TUSD1- June 16th 2026 Governing Board Meeting

001Test. Test test test. Check. Check. Test test test. >> Check check check. Check. Check. Check. One, two, three. That's very So they'll have it I don't know. I think you don't You know what I mean? How's >> How's your daughter in Japan. >> Did you Good evening everyone. We're going to get our meeting started today. Uh today is Tuesday, June 16th, our second day of monsoons. And today is the anniversary of the first commercially successful roller coaster opened in Coney Island in 186 1884. Less than 80 years later, in 1963, cosminot Valentina Terukova became the first woman in space. in between. Today marks the anniversary of the incorporation of the Ford Motor Company in 1903. Today is both National Fudge Day and National Veggies Fresh Veggies Day. The doctor in me says focus on the

002latter, but the sweet tooth human in me says enjoy the former. Uh with that, Miss Kayla, can we have a roll call? >> Miss Luna Rose >> here. >> Mr. Romero >> here. >> Miss Shaw >> here. >> Miss Extram >> here. >> Dr. Ravi >> here. Uh, next we have our land acknowledgement statement followed by the pledge of allegiance. And is the student on here in person? >> Okay, great. We have uh Avilelet Salazar. Great. Here she comes. Uh, she's an eighth grader at Valenc uh, Valencia Middle School as a proud Pascoyaki tribal member. Alette is actively involved in organizations and leadership opportunities including junior honor society, warrior society and serving as a presenter in the Zakria Korea program which stands for collaborative research and action youth symposium. She is deeply connected to her

003heritage and participates in Yaki cultural traditions as an Alps Vandelaria uh flag bearer. Her interests include learning and practicing Yaki culture, language, history, customs, and traditions, as well as making traditional Yaki flowers, and foods. In addition to her cultural involvement, she enjoys playing softball, cheerleading, and expressing her creativity as a hair and makeup stylist. And I understand that you'll be offering a Yaki greeting first before the land acknowledgement statement. Go ahead. [clears throat] This is the English translation. Now, greetings gentlemen, ladies and children. My name is Alette Salasar. We hope that you have awakened happily and in good health on this holy day that we have been given. In this way, I will know many thanks to you all. >> Great. Thank you for that greeting and for bringing the traditional culture of our tribal

004nations here in our local community. Uh for our land acknowledgement statement, do you have that pulled up, Jan? >> Oh, okay. >> On behalf of the governing board of the Tucson Unified School District, Ilet Salasad recognized that the school building and facilities of the Tucson Unified School District reside on the ancestral homeland of the Tohono otam nation in the federally recognized tribal land of the Bosoryaki tribe. Now the land acknowledgement in Yaki. Unified School United States. >> Great. Thank you for sharing that. And I understand for the pledge of allegiance you'll be will be starting in English and you'll also give a yaki in Spanish translation. >> Yes. >> All right. So everyone can please rise who can uh for the pledge of allegiance. First in English. >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of

005the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Now the pledge in Spanish. Now the pledge in vegetable. Thank you, >> Dr. Tree. I understand we have one agenda adjustment for tonight. >> President Shaw, members of the board, I would request that we move item 9.14 to directly follow item 6.1, the report from the alternative ed committee. >> Right. So, this will be more continuity. will have the recommendations from the alternate ed committee followed by the um recommendation of the day program. Any objection to that change? >> All right, I'll take that as honest consent to make that change. Uh next, Dr. Trillo stays with you for awards and recognitions. >> Yes. Um governing board members, members of the community

006here, those watching us uh online, uh welcome to our final governing board meeting uh before the summer season. uh won't be back until July, but as always, it's always a pleasure to celebrate student and staff excellence here in the Tucson Unified School District. We have some big news for student achievement uh coming out of Pueblo High School. The Warrior community is represented by Moxy Moi Menz Lugo, a 2026 graduate of Pueblo High, who recently received the great news that he's been selected as a recipient of the highly prestigious, nationally renowned Gates Millennium Scholarship. This year, more than 61,000 students applied for the scholarship, and he was one of only 750 students across the nation that were selected for this extraordinary honor. Uh as a gate scholar, Moximo will receive a full scholarship that will allow

