um we haven't really had to do that and in my recent memory as far as I know um but it is there for that purpose uh should we need it. So there is some there is some um some tolerance in in our risk. Some other things important to know uh that is is basically how we have been making improvements and how we approach the budgeting process um moving heading forward. So, um, we've spent a lot of times behind closed doors. We've spent a lot of time working with, um, some other folks outside of our team and in partnership with the city really discussing finances, drilling down in our practices and looking at how procedurally how we, um, how we come and arrive at the numbers and make the decisions that we make. Um, as you know, again, in the surplus, a lot of it was has to do with our salaries and benefits and a few other places that we needed some improvement on.
I work with their parent. We we work on behavior issues. I was a behavior therapist before this. I mean, I really try to bring a lot to the table here. But, I mean, what do I say? As a parent, I see our support staff gone. So, who's going to support our kids? I mean, who's going to be there? that nobody's gonna have time for them. As a staff member, I mean, you guys have heard it. You've heard it. But there's already not enough of us. We already have to find substitutes all the time. There's a very often students without a one-on-one. I mean, we're we're switching positions and trying to scramble to make sure everybody has everything they need already. And now you're cutting 74 special needs paras. Ouch. Plus a lot more of the regular para educators. We need the para educators badly. We need all of the classified staff.
The board hired Kelly Education, Kelly Services, and Kelly was able to bring that coverage rate up to almost 98 plus%. 98% of the absences were covered in this district by a substitute. However, this coverage rate has exceeded $500,000 a month. This year alone through December 31st, we have had 1,000 more absences than we did in the previous year. In December, we had 500 more staff absences than we did last year. So, while supporting our classrooms is absolutely a priority. That level of spending, it's not sustainable. It's sustainable if we want to be like another district and take money from our savings and plug a hole right now and say, "Let's worry about it next year." Then we could sustain it. So because of this, we're making responsible adjustments now to reduce use where appropriate. We have not eliminated substitute teachers. We have reduced the number of substitutes.
>> Kendall Greenland will be on deck. >> All right, ma'am. You can go ahead. Um members of the board, uh Madame President, um my name is Batashup and I um I am a parent at ASDB Tuson campus. I came here with my daughter Kasha. She's 80 years old. And I wrote a speech and then I drove for two hours to be here with [clears throat] two little children and one severely disabled. And I thought about it. I wrote you numerous letters. You say that you read them. I trust you did. [snorts] I just want you to see my face and I want you to see my daughter. And I want you to know that we went to the USD. We were there for three years. They did everything they could for my child. Everything. She didn't learn. She came to ASDB this year in August.
We had a great day. Uh during our classroom visits, we saw a variety of activities, including several examples of small group reading instruction, uh collaborative math groups, a music lesson. There was a fun investigation into whether Spongebob committed a crime. I haven't heard back yet on the results. Um but we will need to get the outcome of that trial. Uh it was clear that meaningful intentional learning is happening at Quail Run and our meetings with the different uh employee groups always a highlight. Uh we heard a strong theme of community and just positivity that emerged from those conversations. Specific comments shared with us included there's an overall positive environment here. There's a sense of community here. There's a positive energy here. Everyone is so helpful. We're on a positive trajectory and I can't wait to see what the future holds for our kids. When we had the opportunity to speak with the students, they shared their admiration for each of our teachers.
Uh, and it's such a simple concept that I just don't understand why you would want to make your own jobs far more difficult than just putting the information on the website and then you would have far less people asking for it because it would be on the website. >> I would I would assume there'd be less requests if there was more public information available and some people would >> would miss it and they'd point them say I'll go to this link, right? But that might still simplify >> um we have a ways to go but I think it does start with being um being forthcoming with the information. >> Yeah. And unfortunately, I've had um some un I don't know [clears throat] what you want to call it, some weird experiences asking for information and I was build at one point and and the reasons they were billing me like it was these weird software glitches and just all this crazy stuff that they said would would happen and they would get through the computer run but then that it might not work and they have to it was it was just so far-fetched that I you are allowed to appeal everyone should know this you can appeal to the state of Massachusetts if they won't give you your information and you're you're pretty certain it's information that you should be given and you appeal to the state and it's very easy.
But um outside of that, our standing practice every year, historical practice is that we budgeted um a budget to budget. So if we had 102 million in salaries last year, we added 5% to account for most of the the the salaries and we would roll that forward. Um a little less strategic than how we're going to be operating now moving forward, but uh we never really had the margins to play with. So that was always the little bit of a safer route um in how we budgeted and not uncommon in other other school districts. Um we had unfilled and underfilled the vacancies that really became somewhat ongoing, a little bit perpetual um in some cases. Um and but in most cases, we've had a lot of churn in our district like everybody else in the last few years. Um we've always used aggressive healthc care benefit projections.
