And whereas this year's theme for Black History Month, a century of Black History commemorations, marking the 100th ad anniversary of dedicated Black History Month observances and focusing on its impact on identity, pride, and equality, while also celebrating diverse black cultures and future progress. This theme encourages reflection on black history's contributions and ongoing relevance, especially in light of challenges to teaching black history. Whereas we encourage the celebration of Black History Month to provide a continuing opportunity for all people in the United States to learn from the past and understand the experiences that have shaped the United States. And now, therefore, be it resolved, the Clifton Board of Education proclaims February 2026 Black History Month, and encourages staff and students to honor it during February and throughout the year with interactive research, classroom lesson plans, guest speakers, displays, lectures, practical activities, and cultural celebrations. >> Thank you.
I have also worked at ASB for 25 years and I am not a number. I stand before you with deep concern and a strong sense of responsibility to the blind and visually impaired students of ASB whose lives are directly affected by the proposed cluster. ASDB is not simply a school placement. For many students, it is the first place they have felt safe, understood, and able to truly learn. Many arrived after experiencing bullying, isolation, academic failure, and lack of access, vision specific instruction in public schools. On this campus, they are not surviving. They are thriving. They are building independence, confidence, and essential skills. At this time, ASDB and the Tucson camp Tucson Unified School District do not have confirmed cluster sites, nor has a finalized signed agreement been reached with TUSD. And it's February. While cluster sites are inevitable, as we have been told in meetings, they should not be rushed due to agency financial challenges.
>> Any questions or discussions? >> I have some questions. So, um, at the Vista Academy, the expected enrollment is that is that from outside the district? >> I believe it's a combination. The projection that Mr. Bogart provided was at least 149 students for VISTA next year, but based on our current applications, we hope that it will be larger than that. So it is a combination of both in district and out of district students. >> What is the makeup this year in district versus out of district? >> I'm not sure. I don't have that number, but I can get it for you. >> Well, that that number would impact my vote. Okay. Because because if we are projecting and more enrollment at the Vista Academy because we're taking kids from Mountain View and Morana High, then where are the corresponding decreases in in staff at those schools?
Um that's kind of offbook if you will. Um and we hope to improve that. You know there's been a lot of work. Um we've taking on uh residency programs and doing working on build our owns. Um we've had uh we've hired someone uh directly in charge of working on recruitment and retention to help build capacity there. Um because we've grown um in a lot of you know in a lot of ways um in some places you know we've outgrown our ability to to sustain and and especially with the economy and the market the way that it is. Uh we're not the only district struggling to fill, but that just means we have to step up our recruitment efforts a little bit more aggressively to keep up. Um so we have some savings there. Um as a budget overview, when you put it all together, looking at FY26 to 27, uh we laid it out in sort of chart style so you can see how those numbers play up against one another.
Pareducator and special needs paras play a vital role in students education and daily interactions on campus. Special education paras are imperative for student success. They maintain structure and help achieve their academic and social goals. They help their students become more functional individuals in our community and our school environment. This year, I am proud to say that my campus was taken off CSI improvement. As much as I'd like to toot my own horn and say it was all due to the hard work of our teachers, it was not. It was the work of our collective staff, teachers, pareducators, and the procedures that we had put in place to help bolster their academic achievement and social development with very scripted expectations to meet each student's individual needs. I can't even imagine meeting all those needs as a teacher alone with no support from classified staff. I am a realist.
>> Commemorations. >> Take the N out. It's the end. >> I can read it. >> So, we are looking for a motion to approve uh under education administration EA1 to6. >> Motion to approve. >> Second. >> Motion by Commissioner Paris and second by Commissioner Kenova.
Financial challenges are an agency issue, not a student issue and must never drive placement decisions. A campus-based model must remain a viable and available option for our students. I am also deeply concerned about the lack of transparency. Families and staff who work with these students daily have not been meaningfully included in any of this process. Trust has been damaged. Additionally, enrollment data as Christy said to redesign is incomplete. Existing furls have not been reviewed and districts were told we are not accepting students. These students are not numbers. Lastly, an eighth grade student, Maddie, who was here, gave permission for me to share her words about returning to public school in which she sent you a letter. Maddie says, "There were times I was viciously hit with my own cane and tried to avoid using my cane because of bullies. I was told I didn't deserve a good life and would never have one if I couldn't see.
See what I mean? >> Yes. >> Because if we're just >> moving them >> moving people around, then we shouldn't be hiring new teachers. So the staffing that we allocated to Mountain View and Morirana High School was based on their population projections. So Mr. Bogart and I worked closely on that. There was a slight reduction at Mountain View High School. So we are taking those numbers into consideration. >> But we're not we're not talking about those tonight. >> No, we're not talking about those tonight. I [clears throat] didn't ask for any increases at those sites. Yeah. So, so how do we how do we lure somebody to be a teacher for one section? That's a few hours a week, right? >> Sure. So, actually, some of these positions have been posted pending your board approval and some of these were already p I asked for approval several months ago.