007him to attend the University of Michigan and graduate school uh 100% debt-free. To put this achievement into perspective, the Gates Millennium Scholarship is considered one of the most competitive and selective scholarship programs in the nation, often more difficult to receive than admission to many of the Ivy League institutions. The recognition speaks not only to Moximo's academic excellence, but also to his leadership, perseverance, and commitment to his future. So, on behalf of the Tucson Unified School District, we congratulate Moximo on this remarkable accomplishment and wish him continued success as he begins his exciting next chapter. Do we have Moximo Kimemenz Lugo here? Come on up, young man. Let's give this guy [applause and cheering] a round of applause. >> [applause] [applause] [cheering] >> All right, >> contin >> we have a couple of uh amazing district

008office employees that will be leaving us um after several years of service. Tonight's uh the the following two staff members that will highlight for their service. They have a combined almost 85 years of service between them to the children and families of this district. That's absolutely amazing. So, first we're going to start with Shelley Sakura. 33 years of dedicated service to TUSD. She began her career with us in November of 1993 as a monitor at Greyhala Elementary before serving as a Wow, look at that. There we go. Before serving as a an exceptional education aid and teachers aid throughout her career, she has supported students, staff, and families in a variety of important roles, including positions at Catalina High School, uh the exceptional education department, central services, and operations. For more than two decades, Shelley

009has been a vital member of the district's operations and rental office teams, where her professionalism, organizational skills, and commitment to customer service have helped support countless district events and activities. Over the course of 33 years, Shelley has demonstrated dedication to Tucson Unified and has consistently embodied the spirit of service that helps our students and our families be successful. Please join me in thanking Shelley Sakura for her outstanding 33 years of service and commitment that started as a monitor and now ends as our lead administrative contact person for rentals in the district. Thank you again for all of the wonderful years of service. We wish you the best of luck in retirement. So come on up and be recognized. Show [applause] Our [applause] next uh uh recognition is for an outstanding leader in our district and

010this district is full of absolutely amazing employees and absolutely amazing leaders doing wonderful things for kids. But few have done wonderful things for students, families, and community longer than Lisa Langford with 51 years of service. Absolutely. [cheering] For more than five decades, Lisa has devoted her career to serving the students and families of the Tucson Unified School District. Her her leadership journey includes serving as the principal at John B. Wright Elementary, Holiday Elementary, and since 2008, she has been the proud principal of Collier Elementary School out there in the beautiful Bear Canyon community. Throughout her tenure, Lisa has earned the respect and the admiration of colleagues, students, and families through her steadfast commitment to student achievement, instructional excellence, and excellence in school uh culture for staff, for employees, for families, and for students. But perhaps

011one of the greatest measures of an educator's impact is the influence they have on those that they lead. Following the announcement of her retirement, one former teacher shared that Lisa was the very first principal that she worked for and that Lisa believed in her when she was not yet sure she was cut out to be a teacher. That teacher went on to thank Lisa for an amazing career and the confidence that she inspired in her. It is a sentiment that undoubtedly reflects the experiences of many educators whose careers have been shaped by Lisa's encouragement, mentorship, and leadership. 51 years of service is truly remarkable and it's a testament to Lisa's dedication, passion, impact, and unwavering belief in our students, in our families, in our community, and in public education. So, please join me in congratulating

012Lisa Langford and thanking her for her exceptional service to students and the families of the Tucson Unified School Districts. Let us all stand for 51 years of service. That's [cheering] all. [applause] [cheering] [applause] >> [laughter] >> Hello everyone and um thank you so very much for this honor and for this recognition. I want to thank the school board for all your support and all of the things that you have done for me and for the call your community. Um, you know, it goes without saying that people that are committed to children and to education, they ripple. They have this effect on not only the small part that they control, but that it goes out into the larger community. You have done that for us as well as all of the other board members and other

013district people that have come before you. They have given me so much, so many opportunities and chances to show what students can do, what staffs can do, what school communities can become. I want to also thank Holly Hamill who has been a wonderful mentor to me and a support and her great leadership throughout my career. You know, if you're looking for someone who is in your corner, for someone who is going to celebrate you, for someone who's going to to look at the small things as well as the large things that you do and celebrate those things, Holly is your cheerleader. Holly is the one that stands beside you, behind you, and with you. And she celebrates everything that you do at your schools. She is always there to push you to do better, to