I mean, the behaviors are going to get worse. And as a parent, you're going to see behaviors get worse at home, too, because there's nobody to help these kids regulate. There's nobody to help teach them for the majority of their day how to deal with the emotions that they're getting, which means they'll be left on their own to deal with it at home with maybe parents that aren't so trained to deal with these things. It's a lot. My family personally, it's it's a lot. It's financial loss. I mean, I'm already feeling the anxiety and the depression, the anger. There's a lot of that helplessness. It's a lot, guys. I mean, put yourself in this position. And where are we gonna find something else? All right, that's all. Thank you. [applause] Next is Amy Carter and then Jenna and then Hector Guzman. Good evening. My name is Amy Carter and I work with moderate severe preschoolers.
These are not meant to be cuts to the quality of education. They're are exercises in fiscal discipline. We're acting early to avoid long-term stress. We're acting now so that a year from now, you don't read about the district is $15 million in the hole and have to lay off, you know, 150 staff members. That will not happen under my watch. I will not unless there is some catastrophic financial disaster. We will not be laying off staff due to financial reasons. We have to keep a close eye on this. Up until a couple up until yesterday, we didn't know what our federal funding was going to look like. We were facing a potential $23 million shortfall in federal funding. However, we re learned some really fantastic news. Not the best news, but really good news that Congress passed the bill, president signed it, and federal aid will be at least level.
And I felt at peace because she learned in a school setting for the first time in her life. Sending her to the use TSDB TUSD will reverse that this campus those teachers are absolutely incredible. Their treasure you don't kill the treasure. You don't do that. You don't you don't do that. And I understand I I am a finance major myself. I understand this is about money. I understand that. I understand about school finance. Maybe not agency finance, but I understand school finance and I understand about enrollment. And I'm here to tell you that this is not enrollment issue. You know, when you come to the new school, when you come and experience something great, the first thing you think >> I'm sorry, ma'am, your two minutes is over. >> Thank you. [applause] >> And the next person on deck is Brandon Decker. My name is Kendall Greenland.
uh their quotes, comments included. We have great teachers here. All of our teachers are so nice and of course Miss A is the best. So these statements I think speak volumes of the positive, supportive environment that's been cultivated at Quail Run. I want to congratulate them and thank them for opening their doors. And this concludes my report. >> Thank you, Dr. Strereer. Um can I get a motion for the consent [clears throat] agenda, please? >> I move that the governing board approve the consent agenda as presented. >> Second.
You just send them an email and they get back to you right away with one of their lawyers that they've received it. And I had an experience during COVID where I asked for something. It were emails between people which are public records and I had to go three times. I think it was three times I went to the state and people said, "Oh, you shouldn't go more than once." was like, "Well, I'm going to keep going because this is public information." I ended up getting it. But the town attorneys got involved because they were writing the letters that were being sent to to stand behind this money they wanted me to charge. Um, and I'm like, "Oh my god, it's just all these convoluted weirdness." And in the end I got it anyway. So and then more recently I asked for something in the fall and there are people I have seen asking for just t a lot of stuff multiple times or even in one uh information request and mine was not a lot.
So when you get when you're working with actuarials, they give you a range. Here's the number of people that you have. Um here's your high and here's your low. And we've always um aired on the higher side to be safe, which is probably why we've never ever had to use reserves. Um and also we've rolled up department budgets. Um those are being scrutinized a little bit differently. We've had large swings in our finances, huge amounts of esser money, ARPA money, alliance ECS increases very quickly, $9 million. So those things tend to also wreak havoc uh and creating a lot of movement in the system that is a little bit difficult to keep track of. um moving forward, we did a lot of work with projection to budget and it was something that um even I had to get a little bit used to. Um no, but this is what you're actually spending, you know, at the end of the day.
For 11 years, I have taken great pride being a member of this AVUSD family. I find that very hard to do with these recent developments. I stand before you saddened and appalled by what is occurring. I'm saddened that the lives of 241 hardworking, classified AVUSD employees are being taken for granted while many salaries within AVUSD are ballooned. It's appalling. The AVUSD seal states dignity, community, authenticity, service. How can you claim dignity? The principle of treating people with respect and not as objects. In the proposed layoffs, we are not pawns in this game. Where is the community? The feeling of fellowship with others as a result of sharing common goals in the proposed layoffs when doing so removes the community of adults students depend on daily to achieve their goals. I see no evidence of authenticity being genuine, real, and true to oneself in laying off 241 employees because of a fiscal shortfall we had nothing to do with creating.
