Riy 2020 when you guys did that. >> Yeah. So when you know the roofs have had some significant uh wear and tear since then. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Any other questions? >> Roll call. >> Uh Mr. Brunette. >> Yes. >> Mr. Kenova. >> Yes. >> Mr. Paris. >> Uh yes, but abstain number 14 check number 224948. >> Mr. Ragdale. >> Yes. Uh also abstaining on uh F14 check 225696 and 225697. >> Thank you. Miss. >> Yes. Abstaining on checks 225696 225697. Miss Wararez. >> Yes. Abstaining on F9. >> Uh, Vice President Santiago. >> Yes. President Paris. >> I mean, President Bassford, I'm sorry. >> Okay. Uh, yes to everything. Abstaining on all my names only on 23. I'm going to a lot of workshops. Thank you. Um, can I have a motion to approve uh D1 through D15? did that. >> Um, >> addendum, Madam President.
We know that the number of students entering into schools throughout the nation and throughout the state of Arizona is declining and that has an impact on ASDB. We see a similar decline and it's not just on our Tucson campus. It's not just on our Phoenix campus. It's not just the early learning program and it's not just itinerant. It is everywhere. every single program we are [clears throat] seeing declines in the number of students who are we are educating and serving. So that is the first challenge. The second challenge we have is that we have two campuses, one located in Tucson and one in Phoenix. We all know that the condition of the facilities continues to deteriorate. We have not been able to do appropriate maintenance and renovations for the Tucson campus or the Phoenix campus either. The average age of buildings on Tucson campus is about 50 years old.
Tonight you are evaluating sections E and F. Actually these were distributed at our last study session. So you got those during the study session. Had opportunity uh to review those. Tonight we are uh looking for board action on sections E and F. >> Thank you. Can I get a motion? >> I move that the governing board approve revisions to section E, support services and section F, facilities management of the Morirana Unified School District policy manual as presented. Second.
Um, and just as a final note, um, you know, this was a, you know, $3 million ask is we haven't, I can't remember the last time we've had a low ask of that nature. Um, but heading into next year, you know, Alliance is flatfunded. We had some tolerance in the grant this year. So, Alliance was able to absorb its own increases this year. We've, and we have been, Alliance has been moving up every year and as part of the acceleration catchup. um next year, you know, unless there's some legislation, unless they uh put a inflation factor, cost of living factor in there, um any increase in alliance, you know, at 39.5 million, add 5% to that, that amount needs to be handled by the general fund. So, right off the bat, and then of course, you know, at 175, the district has uh increases of let's just say a flat 5% um heading for 2728.
Thank you. All right, I call this meeting back to order at 9:33 p.m. Roll call. Amanda Buchanan, I'm here. Maria Akara, >> I'm here. >> Anita Tucker, >> here. >> Rick Raleigh, >> I'm here. >> Renee Longshore, >> here. All right. Uh, Mrs. Longer, will you lead us in the pledge of >> allegiance? I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Is that your >> looks like this? At this time, we would like to pause in a moment of silence to remember retired ABUSD family member John Blancc. Thank you. Okay, we are going to shuffle things around a little bit here. Um, we're going to move on to item seven, the reports of union representatives. First up will be the California School Employee Association CSEA JC Scott.
>> I'm sorry. >> H1. >> Yes. Yes. Yes. I'm sorry. >> Uh, addendum item. I need a motion to accept it into record because >> Make that motion, Madam President. >> Okay. >> Second. >> Motion to accept the uh items H through 1 to six from by Commissioner Ciano and uh second by uh Commissioner Bronziac. Anybody have discussion? Okay. Roll call. >> Uh, Mr. Brunziac, >> yes. >> Mr. Kenova, >> yes. >> Mr. Paris, >> yes. >> Mr. Ragel, >> yes. >> Mr. Siano, >> yes. >> Miss Suarez, >> yes. >> Vice President Santiago, >> yes. >> President Bassford, >> yes. >> Motion carries. >> Okay, so we're going to go on to board. >> That's No, it's quite all right. It's We're all getting used to it. And my screen's too big. That's why I didn't couldn't see the um got too many positioning, but I'm getting there.