014become a better administrator as well as a better person. And I've learned so much from her. I also want to give thanks at this time for the Collier family, the Collier community. It is their support and their commitment to this learning community that I have been honored to walk with them through this journey that they have done so many rewarding things and we have had so many rewarding experiences throughout the years with one sole purpose to educate children to make learning fun and to make sure that every student is successful. But you know, teaching and education is not by yourself and alone. And it takes a family who understands and who's patient and knows those long nights that you're not going to be home and knows that on the weekends you will be at school

015and knows that I need your help with the bulletin board and I need your help moving furniture. You know, I became a teacher and my son and my husband didn't realize that they had also become a teacher. [laughter] I became an administrator. And guess what? They became an administrator also, setting up for carnivals, helping me get ready for the opening of school. with them by my side and with them helping me get the job done that I needed to get done with their patience, their grace, and their understanding to know that I'm going to miss a basketball game. I'm going to miss a soccer game. We have to change our family outing because I need to be at school. They understood that and they gave me the leeway and the space to do everything that

016I could do for my CER family and for all of the children that we have touched. Lastly, I just want to say thank you for the best opportunity ever. This wideeyed university student fresh out of college goes down to 1010 and says, "I want to teach. I need a job. They don't know me. I haven't done anything. They gave me a chance." And look at how this chance has blossomed, grown, and just continues to have an impact in our community. So again, I want to thank you for this opportunity, all those that have come before you, and all of my friends, family, and all of my colleagues that have gotten me to this place because I know that I am nothing without them. that as much as I have touched that teacher and as much

017as I have touched the people in my community, they do not understand how much they have shaped me, the impact that they have had on me and the fact that they have touched my life to the core. I am what they made me. And so again, thank you so very much for this opportunity. I was so happy to give back all the time and thank you for this moment in the limelight. If you know anything, this is not where I like to be. [laughter] Not in front, not the center of attention, and not in the limelight. But yet, I do appreciate all of your recognition. So, thank you very much. [applause] >> [applause] [applause] >> Members of the governing board that does conclude award and recognitions. >> Thank you Dr. Trillo. All right, with that,

018we're going to have our uh governing board member activity reports. Governing board members, we had a short interval between our last uh special meeting and today go ahead, Mr. Romero. >> This is not very common. I took the month off, but I'll be back June 23rd at Davis Romero. [laughter] This ends my report. Go away, Miss Lunar Rose. >> Okay. Thank you, Dr. Shaw. And thank you to everybody who came this evening. Um and um I love the pres I love those awards, Dr. Trillo, both to a student who's getting ready to start his next journey and uh a longtime principal administrator who is ending her journey with us. So at different times of their lives. So I actually thought that was kind of beautiful. So thank you. Um the only thing is um that

019uh I just wanted to say that um I attended uh the basketball court uh ribbon cutting for uh named after Judith Blair after basketball former UVA basketball coach and uh coach um player Joseph Blair. Uh, I was invited by Congressman or Councilman Paul Cunningham's office to uh speak uh at uh Pelvery Park, which is right next to Kellen Elementary. Uh yes. Uh so I went and spoke on behalf of the board. Um the it's a beautiful if you haven't had a chance to go see Palivvery Park and the new uh basketball courts, they're amazing. They did a lot of fundraising um for this and also received grants from different organizations in the community. And these courts will be able to be used not only by our students of Kellen because Kellen is literally right across

020the street, but our students um from Palaverie and um Hudlo, which well and Roof Thicket, which all kind of uh circle that uh area of town over by Broadway and Wilmont. So, uh, that is the only thing that I had on my calendar. Thank you. >> Anybody else? Go ahead, Miss Extram. >> Thank you, Dr. Shaw. Um, I attended the, uh, Choya High School and Paula Birdie High School graduations. So, thank you to each of those schools for having me. Um, I've also been in attendance at the Davis Rometo Mariachi camp um, at Ross Scrooge. So, thank you to Ross Scrooge for hosting and of course the Vanuela family for putting that on um every year. And I attended two um meetings with the Pasco Pasuayaki Tribal Council. Um so I would like to thank

