We can we can go ahead with 5.2. It's going to be a discussion and action item. This is going to be the approval to relocate the Tucson campus to a new school site. Pursuant to ARS 38 431.03 03 A3. The board may vote to go into executive session, which will not be open to the public, for discussion or consultation for legal advice with the board's attorneys as it relates to this agenda item. I am so sorry, superintendent. I read that and that was you. I do apologize. I thought you were moving into executive session. >> Nope. I just read 5.2 as a discussion and action item. We have not taken a vote on an agenda on an executive session or not. I would prefer to bring Albert Duff up to speak to the Copper Creek facilities as well as our proposed relocation. >> I appreciate that.
Okay. Are there any others? All right. I'll make the motion that we approve consent item number two through 24. >> All right. Any discussion on 2 through 24. All right. We will be taking a vote via roll call. Mrs. Longshore. >> Hi. >> Mr. Raleigh. >> Hi. Mrs. Tucker I Miss Apara >> I >> Mrs. Puchicanan I All right we are gonna move to item one which is approve the minutes of the December 11th 2025 board meeting. Um, I have concern because when the meeting ended, there were only three people asked to vote and my understanding is we're a board of five. Even if three people are the majority, shouldn't all five at least have the opportunity to vote to close the meeting? Um, I apologize. We don't have a motion or a second to discuss number one. I'm sure Kylie's mad at us right now.
Thank you. Good evening, board president Buchanan, members of the board, Superintendent Reichman, Assistant Superintendent Cooper and Katchoff. My name is Albert Duff for the record and I'm the director of operations and I make myself available for any questions that you may have >> at this point. Does the board have questions? Yes, this is board member Herren. I'm sorry, Albert. What is your role? I'm trying to remember what your role is. >> I am the director of operations. So, I take care of facilities, transportation, and many other departments. >> Okay. Thank you, [snorts] >> Board President Buchanan. This is Superintendent Reichman. I will go ahead and speak a little bit. Okay. I did already during my superintendence report to you all talk a little bit about our proposed relocation from the Tucson campus to Copper Creek Elementary School facility. You are all aware of the reasoning behind this and our request.
>> Um, I move that. >> I'll second it. >> I'll second >> since I'm the one that booooed. >> Okay, >> it's fixed. Okay. in the December um for you the president at the time. >> No, it was Rick. I believe he tried to get attention. There was a discussion going on at the end and we realized at that point we were over the time we had committed to end by. >> I understand that there's times when things can be a little bit chaotic, but I I do feel that we need to value everyone's vote. I [clears throat] I don't remember exactly uh what had happened but can you um refresh our memory my memory at least >> um at the end of the meeting it was very chaotic uh and the meeting ended I was sitting at the end and we never had a call for vote or if we did we never heard it >> I don't remember it so I can >> clarif no worries I just feel, you know, sometimes it gets a little bit crazy, but if we could just remember there's five of us and absolutely.
The Tucson campus is a very large campus. It was originally designed for over 300 students. Currently, we have less than 125 students. So, that is about 25% of capacity for the Tucson campus. It really is not designed for a small group of students. the Copper Creek facility. One reason we were interested in that facility is because when we were looking at our master facilities plan and the requirements listed therein for our school buildings because again we were intentionally or originally intending to build on Tucson campus but Copper Creek square footage did align pretty well. most of our needs can be met there. So that discussion did start in November or December and we were trying to figure out if we could relocate. Would AI be interested in doing that? Ampy themselves, the school district, and they let us know that it was something they would be interested in, but they needed approval from their board, and they wanted us to keep quiet until they had the opportunity to discuss it with their board.
>> Thank you. I appreciate it. Just a question of clarification. >> Um because I know like just to be sure um do we is it a problem if we um do not all vote on an adjournment? I I'm going to tell you that I've been told that adjournments don't need a vote. You can set a time and you can adjourn. I understand what you're saying and I do >> that you want to just point out that you didn't have an opportunity to vote. You're not asking to change the minutes. You're using it to talk about the fact that he didn't. Yeah. >> Yes. We'll make we'll make every attempt that does not occur again. >> Thank you very much. I really appreciate it and thank you for giving me the time to go through this. >> All right. Are there any other questions or comments?