Um so the original, which is this year, is 172. The request next year is 175. The difference is the 2.9 um for about 1.75. It's really 1.74 with a lot of numbers after that, but we've rounded it up to 175. Okay. And just as a comparison to surrounding towns, we always superintendents like to check in with one another on what the asks are. Um and these are the published asks from our area superintendent. As you can see, we're dramatically lower than um our area counterparts. Um, but we also have some some budget resetting to do. So, that's what that is reflective of. It's not that we don't have needs, it's just that we we definitely have some uh areas to reset. We've done that through this budget. And um we're hoping that um you know, we're full sail ahead with with our strategies, our missions, and our vision.
As much as I feel confident in my excellent care and quality education for my students, I provide for Without parah educators and others classified other classified support staff, there would be many students whose needs were not met. >> Your time is up. Can you wrap it up? >> Yes, I can. Sorry. Par educators fill in those gaps. Provide for students with support the teachers have difficulty meeting. As long as I've been a teacher at AVUSD, all I've heard is put the kids first. Kids first. And that's what we do. So tonight, as I consider making as you consider making these cuts and prepare to pay a lawyer $500 an hour to fight against CTA factf finding next Thursday, may it weigh heavy on your conscience and guide you to make the right decision and put the students of AVUSD first. And if you're not putting them first, who are you putting them fir who are you putting first?
Any discussion? No, >> Mr. Shadow, please. Uh, >> Mr. Breniac, >> yes. >> Mr. Kenova, >> yes. >> Mr. Paris, yes. >> Mr. Ragdale, yes. >> Mr. Ciano, >> yes. >> Mr. Warz, yes. >> Vice President Santiago, >> yes. >> President Paris, >> yes. >> Motion carries. >> All right. Um, moving on with the agenda. Can I have a motion for C1 through 27? >> Motion, Madam President. >> Second. >> Motion by U. Commissioner um Sio and second by Commissioner Brunak. Discussion seeing on roll call. >> Mr. Bronziac. >> Yes. >> Mr. Kenova. >> Yes. >> Mr. Paris. >> Yes. >> Mr. Ragdale. >> Yes. >> Mr. Ciano. >> Yes. >> Mr. Warz. >> Yes. >> Vice President Santiago? >> Yes. >> President Paris. >> Yes. >> Motion carries. >> Okay. Could I have a motion for D1 through D15? >> D1 through D15. >> Motion.
I was told to end my life several times throughout my time in public school. Maddie is not a number. I respectfully ask >> few minutes are over, ma'am. Thank you. >> And on the website, it does say three. >> Please hold up your pictures. Everyone hold them up. This is the school for the blind ASV. [applause] >> [applause] >> We have actually reached our 45 minutes that I have allowed for public comment. We do have public comments that were submitted to us via the website per our policy. Those comments will as always be posted to the website and available to be read, but we do not have time to read any further. We are going to move on with the agenda and we are going to move on to agenda item 1.3 the superintendent report. Good evening President Buchanan, board members, assistant superintendent Cooper, Deputy Assistant Superintendent Ketchov, and the ASDB community here.
Those.33s we're actually having some really great interest in. I know Miss Golagoski is super excited about the quality of applicants for some of those positions. Uh she is also very flexible in combining some of the positions. So an electives teacher might also teach uh let's see one of our examples was Spanish also did fitness and fitness and wellness. So we've made some combinations. So it is more desirable for someone looking for more a full-time position versus part-time. But we were very pleased with the number of part-time applicants that we have right now. >> Okay. All right. Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Any other questions? >> Yeah. I guess theoretically though, we talk about size caps in classrooms as well. So to Mr. Carlson's point with being a good judge of taxpaying dollars. If we can if those people are being pulled over, not we can lower class sizes still with the same staffing as well.
Um and this is mostly there's a lot of one-time reset in here. Um but for this year um we'll take the take the win on a a smaller ask but that also satisfies the needs of the district. Um and lastly there are assumptions in the budget right that the enrollment stays the same. So we go into this it's it's we start building these budgets in maybe December after sitting with schools and um analyzing our trends and our needs. Um and we know that um things change between now and June. Um, so the budget assumes that enrollment and uh the students that we have remain stable as is. The health profile of this of the people that currently work here remains the same. Um, our labor market trends continue to to be the way that they are right now. Uh, and that any emergencies that we have that encounter across the system can be handled within our own budget.