021them for hosting me two times. Um the last time I attended with Dr. Trujillo, uh Mr. Lambert and uh Ms. Roxan Beay James. Um and we were just there to listen to um their concerns over the Yaki students and how TUSD and the Pasco Yaki tribe can strengthen um our relationship. So, um, I'd like to thank, uh, Chairman Hernandez, um, members from the Education Oversight Committee, their chairs, um, Councilwoman Gonzalez, Councilman Salana. Um, and then we were also joined by council members Sanchez, Alvarez Gomez, Flores, and Miss Frias. Um and then for my first meeting um we had um vice chairman Yukopicio and uh tribal members uh Mr. Munoz and Mr. Koopis. Um and I would also like to thank them for providing us lunch. Um we had a traditional wakavaki uh lunch with traditional

022yeast bread and tortillas. It was very good. So um I'm looking forward to continuing those discussions with the Pascoyaki tribe. And uh that concludes my report. >> Thank you, Miss Xram. Go ahead, Michelle. >> Good evening, everyone. Um I attended our alternative education advisory committee and um I look forward to the presentation by our chairwoman, Felicia Chu, uh later on in this agenda. Um, I also met with our internal auditor, Paul Houston, and uh learned more about his background and, you know, told him some of my um uh priorities that I would like him to uh review um during his tenor. And so, it's great to meet him and I look forward to all the work that he will be doing. Um ear guess it was a couple weeks ago uh I went to Albuquerque,

023New Mexico and I attended the Americans for the Arts conference. Um on behalf of my job over at the Arts Foundation, I'm a public art administrator but um uh a big part of the conference was, you know, discussing how we can best serve artists, public artists, and also art educators. Um, and unfortunately there's maybe a lot of cuts happening to art education. Um, and so, you know, I'm happy that our board is um all in agreement that the arts should be um funded and preserved. Uh, because, you know, with what's happening in the federal government, it's scary to think about um all the cuts that may be happening in the near future. So, um, uh, it's great to take those professional development classes to see how we can, uh, become better arts advocates. Um, but

024during my time in Albuquerque, I got a call from an asked me representative about an issue that they have been having. Um, so I took that call while I was on the train to Santa Fe. Um, and so I'm glad that we're taking care of that now. Um, and then last but not least, I do want to wish everyone a happy Junth. Uh, that'll be um on June 19th this week. I believe it's a Friday. And I want to invite you all to the Tucson Junth Festival happening on Saturday the 20th. Um, it'll be from 6:00 to 10:00 at the Kino Sports Complex. It's a free event. There'll be live music, food trucks, uh kids zone, which uh is where I'll be for the entire time. So, and there's free food for kids, too. Um

025I believe they do have a clear bag policy, so be aware of that. Um and also want to wish all of our employees who are supposed to work on that day a happy holiday. Thankfully, it finally landed on a a day during the week so everyone can enjoy the day off. Thank you. >> Thank you, Miss Shaw. Uh Mine will be really brief. I had a chance to meet with a few of our administrative team preparing for next uh school year including our internal auditor uh Mr. Houston uh as a member as a leazison to the audit committee helping him prepare for his first uh reports and his first uh audit work uh into the next school year and his plan will come before the governing board I believe and the end of July for

026us to approve uh if we if we do so. I also had a chance to meet with our incoming deputy superintendent to really uh help support make sure that she's successful because I think her success is going to make a huge difference for the success of our students and our schools. And so I'm glad I had a chance to connect with her and I had a chance to meet with our AFME uh leadership as well uh as we're getting towards the end of our negotiation season. Uh with that I'll conclude our board member activity reports and turn it back over to my colleague uh clerk Luna Rose to lead us in the call to the audience. Thank you, Dr. Shaw. Again, good evening, everybody. Members of the public may speak during call to the audience.

027The governing board clerk shall be responsible for recognizing speakers and for maintaining order where it may be appropriate. Those who speak in person or would like to have their comments read shall email or call the board office or complete a request to address the board form before the end of call of the audience. Speakers who do not who have not completed a request form are not permitted to address the board. Speakers must state their full name and topic prior to addressing the board. Speakers are encouraged to be brief with a maximum speaking time of three minutes. And while more than one speaker may speak together in the time allowed, speakers are reminded they are not allowed to speak more than once and they may not transfer or delegate their time to others. If there are