Here at PDSD, it's about 40 on average. Fortunately for us, we have a wonderful team of maintenance specialists who are doing their best to band-aid fix everything to keep our facilities safe and comfortable for students and staff, for both campuses. But that is not sustainable. It can't go on. At some point, the facilities will not be safe. And we already have Arizona Department of Administration telling us that 80% of our buildings on the Tucson campus are poor condition. We do not have the money to renovate any of that. Third, our third challenge, as we are all aware, some of you have mentioned is our budget. This is the third year of a budget deficit. We have been talking about the budget deficit that for the last three years. Everybody knows this. I have been doing presentations, vlogs for staff and the community. So, you know that we have a budget situation.
>> Any questions or discussions? >> All those in favor? >> I >> motion carries. Are there any requests for from the board members for future agenda items? >> Okay. Hearing none, our next meetings will be on March 12th, April 2nd, and May 14th. Can I get a motion to adjurnn? >> I move to adjourn. >> Second. >> All those in favor? >> I The meeting is closed. Thank you everybody.
um you know those are double digit numbers when you combine all of those things together. So um you know something definitely to keep our eye on to discuss over the next couple of you know budget cycles here but um for right now our our ask is 175 um at 1.75% to the city. >> Thank you. Cara >> questions. Anybody have questions? Anybody? >> Go ahead, Kate. >> I'm not sure my question. First of all, thank you very much for the presentation. Um, and I just wanted to really um appreciate uh the slide that talks about our grants versus our general fund and breaks down what we actually have as a a working budget for our district because it's not just the general fund. It's also this 25% that uh folks work very hard to bring in those grants to our to our district and to make sure that we're we're um taking advantage of every opportunity we can.
Yeah, good. Okay, [clears throat] perfect. All right. Good evening, Superintendent Nelson, members of the cabinet. trustees, President Sabers watching in the other room, the leftover AVDA members, the leftover members of our community, and my brothers and sisters of the California School Employees Association. My name is JC Scott, and I'm the chapter president of CSA Apple Valley 828 and the regional representative for this area. I've already addressed accountability and the broader impact of the proposed reductions in force. want to use this second opportunity to focus on the real world real world consequences of these cuts, specifically student safety and essential services. Under the proposed rift, under the proposed riff, campus security staffing would be reduced to levels that in practice leave only two campus security systems at each middle school and HDPA and five at each high school. In theory, if a middle school such as Phoenix or Sandia were to need a third campus security assistant, as they are traditionally busier due to any kind of an incident, where do we pull support from?
I'm going to move on with board member comments. I'm going to start with Commissioner Kenova. >> Sure. Uh good evening. Uh first I just wanted to thank you Mr. Shahada for uh for a budget that was um it was approved perfectly. Not a budget a evaluation audit that was approved perfectly. Um just a testament to you and your team. So I I appreciate that. Um now the state benefits in increasing of 30% um you know obviously that's a struggle for us but taking steps to mitigate that and putting us in a position where we're fiscally sound is the the only option at this point especially since we don't really know what's going on out there. Um so I think that was that was a great move by our team. Thank you for that. The snow I did get a lot of complaints about the snow like I'm sure everyone did.
you know that we have to make critical decisions at this time to figure out how to reduce our costs. Fortunately, the six years prior to the last three, we did have more revenue than expenditures. So, we had a cash balance for those years that we were able to carry along. that helped to cover our budget deficit two years ago. It helped to cover the bud budget deficit last year and it will cover the bud budget deficit this year. But that money is running out. We cannot serve students without money. So you ask what action have you ASDB taken? We have taken action. The first action we took was the development of the master facilities plan. Do you remember that we had a we had town halls about that? We presented the information and we shared it with all of you. The master facility plan The beginning of that plan came from the Arizona Auditor General in 2022.
So um I just wanted to appreciate that slide. Um I guess my question is more about what's happening at the state level right now. the in addition to the flat funding for the ECS that the governor has proposed, there are some significant cuts to education, areas of education. Um, and you know, I I think part of it is thinking about the money that they had set aside for potential federal cuts that may happen. It doesn't look like that money is going to go towards education. So, I appreciated the thoughtfulness of setting aside that 500,000 as like sort of a little uh cushion for us, but let's let's talk about a worst case scenario. Um, you're talking about $9 million roughly in federal grants. Realistically, if like we lost title two, which I think is the largest of the the grants, >> would we be looking at borrowing against the reserve money that that's there or are we looking at cuts in in our operations?