So, we did try to honor that request to see how we could make this happen. I personally believe the time is now. We need to decide will we move or not. And if we do not decide to move, then we are going to have to figure out another option. And I don't know what other options there are left because we have been looking into this for quite some time almost three years. So I am seeking um for the board to seriously consider to vote in favor of the relocation. >> Is this where we asked to go into executive session? >> I don't know the procedure. So help me with it.
Or can I call for the vote? >> Call for the vote. >> All right. Mrs. Longshore. >> Hi, >> Mr. Raleigh. >> Hi, >> Mrs. Tucker. >> I miss Okara. >> Hi, >> Mrs. Buchanan. I All right. Closing items. Future items. Do any members of the board have any future items? >> Yes. I still want to make sure that um next at the next board meeting we'll get a reporting on how special ed instructional support staff are being used in our schools. And um I'm going to make a request that in the next uh few board meetings that we place the certificated um president to speak ahead of the classified president in the agenda. Okay. Uh Mrs. Nelson and I will discuss that when we set the agenda. Are there any other future items? Next regular board meeting will be Thursday, March 5th, 2026, approximately 5:00 p.m.
>> If Superintendent Recommend has finished her report on this, we can make a motion to go into executive session if no one else has any questions currently. >> So Penny Penny, no further questions. I I make a motion that we adjourn to exe executive session before uh we will take a a vote on that. I do have a question. Um, as far as the the contentious point of this is we have deaf students going to co Copper Creek. >> We have a cluster site at TUSD for blind students or I should I guess I should revise my language. >> I will revise my language to say that we are attempting a cluster site at TUSD. My apologies for misspeaking. The current plan is Copper Creek. Looks like the deaf students are going there possibly a cluster site to USD for blind. This is the facts.
in the Educational Support Center. There being no further business to come before the board of trustees, it is recommended that the meeting be adjourned. >> Thank you. >> Do we want to take a vote? >> No. Yeah, I'll do it. Mrs. Longshore. Or wait, let me I'll I'll make the motion that we adjourn at 11:09. >> Second, >> Mrs. Longshore. >> I Mr. Raleigh. >> No. >> Mrs. Tucker. [laughter] >> Was that a yes? >> I You're not paying attention. >> I thought I heard a is what I heard. I'm sorry. >> I vote I to Okay. I'm sorry. It's late. Miss Aquara. Miss Buchanan I thank you Yes.
My question is what um what how did we arrive to the decision to separate into a cluster site at I'm sorry possible cluster site at TUSD for blind only and copper creek facility for deaf. I believe we may need actually Jason Lily, the director of itinerary and uh distance programs to come up. I think that's more of an educational question. >> Okay. >> Um I'm also more than happy to go ahead and answer any particular logistics or um master facility plan as well as facility plan related aspects. Um, so I'll go ahead and turn that specific question over to uh, Director Lily. >> Excuse me. Sorry. I have a question be if I may before you do that, Albert, before you leave. >> Oh, okay. I'm so sorry, Jason. Could you just pause for a second? >> Thank you. This is board member Heron. My question is when do we have to decide and when do we have to sign that lease with AFI?
Does it have to be decided right this moment or do we have a little bit of time to make that decision? How much time do we realistically have to make that final decision? As far as the logistics of the move for planning and procuring the related services and equipment to make that happen, my estimation is that we have no later than the end of March. Anything after the end of March, it becomes difficult for us to be able to procure any of those services andor equipment in order to move this summer. In addition, with regards to the lease negotiations, AFI may decide that they would be able to find a new tenant between now and then, and then they would be able to go ahead and have that new tenant take that place, which means we would lose out on the opportunity to be able to move into the new location.
So, short answer, end of March. This is Superintendent Rickman. >> I would like to add if we do not decide tonight and this is tabled. Yes, it would give more time for communication to happen, more dialogue could happen, but the uncertainty will continue. What will happen next fall? What's the plan? Everything is on hold currently and we are unable to plan. So the longer that we do not plan, the harder it is going to be to move forward. And the facts for us is that the student count continues to decline, our buildings continue to deteriorate, and our budget is still in a deficit. And those three things are not changing. And if they don't change in a month, two months, three months down the road, tableabling the decision is not going to change the situation. So my preference would be that either you decide tonight yes or no and then we move forward with your decision.
