78% of the levy that we are proposing is going to come from the township, 19% from the city and 3% from Fieldsboro. As I said the last time and I will say it again, we don't decide that. Property value decides that. We have nothing to do with it. We just report it. So there's the numbers that the state says we have to charge the township, we have to charge the city, and we have to charge field. Here's the good news. In March, when I came to the board and when I presented publicly, I talked about the debt service bond refinancing and the anticipated savings. At that time, we anticipated a savings of rough roughly, I think, $70,000 each year, 775 each year. The good news is we have now closed that bond refinance. So we were in that period waiting rates were fluctuating when we locked it was better.
This vote tonight to hopefully approve the 6% tax levy is a vote to stabilize our district and protect the educational integrity of our classrooms against unprecedented economic forces that threaten to dismantle the education that our children deserve. And finally, that brings me to a resolution that the board will vote on tonight prior um will discuss the resolution prior to the budget vote. In plain English, this resolution which is a big beautiful long resolution with lots of whereazes and hereto fors. It acknowledges the hard truth of our situation and it acknowledges that while we've done everything in our power to protect the staff and resources that directly serve our classrooms, the reality is that meaningful cuts and restructuring are unavoidable. At the same time, we have non-negotiable obligations. We must hire additional special education staff to support our most vulnerable students and comply with their legal IEPs.
Um so we're gonna bring out our senior string quartet. We'll give him a hand. Yay. [applause] Chamber musicians. They they work without a conductor. So I'll I'll get out of here in a sec. Let them go to get started. Um following the performance of our senior string quartet, um we're gonna hear from our tempo president um who's gonna talk to some of the parents if that's okay. Um yes. Okay. Um and then we'll have a brief intermission before we bring out the concert band. So um when they're all ready, here is our senior string quartet. [applause] Louder and down. Hallelujah. >> [applause] [applause] >> I don't have a Hallelujah. What about you? >> [applause] [applause] >> Heat. [music] Hey, heat. Hey, heat. Heat. Heat. [music] [music] Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. [music] Yeah. [music] [music] Heat. [music] >> [music] >> Oh, [music] Jesus. [music] Oh, [music] down.
And introducing it without re-surveying the community also feels short-sighted. At the same time, conducting a new survey right now during what many families call May-cember, one of the busiest and most stressful times of the year, also feels unrealistic. Closing out the school year without clarity on future calendars is not fair to families or staff who rely on the summer to plan their schedules, their travels, and their events. Do I believe the 1122 model is a bad idea? No, I don't. But any new proposal deserves thorough vetting, solid research, and a complete re-survey of all stakeholders, employees, and the staff Sorry, employees and parents alike. So, thank you for your time. Thank you, Ms. Pitt. Jennifer I'm going to Fierstein. I was thinking maybe they didn't finish the N and it's fines, but thank you for that clarification. Fierstein. Ms. Fierstein, there's a clock on the monitor here whenever you're ready.
Wave these rules with approval of the board when necessary for the protection of privacy or the administration of the board's business. This portion of the meeting um during which oral p public comment is held shall be limited to 30 minutes unless extended by a vote. The board provided however that every person who is physically present um and has followed the reasonable rules set forth above shall be permitted an opportunity to provide comment by dividing the total time for oral public comment by the number of the persons providing comment. And this is part of our mola policy. It's um PO0167.3. Um so now again I believe um signed in to participate in public comment is Brandon Kendall. So Brandon will start the three minute timer when you start. Good evening, madam president, members of the board. My name is Frank and I'm here because I believe this board owes me and this community an honest explanation for years.
And one thing at the high school level that's really important to us is how can we bring pride to those students that are using it? That's been one of the best things about the popup shop is those kids are getting money panther bucks to spend in the shop and the pride they have to actually go in and purchase their own thing with those panther bucks has been really really nice. Um, moving forward, we want to expand on our support systems, access to more resources, exploring sustainable funding options to help with our prek. Um, another thing that we see at the high school lot are our youth that are needing to be employed to help support their families. uh going forward with the new diploma, our goal is that as we get kids to that work release stage, those work-based learning experiences, how can we make those paid partnerships with students?
>> Good evening everyone. Over the past year, I have the opportunity to expand seating at our quad by adding new lunch tables to our campus to help accommodate for our growing enrollment at Oxford. I've also continued to develop our RCP scholarship, awarding $750 to our seniors to help them with their college journey. I will be continuing my education at UC Riverside where I will be studying both psychology and public policy in hopes of becoming a dermatologist. My name is Allison Chong and I've been so honored to serve as Oxford Academy student ambassador this year. Hello, my name is Anthony Higa and I would like to say thank you to AHSD and the board for the opportunity given to me to be a student leader at Savannah. The level of self-reflection given to me from this role will help me take my talents to UCI to be a computer scientist and an overall better human being.