Thank you for your time and consideration. I apologize tonight. I'm a little more choppy, but um I'm by myself. So, thank you for your time and um I just ask that we can all work together and figure this out. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> We need to go into close session to discuss the following. Number one, pupil personnel expulsion cases exp 2526 through EXP number 13 2526 expulsion case step number 1 2526 and annual review AR number 18 2526 number two conference on litigation government Code section 54956.9A current litigation six cases CIVB CIVVSVS 2563 329 government code section 54954.5 C and 54956.9D 2 and E1 anticipated litigation two cases 2024 25-1 and 2025-26 um-1 government code section 54954.5C and 54956.9D and E1 anticipated litigation six cases 202425-01 202526-01 government code section 54954.5D and 54956.95 anticipated litigation six cases claimment Lugo Leanne Lraine Claimment Ringcon Cheryl Virginia Ray.
>> Second. Motion by Commissioner Bruntia, second by Commissioner Santiago. Discussion. >> I have a question. Sorry. >> That's okay. >> Commissioner Rags. Okay. >> Did we miss Oh, >> you want it again? >> Yeah. Um, just a question. When was the last time that we had the architect drawings for school 12 and this high school? >> When was the last time? >> Yeah. >> Uh, >> do we know >> particularly for the roof? >> Yeah. I don't think we have done the roofs for those buildings or that correction that portion of the roof. >> Okay. >> So, we did them when we did the um the referendum >> referendum >> but that was just to put the rooftop units on it. That wasn't checking like the structural the structural integrity of the roof especially now years after they referred to that. That was what 2019 Dr.
Welcome to our February 5th, 2026 board meeting. I have been sitting here since the beginning of the meeting, all these 45 minutes, and listening to all of your comments. And now it is my turn to speak. I will open my presentation with three questions. My first question is how can ASDB continue to educate and support students who are deaf, heart of hearing, blind, visually impaired and deafb blind for the next 50 years? My second question, how can ASDB serve fewer students with more limited resources and funding? And my third question is, how can ASDB align our student count and student needs with our facilities and our budget during this afternoon's presentation and discussion? I would like you all to keep those three questions in mind. First, our current reality. A few of you have mentioned that our current reality is our student count. We do know that all nationwide and throughout the state of Arizona, birth rates are declining.
Correct. Like I'm not not misreading that. Theoretically, if we have a teacher and we lose eight kids, they have four sections and instead of 35, we'll be at 33 now in that class. But that doesn't hinder getting rid of a halftime FTE. Correct. >> Correct. We we're currently using the number for 33 at secondary for staffing. >> Okay, perfect. Thank you. >> Any other questions or discussions? >> All those in favor? >> I >> motion carries. J7, discussion of Morirana Unified School District policy manual revisions for section E and section F. Dr. President Micronis, governing board members, members of the audience, the Arizona School Boards Association is in the process of conducting a comprehensive review of their policy uh model manual and distributing sections for school districts manage manageability. The manual update is an effort of policy and legal experts as well as district and educational leaders who are vetting each document prior to sending the sections to school districts.
So, for example, if we get a leak and Rich Jalbert's able to repair it with his current budget, that's great. Maybe un unanticipated. um if we have a cyber security attack uh god forbid or uh something very significant you know that's a that's definitely a gamecher. Um special education tuition is always an in you know always has a level of volatility. A couple of students can uh change a a budget over by a million dollars um without a district placement. So, those are things that can swing budgets. Um, and any state or federal changes that come down the line, um, provided that, you know, the outside of the 500,000 that we're taking into account and trying to be proactive about, if anything beyond that, we of course would affect our our budget. Um, we are, you know, I I believe I'm calling this a razor's edge budget um heading into the year, but with some of the reserves that we had, I think we can afford to um to test uh to test our budget strategy here a little bit um be responsible and at the same time take care of the needs of this of the school system.
Claim it Lugo Feather Ray Lee. Claimment Manastra Linda. Claimment Manisera Karine. Claimment Pennington Michael Vincent Pennington. Michael. Number three. Public employee discipline, dismissal, release, reassignment, transfer, leave, title, certificated and classified employees. Number four, public employee appointment, resignation, retirement, reduction, title, certificated and classified employees. Number five, conference with labor negotiator. A agency negotiator Jeremiah Harrison employee organization Apple Valley Unified Teachers Association. Number six, conference with labor negotiator. Agency negotiator Christen Dupri employee organization California School Employees Association. Number seven, security matters, government code section 54957, consultation with Apple Valley Unified School District Chief of Police. Can I get a motion to go into close session? >> So moved. >> Okay, I'll second. We will be taking a vote via roll call. Mrs. Longore, >> I. >> Mr. Raleigh, >> I. >> Mrs. Tucker I >> Miss Zakara >> I >> and Mrs. Buchanan I. The time is now 6:01 p.m.