028documents for the board, please give them to the board office staff. They will ensure each board member receives a copy. Those attending the meeting and/or speaking before the board shall observe rules of good conduct. Speaker shall refrain from inappropriate or defamatory remarks. Defamation includes false statements presented as facts about identifiable persons that could harm their reputation. Please note that making defamatory statements at a public meeting may expose the speaker to personal legal liability. And because TUSD serves students from preschool through high school, speakers should be aware that there may be children present and listening. At the end of call at the audience, the governing board president will ask if any board member would like to respond to a criticism, ask staff to review a matter, or ask that a matter be put forth on a

029future agenda. No more than two board members may address each topic. First speaker this evening is Lillian Fox. My name's Lillian Fox. Um, President Shaw and Superintendent Trillo. If I've got your homework for you if you pull this up, should be in front of you. This is not my data. This is not my chart. This is from TUSD. This is their work, their research. I just put in the colors. All the schools that are are highlighted in pink that means that they are getting fewer than 50% of the kids in their neighborhoods. So of all the kids who are the right age and the right location to go to their school, these schools in pink get fewer than 50%. Which is not good. If you look down for Sabino on the next page, they're only

030getting 30% of the high school kids in their district. Dr. Trillo has been telling you there are no kids or they're not enough kids east of um Swan. I live in W 2. W 2 and W four and a big chunk of W six are east of uh Swan. I went to the W 2 office. They told me that there according to the census about 20,000 kids 18 or younger who live in W 2. your enrollment is only about 40,000. So, it's not true. There are no kids there. And this research by TUSD shows the problem is kids aren't attending your school. They're going elsewhere. They're going to charter schools. They're going to more competitive districts. You know, who knows where they're [clears throat] going, but they're not going to TUSD schools. Now, the colors

031over here, green means a school is um I hate this microphone. Um, green means the school is west of Swan. Blue means it's east of Swan. So, you can get a check on where are the schools that aren't drawing enough kids and they're a lot on the west side and the well, west side and midtown and east side. The other thing, there are another 10 schools that have fewer than 55%. They're between 55% and 50% getting from their area. So, we have a lot of schools that we need to make more attractive or do something to get them there. Furthermore, your CFO is saying you're only going to lose 2% of your kids next year. You lost 3% this year. If by underestimating how many kids you're going to lose, that means the budget is

032going to be bigger than you're going to get money for. So, it was 3% this year, there's no reason to believe it'll be small, a lower percent next year. Thank you. Next is Nicole Jansen. All right. Hello all. My name is Nicole Janszen, one of the school counselors at CE Rose. I'll be reading accounts based on public staff experiences pointing to the pattern of negative behavior by the principal, Mr. Roslinhouser. Account one, Mr. R and Miss Mayerson were seen displaying questionable behavior at a PBLO happy hour approximately two years ago. There are multiple instances of Mr. R feeding Miss Mayerson jello shots and displaying inappropriate touching at the bar in front of substantial number of PHS employees. This testimony is a direct account as seen from the perspective of a concerned employee and is meant

033to strictly provide information and facts and should be interpreted as the district or media appropriate. This eyewitness account and the following accounts come alongside the concerning behavior displayed at PBLO between these two parties and is part of a larger concern that there's extremely questionable behavior between said parties. Account two. While at a different staff happy hour, Mr. Rosenhauser was observed handfeeding the same administrator from across the table in plain view of other staff. He was also observed placing his hand in the small of her back during this happy hour. Additionally, Mr. Rosenhauser, this administrator, and around 11 other PBLO staff were sent on a trip to the PLC plus training in New Orleans last fall. An expensive trip for the district, I might add, costing tens of thousands of dollars where Mr. Rostenhauser later stated

034that nothing new was learned. While on this trip, strange behavior and conversations were observed like Mr. Rosenhauser stopping to gawk at novelty gifts that were inappropriate for a work trip and remarking on the appearance of women appearance of women staff at restaurants. Furthermore, staff noted strange behavior from these two, including disappearing together from a group event and choosing to dine together more often than expected. We leave the information we have shared today up to your interpretation. Account three. These are some quotes by the Publo principal to staff and students. To staff, if you don't if I don't like you, I'd find a way to get rid of you. I can't make Jen mad. She'll yell at me. I do whatever she says. when a teacher was frustrated, I expect you to be professional and respectful.

