It is absolutely amazing. They all are amazing. But ours really truly makes a difference in our community and we all know everyone's suffering. My family has been helped with food. We help people with clothes. We have created a food pantry there and clothes there. We I help teach crochet and we're teaching families. Brenda teaches classes that help the parents with discipline with things that our parents didn't always teach us, right? And we're all learning things. So, we are helping and support each other. And that community comes together and you see it. these parents that are hard for them to leave the house and they're anxious and they're they have anxiety and then they come together in those family centers and they share their knowledge and they're together and then they're in a better state to help their children or other parents that have IEPs, have parents share with me so I know what's going on that I can understand and better take care of my child.
Uh, and then we're going to ask for that policy to go back to committee to be re reworked. It's very antiquated. Yes. >> any other business? Happy belated birthday, Commissioner Ragdale. >> Yes. Happy birthday. Early early. My bad. Thank you. Thank you. 20 216. Thank you. Motion to adjourn. >> Motion. Second. >> Motion by uh Commissioner Ciano. Second by Commissioner Kova. Good night. Thank you very much. >> Have a good one. Happy Valentine's Day. >> Good job. 9:30.
Um even a handful of those children ending up on the Tucson campus, not to grow up here and live here forever, but certainly to be on the Tucson campus is going to have a significant impact on what goes on on the Tucson campus. Board member Taylor, I would like to remind you that our agency serves around 1,875 students with 114 being served on our Tucson campus. That's approximately, I believe, 14%. So, if you wanted to add that 400 students to our total, we are only talking about percentage- wise a small few percent above 14% for our Tucson campus. >> Good guess. And that's exactly why I said after 2025 you can't make an accurate projection on what may happen in terms of birth. What also has happened which was was a a critical piece for me is there's been a massive increase in measles outbreak in Arizona as well as nationally.
These are crucial things that we need in our community. I wish I had it when I was a child. I would have benefited. I wouldn't have fallen through the cracks. I don't want our children to fall through the cracks and I know that everybody here wants the best result and we don't have that confidence right now. We want the confidence in you and honestly we do not. And we don't know what you're thinking. We don't know what's going on. We don't know what is going on behind closed doors or where you guys' hearts and minds are. There needs to be more transpar transparency. There really does. I have seen a lot in my life. I was in the army. I've been in all over the country. I've been a lot of different places and I have suffered and I have struggles that that I'm don't want our children to have and I don't want to have I'm I'm you know learning from other people how to navigate that with my children.
>> Interrupt here. The the current agenda item right now is Superintendent Breman's report and so you do need to stay to that item. Um this is my guidance concerning open meeting law which is something that all state agencies and all multimemember bodies of the state have to abide by and so I am just cautioning that we are veering away from the current agenda item. >> So the data or any other item wants to be the subject of a future agenda that motion can be made. Just just so I'm clear because I'm still trying to figure out this whole open meeting thing and I'm doing everything I can to preserve the integrity of honoring that open meeting. So I am not allowed to ask a question about the absence of data in a report that is is being used for the basis of decisions for the future of this school.
I have children with various different needs and they are getting the support they need and I've loved Apple Valley School. I have ranted to other people about oh my gosh I'm so glad my kids are here. I'm so glad that my kids found this school, found Mr. Clark, found Brenda in the family center, found Yuckoma. I've been passionate and I love it and now I am scared. You guys have to help us. You have a responsibility. That's why you're here. We need you. Our kids need you. Please do the right thing. Thank you. Thank you. [applause] [clears throat] All right. Item E, discussion information. Number one, receive California School Employees Association Chapter 828 CSEA proposal for successor agreement with ABUSD. >> Yes. Thank you, Miss Buchanan. And actually, for this discussion information, um, because of CSEA presenting us, I think JC Scott is probably right out in the hall.
Is that am I understanding that correct? So the current topic is the superintendent's report. You may ask the superintendent about her report, but to the extent we're bringing in new information about it, that needs to be agendaized as such. Uh and again, there is an agenda item for the Tucson relocation. So if there's discussion related to that, it should be presented at that time. The county attorney's office does investigate open meeting violations and so I'm making sure that we're not running a foul of any of those laws. >> Board member Kaylor, we can move on from this top um item and you can ask your I believe second or third question. I know you said you had a few. >> In the in the data that was presented in your presentation, there was no data on students with visual impairment. Why not? What are you asking me to do?
