But elementary, I think we feel pretty good right now about the elementary numbers. Um, I too want to thank you for all of the work going into the report. >> Do you see this as a conservative ask? >> Yes. >> I I would I would say I would use the word responsible. [cough and clears throat] >> And so I guess, you know, I'm I'm thinking, you know, It's great that we've streamlined and um really trying to be efficient and um so realistically is this remember our our last budget it was like keep the lights on >> budget is this enough to cover the needs of our students >> so Anita you're what you're wrestling wrestling with is the same thing that I've wrestled with. Last year, you heard me come out and say I want I need 45 kindergarten pairs. I was out there way out there on that, you know, multi-million dollar ask for the supports.
And whereas serious concerns exist regarding fiscal oversight, internal controls, and financial decision-making within the district. And whereas the district has experienced financial instability caused in part by overhiring and the establishment of ongoing positions and programs using one-time funds without adequate accountability for the resulting long-term impact on the general fund. And whereas district leadership has demonstrated a lack of consistent and effective leadership and an unwillingness to engage in meaningful collaboration with the certificated bargaining unit. And whereas a lack of transparency has persisted, including failures to fully disclose information. And whereas district communications have at times been incomplete or inaccurate, contributing to confusion and diffusion. And whereas educator morale has been adversely adversely affected by burnout, disengagement, and reduced retention. And whereas a culture of nepatism and favoritism has been perceived to influence decision-making, assignments, and advancement, undermining fairness, professionalism, and trust. And whereas educators have expressed concern regarding a culture of retaliation that discourages the raising of concerns or engagement in protected activities.
Just like Dr. Roberts said, do not take to social media before you make the decision to make a simple phone call to get to the bottom of what's going on. Hey, thank you all. Have a good evening. Be good to yourselves and each other. You can shut that off now. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> I know. I'm gonna keep going with that look. Hi. Hi, Amed. How are you? >> Commissioner Suarez, would you do us the honor, please? >> Thank you, President Bassford.
They did also let us know that we need to figure out other options. They talked about micro schools. They were not interested in continuing to support a large campus program. And they were very direct with me. So what we are trying to do is keep the school alive and we are trying to figure out how to do so. Okay. I notice a domino effect. One thing is closed is cut impacts the next thing to close that is cut. And I can see it from previous meetings, previous reports. I suspect that we have to get in there and look at what our legal options are. Feeling like there are external in factors in our duties as deaf, deaf, blind, blind, and for our students. If we are not given money, that's frustrating for all of us. We are grieving. We are struggling. I get that. But now I'm thinking of the topic of looking at our legal options, protecting ASDB's operation and operational integrity, asking us as a board and you as the superintendent to investigate our legal options, evaluate the impact that it has, and then report back to us, the board.
The reality though, and we're living I I have to straddle the what I want to see happen, what we all would might want to see happen with the reality of being able to find 45 paras. We can't find how many did you have to agents your agency next year? at least >> at least 40 that we cannot fill now. So, the reality of me adding another um 45 to that mix when we cannot hire ones now means that we'd end up agency out the agencies. While we're thankful to be getting people in, there's it's not ideal. Um there's a lot of training that goes involved that goes out the door the minute the agency person changes. Um, so, so everything in my being, could I add $20 million to this budget? Absolutely. We could all all have our places. Um, but we have to we have to build up our staffing um a little bit more reliably than the pattern that that we've experienced to date.
Now therefore, be it resolved that Apple Valley Unified Teachers Association hereby formally expresses a vote of no confidence in Superintendent Nelson. And be it further resolved that this resolution of no confidence be submitted to the Apple Valley Unified School District Board of Trustees for acknowledgement and consideration. And be it further resolved that Abuda respectfully urges the board of trustees to take appropriate action to address the concerns identified herein, corrective measures and ongoing oversight and be it further resolved that ava seeks good faith collaboration with the board and district leadership to restore trust, stability, ethical leadership, transparency, fiscal responsibility and accountability. ility in service of students, educators and community. I need to address what we what we heard this evening from CSEA. It was incredibly difficult to listen to the classified employees speak about positions being reduced. Classified staff are the backbone of our schools and our teachers.