We're told that is significant. But we didn't know that three days ago. This just happened. Financial decisions are never made in isolation. They're collaborative. They're reviewed through multiple layers and are designed so that we could have long-term stability. Next month, during our public budget hearing, I will share even more details so our entire community can see exactly how our resources are allocated. The bottom line is this. The state of our district is strong. Our finances are stable because we are acting early and responsibly. We cannot predict what future state aid funding looks like. We don't know that. We won't know what state aid we're getting until sometime next month. And a significant portion of our budget is based on state aid. So, while we cannot predict what we're getting, we're prepared today. We're prepared for the future. And I need our staff to know that we care deeply about them, about their peace of mind.
I'm reading this on behalf of someone who couldn't be here. I'm submitting this public comment to address a significant and growing loss of confidence in ASDB administration and governance, particularly as it relates to decision-making, transparency, and leadership accountability impacting the Tucson campus. Between January 24th and January 27th, 2026, a formal petition was circulated in the community with results submitted to the ASDB board of directors and the office of the governor. In that short period, 888 verified stakeholders signed, including current staff, parents, and guardians, former staff, students, and alumni, and community advocates. This level of participation over just a few days is not routine. It signals widespread concern across those who work in the system, rely on the system, and have lived experience within it. Importantly, staff were provided an option to sign anonymously due to fear of retaliation. All anonymous staff signatures were independently verified with identities held securely in trust.
Any discussion? All those in favor? >> I >> Miss Raymond. >> Thank you. >> Motion carries. >> Unfinished business. None. New business. J1 is uh Mr. Bogart. >> Thank you, President Mike Cronis, governing board members, superintendent, and guests. I'm happy to present some new numbers as it relates to the Moran Unified School District's expenditure budget. Excuse [clears throat] me. The last time we presented the expenditure budget for this fiscal year was on July 14th. And so it's been a few months since you've been able to dig into some of the district's financials. Um, fortunately for our district, the financial position has improved since July 14th um by a sum of $1,110,881. The vast majority of that improvement has come from an increase in resource students in our exceptional education services. Um we had a number of uh students, dozens of students that were added to the system >> [clears throat] >> um who had resource services for multiple disabilities.
It was actually two things that were said at a public meeting that I just wanted to have in writing and then like a simple computer run and then I was sent a bill. But it we have we had a 2hour if it takes less than two hours there was no charge and this did took an hour and a half and they were billing me like $37 for two things that were mentioned at meeting. that you would have. So again, I I I I don't I I wrote here we have I I like to write action items. Be the public hero and or heroine and just make everybody's life easier and just give people the information because if you don't, we think of that quote the gate just random like why don't they want me to have this information? Um so uh one quick thing I wanted to share and we do have another uh we have another topic here but I read that Hopington I read it in their uh news they have a newspaper called the Hopington Independent that they had somehow overbudgeted the people and I think it was I wrote it down here somewhere I think it was five 5.7 million and they want to return it back to the people and they were going to have a meeting in December but I think it's moved because it was a bad time of year but I was like they said they overestimated debt payment employee insurance cost um and the health insurance actually went down by 2 million and I just thought to myself wow that is so utterly refreshing that they want to return money to the people because we have a surplus every year.
And so we make projections based on on the actuals as opposed to what what the original what our hopes, right? Actuals versus our hopes. Um and certainly we hope to fill all of our positions every day and every year, but it doesn't always happen. Uh and so there's a little pattern there that we need to start accounting for. Um we are do and with that we're taking a very close analysis of unfilled and underfilled positions and moving towards a more conservative healthcare benefit projection recognizing that not all the staff is here but also um projecting down on the more conservative side. um doing work on adjusting those budgets and then calculating and absorbing costs and using grants very strategically in a much more um I think we're calling we're using a scalpel maybe uh instead of a instead of a sledgehammer perhaps. Okay. Um overall uh you will [clears throat] see a very marginal ask um representing 1.75% increase to our our budget to budget.
You've lost sight of service. The action of helping or doing work for someone because laying off 241 employees will dramatically alter the educational services we provide to students. Of the proposed classified employee layoffs, 167 of those are PAR educators. Let me say that number again. 167. The support provided by PAR educators in classrooms throughout AVUSD is impossible to measure. The decision to lay off 167 parah educators is devastating and reckless and it directly harms the students who rely on us every single day. PAR educators are not optional support staff. We are essential to maintaining daily classroom activities, ensuring student safety and meeting the academic, behavioral and emotional needs of our most vulnerable learners. Many of these classrooms cannot function effectively or safely without adequate pareducator support. Removing para educators strips students of the consistency, individualized attention and stability that they require to learn and succeed.