He'll be the one to be sure you have it and if you have questions. But I'll basically just shut my mic off and let him come in and do the talking. >> Okay. All right. I am JC Scott.
>> Provide data about the rate of students with visual impairment. There was no data in that report. >> Okay. Okay. I will give you some numbers now. Right now, Tucson campus at ASB has about 35 students. Right now, PDSD has about 25 deafb blind students. The early learning program has about 106 families with blind and visually impaired children. And then about 35 of preschool students at foundations at the blind FBC itinerant uh services has 311 students who are blind and visually impaired all over the state of Arizona that our itinerant services provides services to those students. So Joe, do I get to ask a question on this or do I have to ask to ask a question later? And I'm not trying to be flippant, but I am telling you I'm I'm trying to ask questions to get to a point where the board is advised of some valuable information that I believe is gerine to this discussion.
I'm here to present our initial proposal and um answer any questions that anyone might have. um our initial proposal for the California School Employees Association chapter 828. We've elected to open up 14 articles including dependencies A through L for our successor agreement for the 26 through 2029 contract year. We have presented article number one which is our agreement. Article number three, the term of the agreement. Article number six, the association rights. Article eight, concerted activity. Article 11, compensation. Article 13, professional growth. Article 14, classification and range. Article 15, filling of vacancies and transfers. Article 17, base duty days, hours of employment, and overtime. Article 19, vacation. Article 20, leaves. Article 22, transportation procedures, article 24, evaluation procedures, and article 25, grievance procedures.
Whether it's this item or not, tell me where to put it because I'm going to ask questions. I'm going to recommend that the board move on. Um, this item was presented as anformational item, not a discussion item. So, I would invite a motion be made at the appropriate time if there is a future agenda item to be placed. So, at this time, I I would recommend that that the board move on. assistant attorney general that is heard and we'll be moving forward to 1.4. Actually, we're going to actually take a break. We'll take an approximate 15 minute break to give our interpreters here a break and we'll come back at um 17 sorry 550. Thank you, Bill. >> Thank you, Bill. >> Okay. Yeah, I do. >> There's one that >> I'll show you. There's one, >> right? About one minute. of a break, but we're going to come back to the meeting and we're going to go ahead with agenda item 1.4.
Does anyone have any questions? >> All right. Thank you. >> Oh, sure. >> Okay. Now, I I need to have a better understanding of this. So these are articles you're going to present to the district and then the district will present theirs to you, right? >> Yes. >> Okay. >> Yeah. They I believe they've already received our initial proposal. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Matter of fact, Miss Dri emailed me because I wasn't prepared with my iPad died. So >> Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you. Number two, receive Apple Valley Unified School District's proposal for successor agreement with California School Employees Association chapter 828. >> And uh similarly, as um Kristen DRI is the agency negotiator, she should be entering any second to present the reopeners for um ABUSD. Thank you. >> Thank you, Kristen. All right. Good evening, board members. Um, I do believe you have a copy of the articles that we are proposing to open for negotiations with CSEA as we begin the process of building our next collective bargaining agreement.
Superintendent C, Assistant Superintendent Cooper. >> Good evening, Board President Buchanan. Superintendent Reichman, Deputy Assistant Superintendent Catchoff, members of the board, ASB, staff, students, families, and community. The last several months have been emotionally taxing as we navigate difficult yet necessary conversations. As you are already aware, the agency is managing an unprecedented level of oversight. We've been working on addressing the Arizona Auditor General's September 2022 sunset review recommendations that had not been fully implemented and identified in their February 2025 follow-up report. Additionally, the forensic and performance audits authorized in December 2024 by the joint legislative audit committee have been underway and are now concurrently being integrated into our 2026 sunset review. All of the fieldwork and final reports are scheduled to be done by October 1st, 2026. This combination of audits, each conducted by different firms, is exceptionally rare. It subjects our educational programs, campuses, and services along with the integrity of our financial operations to intent scrutiny.
Our proposal includes 10 articles and their respective appendies. Several are routine in nature. They're just mostly name and date changes. Uh we also have a few that address some updates to the law and so those are specifically the ones that mention post requirements or POBAR requirements. We just need to get those law updates acknowledged within the contract. Um our last contract we actually spent a lot of collaborative time um building some new streamlined processes, enhancing some benefits for employees. And so now that we've had time to implement some of those processes, we've noticed areas that language could be cleaned up a little bit and just make sure it's a little more clear as to what some of those um the intentions of those processes were. Um and just also I'd like to note that about six of the articles that we're proposing um are also on CSEA's list as well.