Uh, good evening everyone. Congratulations to the business department for an outstanding audit. That's a great achievement for such a big district, especially considering the turmoil nearby districts have encountered. And shout out to all of the school counselors. Your dedication to our students is deeply appreciated and very very very valuable. Thank you for all the work that you do. And also thank you to Dr. Robert Toy and Miss Cusvich for explaining the issue about Kelly Services and Substitutes. That information was very valuable for the community to hear. And that said, this is my opinion as a firm advocate for our district to be adequately funded to meet all students needs. I will use this opportunity to make the direct connection to the consequences of what happens when we as a district do not have adequate tax increases to appropriately fund our school district. While it was a responsible and necessary decision to to decrease the substitute use from Kelly services, circumstances such as these could be mitigated in the future if we had adequate funding coming from our property taxes.
I am not sure what you mean by our legal options. Okay. Can President Buchanan, can I make a proposal, >> a motion? >> Uh, this is uh we're having a discussion item currently. I feel that this is serious and I would like to do something and you're asking us to do nothing. So I would like to motion I would like to make a motion. [applause] >> We're going to keep the audience in a respectful manner. I have already stated this. >> This is this is Joe Ko with the assistant attorney general's office. Um board members can make a request that something be put on a future agenda. So to the extent that the motion is to put a topic on a future agenda, that is something um that can be done um at the appropriate time during this meeting um of the which I believe at the end of the agenda.
In addition to that, I don't feel comfortable continuing to go to the city to ask for numbers that were turning up in surpluses at the end of the year. We have to get a handle on this. Um, and this is a responsible reset uh approach to getting there. We have a couple of budget cycles to get through um to to test these assumptions that we've placed into the budget. Um, you know, I hope and pray that we land on the dime at the end of the year. we might need to tap the reserves. Not something I would want to do, but it is there, which is why I'm a little more comfortable hedging closer than we've had to hedge before. Um, but in the meantime, finish negotiating the rest of these couple of contracts. Let the word get out that we've put together some nice contracts.
What is deeply troubling is that in the list of classified educators, there were no management positions identified. That raises serious questions. Tuesday was a very hard day for our certificated staff. 13 teachers receive non-reelect notices. Each year the district says teachers should not be surprised when these notices are delivered. Yet every single one of them was two teachers said that they were surp they were not surprised only because they believed their principles did not like them. That alone should deeply concern this board. Most of the teachers had strong evaluations. Even more concerning for them are special education teachers. At a time when we are already struggling to staff special education, we are losing qualified educators. This raises important questions. Why are we not supporting teachers better? Why are administrators reportedly telling teachers that they are not good instead of asking how they can support them?
Um, and also speaking for myself and not for the whole board, I want to share my heart with all of those who have been worried about or impacted by the presence of ICE in the surrounding community. What once felt like an existential threat that was somewhere out there has now seeped into one to two degrees of separation from people I know. Even so, I can still acknowledge the privilege to even say that as I know there are too many people that have been immediately impacted by the presence of ICE for a long time. For all of those who worry, who lose sleep at night about their family members, who fear going to work, or fear bringing your child to and from school, please know that my heart is with you. And I pray for your safety and your loved ones. And on that note, in light of Black History Month, and let's be mindful that Black History Month is also American history, I will quote the great late author and activist James Baldwin.
There's an opportunity to do that. >> Um there is an agenda item pertaining to the re relocation of the campus um that we have not gone to yet. That is agenda item >> that's 5.2. >> Agenda item 5.2. So there can be a discussion made at that time in a motion made at that time concerning that agenda item. >> Thank you. >> Board member Terry. Does that kind of answer your question statement? >> Yes, it does. >> Okay. And this is board member Diana. >> Yes, board member >> after Bill. >> Yeah, board member Bill Kaylor was next. >> I'm gonna take a couple minutes. So, if you have a short question, go ahead because I've got two. >> Uh, yes. Mine is a brief question. It is for Superintendent Reichman. Um, this is Diana Herren speaking. I know that ASDB has different funding sources um prior to the three years and then there was a change to become a local educational agency or LEA and I'd like to know how much of that was a change in funding and oversight through the Department of Education when we became an LEA.
We worked really hard on those. Um, they look better than they've ever looked before uh in years, right? They're really competitive. We've really brought people up. the market shot up on us and we just trying to keep up with it. Um but we did that in this last round. Um, we still have some work to do on the Paris and that's something that, you know, we're going to have to that's going to be an ask in the next in the next cycle to to get to a place so that I can if I need to put 30 paras in we, you know, maybe we put in 10 every year over the next couple of years, but right now if I I can put them in there and you can the city can give us the money for those. I can't get them and I'm I'll turn up surplus at the end of the year again.