Um Superintendent Nelson, have any of the currencurrants been founded? No. Okay, so >> No. Yes, we're getting them, but our legal team is saying that they are unfounded. Um yes, I understand, but it is important to have rules in order to have an efficient meeting. I'm not sure why this is um being resisted so much. It seems to me um being a basketball player, I could not imagine playing a game without rules. It just would be chaos um as we just made up things as we went. It's important we all have a basic understanding of rules in this room. Um my hope is this board will see reason, and especially as we move forward with these next few board meetings that it is important as we make these decisions for this district and in light of what's best for students that we all understand basic parliamentary procedures and that we all can be participating um in any direction we give.
So now we know we will be saving roughly 90 to $95,000 a year. We had anticipated saving taxpayers roughly $550,000 over the seven years. We now know it's going to be roughly $660,000 over the seven years. And a reminder this is just savings on the debt service portion of the tax. So our debt service is 2,241436. But it's a good thing because debt service is going down because we refinance the debt. Our proposed budget expenditures, we're looking at spending 71% on employee salaries and benefits. We're looking at spending 12% on special education, 9% on facilities, 4% on CNI and building support, 3% on transportation, and 1% on technology and operations. I'm happy to report that the budget that the school district on tonight, if approved, will allow us to move forward and financially do everything that is on this chart, which are all good things for are all good things for our kids, are all good things for our community, are all things that we are proud to present to you and hopefully you are proud to vote on tonight.
Providing the services to our neediest students is not optional. We are legally, but perhaps more importantly, morally obligated to redirect resources to make sure those children get what they need. So to balance this budget and fund those mandatory services, the administration is recommending a district-wide reorganization that will impact administrative positions, operational and instructional roles. We looked at every possible alternative, but the bottom line is that the size of the tax levy directly determines how many positions we have to reduce or restructure. The steps that you will authorize in tonight's resolution, which will include not filling certain vacancies, reassigning some duties, and making some staffing reductions, are made strictly out of economic necessity. And as painful as some of these choices are, we firmly believe this is the least disruptive path forward to keep our district running efficiently and to keep our core educational programs intact.
[music] Heat. [music] Heat. [music] Heat [music] up [music] here. [music] Heat. [music] Heat. [music] >> [music] [applause] >> Thank you all so much and thank you all for coming out this evening. My name is Jason Price. I'm the band director here at UI High School. I want to first thank uh Mr. M and the Corral for joining us for our first piece this evening. [applause] Thank you. Appreciate it. So, our first piece, as you can see in the program, was entitled Procession of the Sorcerers. And that kind of gets us set up for a a program of magical music. We'll be diving into the fairy world and the world of Lord of the Rings, a personal favorite uh novel of mine. But Procession of the Sorcerers kind of gets you into the mindset of these magical beings entering a space. So, uh we're going to continue with that and we're going to go to our next piece which is entitled Fairy Wisps.
Thank you. Thank you, members of the board. My name is Jennifer Fierstein. I am a parent of a ninth grader at Gilbert Classical Academy. Um and have had children in Gilbert Public Schools for the past 7 years. I submitted a detailed uh written statement, so I'll limit my remarks tonight to concerns about process that I have. I find it disheartening to see a comprehensive calendar evaluation process that included staff proposals, board work groups, stakeholder surveys, and an official administrative administrative recommendation set aside at the apparent prompting of a single board member. I find it equally concerning that the alternative being advanced appears to rely on only vague {quote} {unquote} research that wasn't defined, social media commentary, and non-target audience survey data rather than the structured input that was gathered through the district's own process. I'm also troubled by claims I heard listening to the board meeting that the 1122 calendar is effectively the same as the existing 222 model.
I was approved to coach underground. You're now using against me being referenced as nearly 20 years old. It did not suddenly appear overnight. You knew about it then. You approved me anyways. I coached. I showed up for these kids. I volunteered my time. And during those years, there were minor incidents, every time involving the unfair treatment of children, no complaints involving student safety, and no problems that would justify suddenly deciding I'm unfit now. So, what changed? Because I'm struggling to understand how I was considered safe enough to coach children before, but somehow unsafe now despite continuing to coach youth sports in this community. I currently coach baseball through park recreations and recently recently coached soccer. Parents trusted me. kids trusted me. Those organizations trusted me. And even though I was already within the time frame of my previous approval, I still cooperated. I still completed another background check.
So, they're still getting their their education, they're getting their credits for their opportunity to be in work work-based learning, but also receiving the money they need to help support families. All right. Um the next area we talked about is technology balance. Um, we all know the importance of being able to use technology as you get ready for the real world, whether that's college or the workforce. Um, and we know it's an essential part of educating. But as we all kind of shifted several years ago to this onetoone platform and utilizing technology, we also now realize that there there needs to be a balance um between the screen time and uh what kids are what kids are using technology. We want to really start having some conversations looking at the data, the research that has come out of students being more on technology and being able to find that healthy balance K to2 that best supports our students.