Do we pull one each from each high school, reducing their coverage to four? This is not a safety plan. This is reactive triage. We are already dealing with fights, vaping, and escalating student behaviors. Campus security assistants are often the first line of response and a critical deterrent. The projected cost savings do not account for the legal and financial liability when students are harmed due to inadequate supervision. And just like tonight, you were concerned about your own safety and security. Think about the students and how they're going to feel when we reduce the number of safety and security officers at our high schools and our middle schools. I've been thrown into walls. I've been concussed and spent time in the hospital. I've been punched in the face. I've been shoved. But still, I show up to work every single day, union business notwithstanding, with a smile on my face, to serve the community and the students that I love.
Uh but my one idea and I think we should take it to the municipal alliance is that we should have signs there that say no parking when snow is when road is snow covered. So this way you don't have parking on the sides where the the school is and they could just go and take all that snow away initially because I think it was the cars that were there that were were causing that pile up and that issue. Um and as long as the city knows and then they plow that whole side, we won't have that problem. And I know you probably don't see it in schools like 16 because they have like pullins. Um, but I know at three we had that issue because we have a dead end and that two-way lane turn now turns into a one-way and it was just a mess.
They informed us we needed a multi-year capital improvement plan and we agreed. We contracted with an architecture firm and they came in and did a feasibility study of our student count, our student needs, our programs and our facilities. We started with renovating the Tucson campus as our plan. It was the architect firm who said who raised the red flag and said that this was going to be too costly to renovate all 31 buildings on the Tucson campus that it would be more than 10 years to do that. That was the advice and the recommendation from the architecture firm. They recommended instead new construction that we build on the Tucson campus, a new school building, and then that would allow us to sell part of the campus land. And we presented that to you community members, students, parents, staff. You know this. We also presented to you the board and the board voted to approve the plan to build new construction on Tucson campus and sell part of the remaining land.
Yeah, it's a great question. Um, thank you. So, so title two was the one that we heard most loudly about that that was definitely going away and all of that. So last year heading into this year, we had two staff members, staff developers. Um it's a largely a grant that houses uh money for professional development. And so you can put staff in there that provide professional development, right? Um I moved those two staff members out. It's about $400 something thousand dollars uh of a grant. I moved those staff members out last year um and put them into alliance anticipating that that this coming year that that would go away. um just to start to balance the books and make sure we can account for everybody. Um so we would lose a a 400,000 in professional development monies. Um but it's not staff per se. Um and we would u you know we still have some money in alliance that we've utilized for that and some of our department budgets do handle some of that.
Further, eliminating family center coordinators would devastate the community they serve. These employees connect families to food, housing, counseling, and critical resources. Ironically, many of the 241 families now facing unemployment will need those very services. Cutting ASB bookkeepers makes little sense in this district already facing financial scrutiny. These employees maintain accurate site level financial records and ensure compliance. They are not mismanaging funds. They are keeping them in order. Reducing custodians means dirtier, less sanitary campuses and increased health and safety risks. Cutting office clerks removes the operational backbone of school sites, delaying services to families and shifting essential work onto already overburdened staff. They also assist with attendance. They maintain student records. They coordinate communication with parents and ensure the day-to-day functions of each site and that they run smoothly. Cutting these positions do not create extra work for other does not just create extra work for other staff.
Um, so maybe we could we could talk about that there. Um, and that's really all I had. You know, want to wish everyone a happy Valentine's Day. This weekend is Super Bowl. Um, so make sure you you be careful and pick right numbers. So, thank you. >> Thank you, Commissioner Konova. Commissioner Paris, please. >> Thank you, President Bassford. Uh just want to thank uh Miss Kusalevich for the explanation on our substitute and Kelly services status. Uh thank you to Dr. Robert Tozy for giving us some confidence behind our our finances. Congratulations to Mr. Shahada and his team for a successful audit. U huge thanks to our custodial staff and maintenance staff who helped not only our district but helped the city clear walkways. good example of shared services and working together. Uh and lastly, just stay safe and warm and have a happy Valentine's Day.
That was approved by the board in 2024. Since then, we have made multiple requests from the state to give us money so that we could move forward with that new building. The state is not giving us any money. What other actions have we taken? We've stopped hiring people. We have a hiring freeze. We are not replacing staff who retire or resign. We've stopped hiring. We've stopped giving you pay increases. Every year for about eight years, we offered teachers and staff yearly raises. Last year, for the first time, we did not offer pay increases. And guess what? July 1st of this year, no one is going to get a pay increase again because we do not have the funding to do so. We have taken action and it's not enough. Our student count continues to decline. Our revenue is tied to our student count. When that goes down, our revenue goes down.