Were these truly non-reelections or were they teachers let go due to budget reductions? And were some released because they spoke up for themselves? Was this retaliation by administrators? Those are questions that deserve answers. Now, let's talk about certificated reductions. This list includes four multiple subject teachers, one teacher on assignment, four virtual teachers, one vacant teacher on assignment, two mild moderate teachers, two additional multiple subject teachers, one intervention teacher, two Prop 28 teachers, one choir teacher, and one preschool teacher. Need to be very clear. Listing virtual teachers separately is discriminatory. After ranking forms were posted and discussed, singling out virtual teachers while not listing them as multi or not listing the multiple subject teachers by site sent a clear message. They are all multiple subject teachers period. The way this was handled caused harm and those teachers were absolutely singled out. certificated staff have already absorbed absorbed nearly 10 million in reduction this year.
If one really wishes to know how justice is administered in our country, one does not question the policemen, the lawyers, the judges, or the protected members of the middle class. One goes to the unprotected, those precisely who need the laws protection most, and listen to their testimony. Thank you everyone. Have a good night. Be safe and enjoy the Bad Bunny halftime show this Sunday. Good night. >> Thank you, Commissioner Suarez, for your powerful words. Commissioner Brunak, you're >> Thank you, Madam President.
A how much of that caused the change in revenue for the school? I will um begin with my response and then I'll turn it over to Shaina, Assistant Superintendent Cooper. When we became an LEA, That did not change our funding. Shaina, >> do you want? >> No, it did not. It did not increase our revenue streams, nor did it increase our funding sources. specific to what increases happened after becoming an LEA. We have increased contracted transportation for our students as well as onetoone nursing services. >> Thank you, board member Kaylor. >> Thank you. One of one of the first things I learned uh I used to hang around cowboys and stuff and they said when you find yourself digging a hole, you find yourself in a hole, stop digging. Um and I've heard consistently that our numbers are going down down down. And I said I for some reason that number that that just didn't make any sense.
And so it's those are the things that we've wrestled with here as a group and me especially is that there are supports. We can't find school psychologists. We struggle finding we struggle finding really key critical positions that you know you know cause our the rest of our staff to be a little bit stretched thin or agency out for support. Um but we're slowly like I'm hopeful in this la how many in the last couple of months how many have you brought converted over Kelly from agency to about >> weed about 20 district hires since the start of the year in special another employees in the process right now we started my hope is to get that will hires and I challenged the special ed team to get to 40 by the end of the year. So we are not I am not I am so thankful for the agency employees because the education needs of our students um but long term we want people that we can recruit and we can keep on working.
Not $1 of that has returned to this bargaining unit and now we are being told there must be more cuts. So I asked the board, why are we not starting at the top? The decisions to hire permanent staff with one-time money were made at the top despite warnings from the county and the state. Those decisions created this crisis. Cuts should be made as far away from the school sites as possible, not on the backs of student, teachers, and classified staff. Our members are hurting. They are angry. And they are united. For the sake of transparency, we were told that we could invite board members next Thursday at 9:00 a.m. to observe factf finding. Please join us in solidarity, Karen. All right. Thank you. The clerk will read out any action taken in close session. In close session, the board of trustees took action in support of the following recommendation from the superintendent.
Good evening everyone. Just want to give one more reminder about this Saturday from 4:00 to 8:00 p.m. at Chipotle. There's a fundraiser for the CJ Praise team where 25% of the proceeds go to the team. Big shout out to the business office for another exceptional audit. takes loads of work and dedication for this to happen and for our district to be in good financial condition considering that several other districts are having financial diff difficulties and I don't know if I could have delivered it as exceptionally as Dr. Robert Toy did absolute hit a home run with that statement that he made. Um, and it's absolutely correct. So, this the these are the types of things that we do over here with with our business office and we're constantly thinking about these types of things, short-term goals, long-term financial goals. I made a big rant last year about the reserves that we were able to you're only able to max it out at 2% a lot of the accounts.
So at the se after September board meeting, I started to look into a little more specific data about students. And what I'd like to do is share uh a modified version of the chart that was shared in the community presentation. I don't know if it was shared in the staff presentation because >> board member Kaylor, our attorney general, is wanting to make a statement. >> So I do have to emphasize that we need to stick to the agenda item. >> This is the agenda. This is the agenda. >> The the current agenda item is the superintendent report. Well, if you let me ask my question, then I think you'll find out it deals directly with that report. >> We are not interrupting, but our attorney general is allowed the privilege of advising the board member because that is what governance is. >> So, I'm going to suggest that that to the extent that the the conversation relates to the relocation of the Tucson campus as the agenda item that uh we reserve discussion to that agenda item.