If you do table this decision, we will be back in March having this same conversation and we will be hearing the same feedback from our community members because again our information between now and then is not going to change. >> Thank you. Uh Jason Lily. Good evening, Superintendent Reichman, Assistant Superintendent Cooper, Deputy Superintendent Catchoff, Board President Buchanan, members of the board, and members of the community. My name is Jason Lilly and I am the director of itinerate services. What I'm what I'm here to talk about is really the cluster site and the development of that cluster site. As per A-151303, it says that there shall be ASDB regional programs as well in appropriate locations in the state. That is what the state statute says. So that means as part of my job, it is to make sure that we have those regional programs in appropriate locations throughout the state.
With that, um, we started looking at the cooperative as a whole. And since its conception in 1987, the uh ASB regional cooperatives have had cluster sites throughout the state throughout its throughout its its uh existence from 1987 to include one for blind low vision students at Catalina High School back in the 90s. So this is not necessarily new for regional programs to have these types of cluster sites. It just hasn't existed in a long time. with that as we look at that we look at as I looked at other states to include Utah, California, Texas and working with Cosby the um which is the council of school and service board uh which includes about 21 states. We looked at what what other states are doing to serve their populations as well as what has happened in some states where they have lost services completely and they've been all sent back to the district without supports from the state.
this is where we looked at um what services might we be able to continue to provide to students without just sending them back to specific school districts, right? Because some districts to include TUSD do have itinerant services that they provide. They are their providers. They are not our providers. However, TUSD does have an agreement with ASDB and has had one for a long time. In fact, it just the newest one just came into effect January of 2024 and goes through January of 2029. So, in looking at that cooperative agreement that we do carry with them, it is our obligation to do research and development to help their programs should they seek those assistance. And with that, of the 25 students that currently um are projected for next school year at ASB, 17 of those are TUSD students. So, it is part of our obligation to that district to also help them with their provision of FAPE and provide services, but each IEP will have to determine what those services might potentially look like as we look at those at that planning.
This is not the only cluster site we're looking at throughout the state. This is one that's got the most attention, but we have looked at other sites across the state as well and are in working with school districts as well to provide those because this is a continuum of services that looks a little bit different than what we've had in the past. Itinerate services is just a small portion of services that usually goes quarterly, monthly or weekly services because the teacher does most of the traveling, right? So because the teacher does most of the traveling, that leaves less time for specially designed instruction. With with that being said, um it's important that we look at if students can do some of the travel, take out that travel for the teacher, then we can now provide more special design instruction to that student because the student is doing some of the travel and the teacher is now able to provide services at a specific site location within multiple school that has multiple school districts potentially attending one site location.
>> May I ask a question? Uh yes. >> Yes. I I don't mean to annoy you. What about Prescott? Prescott had a cluster site for quite a while and that's gone. What happened to that? >> That's true. Um my understanding is most of these most of those were administly administratively closed within our agency at different points of time in the past. All those were closed by the time I started with the agency in 2022. Um again, cluster sites are not necessarily new to the country. they they exist in multiple states throughout the country as well. >> Can you elaborate on administratively closed? >> Uh again, I wasn't here so I don't I don't know the full details other than u what I get from my staff is that at some point in time they were told that the services would no longer be provided. I know my region is part of region three in Yuma.
Um when I first started uh a lot of families were reaching out to me why that cluster site was closed. it served about 50 to 70 kids um in that area and it was it was closed and so a lot of families reached out to me for that. >> I know because I started that cluster site. Um so it was just distressing to hear that it was closed. Um is Tucson Unified School District or the Amphitheater School District mandated to provide services to children across the state? They are mandated to provide services to any kid who reside within their boundaries >> and and elaborate on the term reside. >> Uh that means that they they live within their school district. >> They live in the school district. Thank you. >> Um I have a question. >> Sure. >> Um actually this this might be for Albert Duff.
Um, I would like to know if Copper Creek is large enough to actually house the blind students. >> So, with regards to [applause] total square footage as that would be there is sufficient space to adjust any programmatic services. The outcome of adjusting that such as adding additional classrooms would require us to find additional office space for staff which would then have a impact on our budget. So it is possible to flex additional classrooms either in more or less within that space. Our master facility plan was for 98,000 and I'm rounding square feet. The new facility is 106,000 square feet. when we take a look at those needs and what it had, it lined up almost perfectly with the master facility plan. And that's one of the reasons it was the most attractive school for us to be able to lease. So, to answer your question, if there's space or if the programmatic needs require us to have a space for whatever purpose, there would be the ability to flex that in and out.