035He has uh quoted scripture to employees while in meetings as well as texted employees with parent complaints sometimes at 7:30 a.m. as well as other important public business that should be communicated via email to students when walking into a classroom. Are they misbehaving? Do they need a spanking? At which point, he motioned to take off his belt. And I'm going to stop there because I don't have enough time. Thank you. Next speaker is Ben Kaylor. Hello, my name is Ben Kaylor. I'm a teacher at PBLO High School reading a letter on behalf of a parent. To the members of the Tucson Unified School District governing board, my name is Veronica Burlson and I'm the parent of a former Publo High School student who graduated in May 2026. I am writing because after reading the concerns

036recently recently raised by Publo High School staff regarding leadership, communication, intimidation, favoritism, lack of transparency, and leadership failures. I was struck by how closely many of those concerns mirrored my own experiences as a parent. In September 2025, my son became involved in a school disciplinary matter. My son was suspended pending a long-term suspension hearing. And before that hearing ever occurred, actions were taken that affected his participation in school athletics before any determination of wrongdoing had been made. At the subsequent long-term suspension hearing, the hearing officer found insufficient evidence determined that my son had committed any violation of the student code. During that hearing, district representatives stated that athletics should not have been affected. Despite that outcome, my son remained excluded from athletic participation. Throughout this process, Principal Frank Rothenhauser was responsible for ensuring that disciplinary

037decisions were handled fairly, that families received accurate and timely information, and that district procedures were followed. Instead, my family's experience was marked by inconsistent communication, lack of transparency, and decisions that appeared to be made before the disciplinary process was complete. As a parent, I repeatedly sought clarification, documentation, and explanations regarding decisions affecting my son rather than receiving clear and consistent answers. At times it appeared that important decisions had already been made while our family was still attempting to undermine the allegations and process being used. While the disciplinary process was still pending, actions were taken that affected his athletic participation. Later, while appeals while appeals were still unresolved, Principal Rothenhauser informed me that my son would not be playing basketball. This created the impression that the outcome had already been decided before the review process had

038been completed. As my concerns grew, I began documenting meetings and conversations because I no longer had confidence that discussions affecting my son were being handled transparently. During one conversation, Principal Rothenhauser joked that the fact that I had recorded previously in meetings. While this may have been intended as humor, I found it dismissive given the seriousness of the situation and the impact these decisions were having on my son and our family. Following my appeal, regional superintendent Mark Alvarez conducted a review of the matter and ultimately granted the appeal. The district concluded that parent notification was inconsistent and insufficient. Disciplinary measures were implemented prematurely without a complete and thorough review. Communication between school administration and the athletic department lacked consistency and coordination. As a result, the suspension and disciplinary violations were expuned from my son's record. When

039I later read statements from PBLO staff describing concerns about being dismissed, ignored, intimidated, shut down when raising concerns and feeling that decisions had already been made, I recognized similarities to my own experience as a parent. When the district's own review identifies procedural failures and multiple staff members independently raised concerns regarding >> Time is up. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Next speaker is Angela Gonzalez. Thank you. >> Hello, uh, Superintendent Trillo, governing board members. I'm Angela Gonzalez, teacher at PBLO High School. I'm reading comments on behalf of current and former, uh, PBLO staff members. Uh, count number four. Last year, PBLO had a lockdown drill that made teachers very nervous. After school, we met as a staff to find out more information. When one teacher expressed their frustration that her door doesn't lock properly and

040was visibly upset and scared after the about the lockdown, Mr. R yelled at her in front of the rest of the staff. Afterwards, he wrote her up for talking back to him. Account number five. Mr. R is often found in the world languages hallway hugging teachers and walking them to their car. In addition, his son, who does not currently attend PBLO, was often seen in one teacher's room. Students often complain that they couldn't get help from that teacher because Mr. Rosenhauser was always there and it's creepy. Thank you. >> Thank you. Next is Victoria Bodani. Hi, I'm Victoria Bodani from PBLO High School. Um, I just wanted to thank Mich stick sticking up for librarians last week. You are correct. As a voter, I was under the impression that the override budget would be used

041to get more librarians, art teachers, music teachers, and PE teachers. Instead, TUSD is giving raises to principles, something I did not know. And had I known, I would not have voted for the override. Because while I'm sure there are good principles out there, that is not the case at my school. And frankly, the teachers deserve a raise and the students deserve a full roster of staff that help them in a holistic way. So if you are unsure of where to find the money to pay for librarians at all TUSD schools, might I recommend you cut the raises from principles. Thank you. [applause] Okay, that is the last of our speakers when we've there's two to be read. Governing board members. This is to articulate several objections pertaining to the lack of notification which has been