Hello, I am Ann Irish Lazadus. As a student and ambassador of Orange Western 7th through 12 school, I've been integrating student voices upon our new redesign process. And it's really been an honor to create a foundation for our Orangeu and Jun our junior high and high school campuses. And I want to thank AHSD for giving me a place to really thrive, not just intellectually, but emotionally. And I'm proud to say that I'll be continuing my advocacy through nursing at UCLA. And yeah, thank you so much. Anthony, >> is that your cousin? All right, our next uh recognition. Uh we are proud to recognize the Savannah High School girls basketball team for their outstanding achieve achievement of CIF champions. Round of applause. The team ca the team captured the coast league championship and continued an impressive postseason run to become CIF Division 6 champions and play in the regional state tournament.
Um It's your responsibility President Buchanan to call for a vote on this. Okay, can I get a vote on the adoption of the agenda? Mrs. Longshore Mr. Ali Hi. Mrs. Tucker Hi. Ms. Akpara Hi. Ms. Buchanan, I. >> [clears throat] >> All right, we have no recognition at this meeting and we have no discussion information items board comments. So, we're going to come back to you Mrs. Longshore. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Can you repeat that? Board comments. Board We're at board comments and I brought it back to you. Oh, thank you. President Buchanan, I appreciate that. I love AVUSD and all it has to offer this time of year. Our district is a flurry of excitement and activity and it's such a joy to watch our children do their thing. Thank you to each one of you who posted, reached out, and invited this board to be part of your activities.
And finally, all of the things that we are proposing and all of the things that we are doing meet all of the needs that were identified by the staff, by the teachers, by the administrators, by the parents. We're maintaining programs. We're adding interventionist. We're building MTSS. We're adding supports. We're expanding counseling. We're building a new website and unifying our communication. We're implementing online platforms for our teachers and administrators to make their lives a little bit easier. We're going to eliminate payto-play fees for sports. We're going to do phase one at the playground at Cl Martin. We will improve communication with families and we will with the city hopefully enhance safety and security by adding a stand. So to the board, I anticipate your support. I hope for your support. I ask for your support uh this evening while when you vote on the final budget.
Thank you for your attention. I will now turn the budget presentation over to our business administrator, Mr. Usi. And of course, if at any time during the presentation you have questions, please feel free to ask. Thank you. >> Thank you, Dr. Harper Josie. Good evening, President Basford, Vice President Santiago, commissioners, members of the public attending the meeting, and everyone streaming or watching the broadcast. I'm Mike Jussi, the district's business administrator, and this is the public hearing on the final budget for the 2026 2027 school year. Tonight, the board will have a resolution presented to them to approve the submission of the 2627 final budget to the Department of Education. I always like to start my presentation with a snapshot of the school district's operations to try to put into perspective how large of a district we are. The Clifton Board of Education has 25 facilities, three being rental properties consisting of 14 elementary schools with an elementary annex, three preschools, the Clifton Early Learnermies, three middle schools, the single the largest single campus high school in the state, the administration building, transportation garage, and the stadium.
And just be careful. We might just get brought into the world of the fairies ourselves. >> [music] [music] >> Heat. Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. [music] Heat. >> [music] [music] >> Heat. [music] Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. [music] [music] Heat. [music] [music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [music] [music] >> [music] >> Heat. [music] [music] [applause] Heat. >> [applause] [applause] >> All right. Thank you very much. I think uh you can see the theme here is very programmatic which means there's you a story to tell that is an actual story that's been written or a story that just the imagery just kind of appears to you. And I think with that last piece to me, I just can see the adventure unfold from the pristine beginning to the adventurous be uh middle and then a great climax at the end. So our next piece is a song that was written for the movie The Fellowship of the Rings um out of the trilogy.
After years of Gilbert Public School families following a specific 222 structure, the survey responses clearly reflected that format and not a different configuration, and to suggest otherwise is misleading. At a time of declining enrollment in Gilbert Public Schools and school closures, it's difficult to understand why this board would consider disregarding stakeholder preferences and instead imply that it knows better than the community that community that it serves. There's no evidence any of these calendar models improve student outcomes. The only actual data that was presented was the survey data, which overwhelmingly supported maintaining the current calendar, and I urge this board to model evidence-based decision-making that I hope it is teaching our students. Finally, I would request that board members comply with Arizona Revised Statutes and this board's own policy to disclose any actual or perceived conflicts of interest related to this issue. It's the right of the other board members and this community to understand how personal interest may be informing decision-making.