course Erin Guyire, who's also from Dove Mountain, who maintained her previously earned certification. This week, we also got to celebrate the 2340 Foundation employees of the year. We did our annual surprise announcements. So, I want to wish a congratulations to our teacher of the year, Mr. Tom Carmichael, who's the band and choir director at Picture Rocks Elementary. >> [applause] >> our support staff of the year, Carrie Stanford, our CTE data integrity specialist. And of course, our exempt employee of the year, Jill Cordova, our elementary literacy coordinator as well. So, and we look forward to recognizing each of these outstanding employees at future board meetings. I also want to thank our MUSD parent partnership. Uh this past week we held our quarterly parent partnership meeting which this was our first uh safe schools panel and we were able to bring together a crossf functional group to provide vital information to our families that were in attendance.
So the police have used it and we know that people here in the plaza have really appreciated that. Will the police still have a presence here at the substation? >> Absolutely. And the police department, so thank you to them for sharing this space with us. they'll absolutely be able to utilize the space as needed. Um, and so really shouldn't interrupt any services as far as our PD goes. >> Great. Well, Katherine, thanks for chatting with us. Uh, congratulations on this move. And if you have questions about the food pantry, make sure you reach out to Yushi, who is the Ashlin food resources manager and or on the website is a good place to do that as well. And thanks for watching this segment of Around the Clock.
And I could never understand that because I mean these people have salaries and I don't know how you can say that someone's costing money >> when it's a public requirement. Government. >> Yeah, it's a public requirement. And this those sunshine laws, >> when were those I don't I I don't have this written down, but what when was it or 18? The state passed these the state uh these sunshine laws that really toughened up people having access to public information. Um so I don't know it was sometime during co they set up this next requ system which is better you go in and you you know put your name and although some people do it anonymously and then you ask for what you want and it gets sent to various department. Um do you have any experience with things you've asked for? I haven't recently, so I'm trying to recall, but I think that I think it's I wish it was a little easier to find on the website, but it's actually, like you said, pretty good, pretty easy, and um it's obviously a necessary feature of government.
So from 2023 to 2024 we've got about 2.8 million 2425 about three and potentially three um at 2% at 2425 but those are unaudited numbers. So we'll monitor those but there is um a healthy reserve uh in the background um and that will be important um as we talk about what our ask is and um our margins that we're we're going to be operating from. In addition to the district 2% reserves, we have a very healthy fully maxed out health stop-loss reserve of about $10.4 million. So, we are fully maxed out there, which is great. And why we have to carry that, that's a requirement. So, if we because we are self-insured, so if we should dip down or have a a tough year, that there is a reserve um held that we can go to the city for to have some of those funds released as part of our part of our needs.
Hi, good evening. >> Hi. Let's see. [laughter] >> Hi, I am here from three different perspectives. I'm here as a community member. I'm here as a parent and I'm also here as a staff member. I am a special needs para educator at Granite Hills. Um I'll do them in order [laughter] as a community. This kind of job loss, I mean it it affects everybody, not just my family, but everybody. I mean it's reduced taxes, it's reduced spending, local spending specifically. It's a strain on social services. I know I for one am probably going to have to get some kind of help. I mean, jobs aren't easy to find right now. Um, and oh boy, it's an increase in social tension. I think we've uh been witnessing a little bit of that. [laughter] Um, as a parent, I see what we do for these kids. I work with I'm a one-on-one with a student this year.
30%. That is money that's not budgeted and it's not something that we can just take away. Okay, we're not going to have prescription benefits anymore for our staff. So, while you're not in danger of losing that, if we have to pay a significant amount of money more for health for our health care, then that money has to come from somewhere. So the second area that has significantly um drive uh driven our current adjustment is substitute coverage. So to ensure instructional continuity, to make sure our teachers have had the time that they are contractually obligated to have, but more importantly to help with morale and to help teachers be able to do their job well. For the past couple years, we have been filling nearly every absence, every vacancy with a substitute teacher. Just two and a half years ago, when the district hired our own substitutes, our absences were covered at a rate of about at its height 44%.
Welcome superintendent Annette Reichman. I stand here before you as a parent of three children who attend ASDB Tucson campus. We are a family of since 2021. I currently work at TUSD at Miles ELC. This situation is dismissing our blind children and pushing all our disabled children into the community that are not ready and are not privileged to have students like my kids. We already have ex we already experience lack of language, social cultural disparities. So why put him back into the community that's not ready to serve our students? I ask the board to please not vote on the relocation or to please pause until we have further data and collaboration for a better future. Thank you. >> Thank you. [applause] >> Next one on deck. I don't see a name. Uh >> one second. We're calling the next person on deck. >> Kendall is next.
Uh special thank you to those who served on the panel. Uh representatives from the Morirana Police Department, representatives from the Puma County Sheriff's Department. Uh Mr. Mark Golagosski our own assistant superintendent of operations. Adam Omeer, who's our safety and security coordinator, and Christy Hessie, who's our social worker and student and family and support services. As was mentioned earlier, I want to congratulate Bryant Bonszaf, a seventh grade student from Morirana Middle School who earned first place in the annual Morirana Unified School District spelling bee for the third consecutive year. Uh, an extraordinary accomplishment. Uh Bryant along with our other finalists will be representing MUSD at the Puma County uh spelling be on February 14th. And then [clears throat] finally, I want to take a moment to thank the Quail Run team uh who opened their doors to Mr. Holt, Mrs. Raymond, and myself back in early January for our superintendent board campus visit.
If you look at all the requests, they're they vary so much from um simple I'd like to see if there's any permits open on my house to yeah, >> whatever. So, I think I think the streamlining of the electronic was good and I think that probably streamlining of um answering >> could be improved and maybe some of this stuff like you wouldn't have to ask if it was on the website of that economic development revenue fund report. That is such a brilliant a brilliant comment because with salaries, every town is posting their salaries bus. I mean, I've had to ask for it. I've seen uh there's another person I noticed on X request who asks every year for the salaries. like they would save themselves so much time and energy and save our time and energy if they would just put everything on the website.