042provided to the public inclusive of parents, students, teachers, administrators, social justice act activist, td property taxpayers and those of us who've been involved in the td desegregation case since its onset. I served as the Mendoza Planes representative for 20 years and also worked in TUSD as an exceptional education teacher, speech therapist, biling bilingual education resource teacher and was TUSD's first equal opportunity education employment director. While serving on the TUSD governing board, significant progress was made in many areas, including second language acquisition, parent community engagement, exceptional education, least restrictive educational environmental issues, the posting of governing board meetings with a 56 day public notice instead of what was reverted to recently a single day, which meets the legal requirements, but hampers suitable notice for public review and comment. Tonight there is a public hearing regarding the

043unitary status budget plan which was posted on June 9th and is scheduled for action on June 16th which allows for five work days and one weekend for members of the public to find the public posting on the TUSD desegregation website since there are no other notices provided. The three attachments to the desegregation budget each appear to have 825 pages which may be duplicative but without time to cross reference it is not known. First, finding the public information is challenging. It requires members of the public to search for such postings daily, which is an unreasonable task and a barrier to parent and community engagement. Since court supervision of desegregation court order was lifted, there has been no independent oversight of desegregation programs, magnet school services, etc. to determine student outcome data and importantly, how each corresponds

044to budget allocations and expenditures. It has it has all become a rabbit hole mystery. The sham process to include community input results in no or minimal input such as tonight's board meeting from individuals like me who make effort to keep up with what TUSD is doing, especially in the area for purposes of accountability to the public. Long ago, the administration made clear that input from community regarding disegregation matters was not welcome, especially from those of us who know and understand the history of the case up to the present. However, is the governing board that is responsible for all facets of the unitary status plan. Remember that one of the most critical elements of the USP is community and parent engagement which has been totally neglected. Shame on the board for not demanding friendly processes that

045allow and support legitimate public input. Sylvia Campo. Last letter. Hello. I am submitting my written comment to be read into the record. My name is Monica Jane Borowski or MJ Waltz. The topic of my comment is maintaining volunteer safety and guidelines for engagement in collaboration with partner organizations as follows. Organizations that engage students and volunteers should not rely solely on the judgment in individual leaders. They should have safeguarding, reporting, oversight, and accountability systems that remain functional regardless of who is in charge. My name is MJ Waltz and I am here to encourage the board to consider how TUSD engages with nonprofit and community partner organizations that provide volunteer internship service learning, leadership or community engagement opportunities to students. Many students participate in activities outside the classroom through nonprofit organizations. These experiences can be valuable, but

046they also place students in environment where they may be interacting with organizational leaders, volunteers, mentors, and members of the public. I believe TC should consider whether organizations that receive referrals, partnerships, volunteer recruitment support, service learning, participation, or other forms of institutional engagement have basic safeguarding and reportings in place. For example, policies that promote transparency, oversight, and accountability in leadership and volunteer management. A clearly identified and trained reporting contact person and a process for handling concerns that does not slow solely rely on organizational leadership. Processes for identifying and managing conflicts of interest during the review of complaints and reports. Accessible and multilingual reporting pathways for concerns involving misconduct, harassment, retaliation, exploitation, abuse of authority or safeguarding concerns. documentation, review, and record retention procedures that promote accountability, consistency, and transparency. Clear volunteer role definitions, expectations, and boundaries.

047Rotation of leadership responsibilities, and other checks and balances to reduce the risk of authority becoming concentrated in a single individual. safeguarding practices for programs involving minors, including appropriate supervision standards, limitations on one-on-one communications between adults and minors, and the use of two adult or two-party oversight models when appropriate. Strong organizations do not rely solely on the integrity of individual leaders. They recreate systems that allow concerns to be raised safely, reviewed fairly, and addressed consistently. As TUSD continues building community partnership, I encourage the governing board to explore whether basic safeguarding, reporting, transparency, and accountability standards should be part of the expectations for organizations that engage with TUSD students. Thank you for your time and consideration. Best MJ Waltz. And that concludes call of the audience, Dr. Shaw. >> Thank you, Clerk Lunar Rose. Now, our governing