We've been fully cooperating, and some of us welcome the level of oversight the audits bring because it provides the objective verification needed to move forward. Similar to other schools in Arizona and across the nation, we are all aware of the challenging financial realities many schools are facing. For those of you that may not be familiar with the fiscal challenges we've been facing, there's been questions on how we got here. Is it tied to the whistleblower allegations of financial mismanagement? to answer the questions and to address some of the concerns specific to ASDB. The shortfall last year and this year has been brought on by a number of factors such as our declining student enrollment, increased student support needs, rising operating costs due to inflation, less federal funding, a reduction in state general fund appropriations, and other revenue and funding sources. and the change in our LEA status due to the passage of House Bill 2863 in which we just mentioned increased our contractual obligations for both onetoone nursing and student transportation services.
And so, um, just I think it sets us in a good spot to start some collaborative negotiations for our next cycle. And, uh, just here looking for your consideration and approval to move forward later on. Questions? All right. Thank you. All right. Now, we are going to D presentation local control accountability plan. and the LCAP midyear review presentation. >> Thank you. you have um at each seat a copy of the LCAP major review um presentation um kind of a top left and it's a a brief and very quick uh overview of each action in the LCAP from the point of view of whether or not it's been implemented into what level and then how much expenditure thus far. Um so I'll just go through this briefly. Um this is a it's required to be reported to the board. The board is not required to take action, but it must be done before the end of February each year.
On top of that, special education in Arizona remains underfunded because school funding is largely based on the number of students we serve. Fewer students means fewer resources. However, fixed costs do not decrease proportionately. In layman terms, as Superintendent Reichman mentioned, our expenses continue to outpace our revenues, which means we are spending more than we bring in. The reality has placed an increased strain on our ability to maintain our educational programs, staff positions without compromising how we provide those educational services. We began seeing that budget gap in 2024 when we ended the year with a $1.8 million shortfall, $2.5 million shortfall last year, and we're projected to end this year with a shortfall of over $3 million, assuming no significant changes. We've been able to rely on our unrestricted cash balances from prior operating surpluses to cover the shortfalls. However, these reserves are continuing to be depleted and will eventually no longer be able to support the operating gaps.
Um I did provide in the board item also a um a little quite a bit of detail about the uh metrics that will be used and also a lot of those metrics will be at the end of the year LCAP because the data that comes in in December is the same data we will use as we go through the spring in LCAP development um because it's from the CASP test last spring. And so I'll just remind you of our five LCAP goals. Three of which are district, two are school site level goals because they are equity multiplier schools and they required to be in the LCAP. So one, two, and three are the district goals as listed. And then number four is HDPA and Apple Valley Virtual. And number five is Phoenix Academy. And so the way we'll report these is by action number and it's a two-digit or fourdigit number usually.
None of that information has been hidden. It has been part of our public board presentations, our financial reports, legislative bills, and budget requests. We've consistently shared the data. Transparency means being honest about the fact that we can no longer afford to not take any action. In response to the 2022 sunset review, consecutive escalating budget shortfalls, and after narrowly avoiding closure in early 2024 after the contentious debate in the Arizona legislature, which resulted in a 4year extension rather than our normal 8 or 10-year extension, we've been focused on providing the viability of our operating model to try to secure funding and legislative support. We've already mentioned that this year our review has included looking at enrollment and demographic studies to project some of our future student needs. We've also done budget analysis to identify specific areas of financial strain, any potential savings. We've also received input from our educational leaders to ensure we try to remain the primary focus of looking at our students.
And it has um first the goal then the action. So 01 D uh 0.01 would be a goal one action one short title and then moving on to expenditures. So look at goal one and those six actions. A couple of things I'll point out. Um for the most part these are expenditures as of the end of December and uh most of them are on track to be right about at half. I'll I'll highlight the English learner counseling support um goal, the DAC last night um took note of that action and that those um we were looking at English learner graduation rates and they reminded me that the English learner graduation rate at 93.1% is one tenth of a percent above the rest of the students graduation rate and they were very proud of that and so I'm was happy to see that they are taking note of an action that was really born of their um desires.