048board has the opportunity to respond to criticism, ask staff to review a matter, or ask that a matter be put on a future agenda. A reminder that no more than two members may legally address each topic. Go ahead, Miss Sham. >> Good evening, everyone. Um, I'd like to thank uh members of the PBLO community for coming out and uh speaking to us about uh the issues that you um are experiencing. Um, thank you also to uh Victoria for um agreeing about the librarians and and you know the voter language and all of that. It's good to know I'm not going crazy. Um I appreciate Miss Sylvia Campo for um mentioning all of the things that we need to uh focus on and prioritize for our desegregation budget. like every time this comes to us as

049a board, um I echo her concerns that the public notice is not easy to find on our district website. Even today's board meeting agenda wasn't posted until yesterday. Um which is super unfortunate for us as governing board members who you know try to prepare and also for the public who also want to prepare and and understand what we will be discussing. Um and so I'll talk more about that later on in the agenda. Um but that's all for me. Thank you. Okay. Thank you everyone. Next we have our committee reports alternative education advisory committee quarterly reports. Dr. Trillo. >> Yes. President Sha. I'd like to welcome the chair of the alternative uh education uh advisory committee, Felicia Chu, um who I think will also be assisted by the governing board's liaison to the uh alternative

050education committee, board member Satie Shaw. Miss Chu, welcome. >> Thank you. Um that's the wrong presentation. >> I have the committee report item 6.1. yellow. That looks great. Thank you, Jean. Um, good evening, President Shaw, clerk Luna Rose, governing board members, legal council Ross, Dr. Trillo, everybody else he's up here supporting and community members. And my name is Felicia Chu and I am the chairperson of the alternative education advisory committee and I'm here to present our um quarterly report and recommendations. Currently, this is the list of our committee members. Um we actually have room for 13 members and you can see we're not quite full. Our governing board liaison is Miss Shaw and our support staff. Thank you to them. Uh, Miss Borboa, Miss Hayne, and Miss Hernandez. I wanted to just start off with

051our mission and our scope. So, this is just an excerpt from our charter. And if you scan the QR code up in the top right corner, you can actually view our charter. I just wanted to remind our board and members of the audience um that our responsibilities and goals are to make recommendations to the governing board regarding the effectiveness of the district's alternative education programs in meeting the needs of students in the community and the need of our addition of sorry and the need for additional alternative programs or the need to modify any of our existing programs. So [snorts] in our presentation today we'll talk about um the activities that we have done our findings and we do have some recommendations. This just outlines when we have our meetings etc. Um there is a QR

052code up in the top right corner that I'd like to invite community members to go ahead and scan if you'd like to and you can uh fill out the application to join our committee. We currently meet on Mondays um the third Monday of every month during Zoom um usually around six o'clock. Um and also we are going to take July off but we've been meeting every month. So this is a report I know it says quarterly report but we haven't come to you in a while. So this is our January through May activities. As I mentioned, we have our monthly meetings on the third Monday of each month via Zoom. And then Dr. Nunes actually shares with us overview of monthly DAPE reports. And then we've had various presentations over these past few months from

053DAPE tua and project more. We've also had additional presenters. Thank you for your time. U Miss Zamora, Mr. Hernandez, Mr. Amenta, and Mr. Ross. other activities and discussions. We've talked about subcommittees and discussed increasing student enrollment and funding for the district through concurrent enrollment such as with our homeschool students in our community. These are the findings regarding our district's DAPE program which stands for district alternative education program. After we had some presentations from Dr. Nunes and also from Miss Aamora, we realized that DAPE is successful in providing students with interventions for success. Many of the families allow students to choose if they will attend DAPE or remain at home. Unfortunately, transportation is a barrier for many students who would like to attend DAPE. And we realize that transportation routing can accommodate DAPE students if DAPE

054is mandatory. We also recognize that contracting out is very expensive, but the district provided transportation can be possible. For example, we could adjust the date start time to 9:15. This slide talks about our findings regards to project more high school. There have been many successes um that have come out based on some surveys, an average of 10% increase of attendance compared to their previous schools and a decrease in suspensions and violations. You can see on the slide that there are several challenges and this presentation came from um Izzy Reyes who is the principal at Project Moore. Transportation is one of the issues. We also have a high level of XED and ELLL referrals. And there's a lack of career and technical education, also known as CTE programs. Families do not seem to understand the credit

055system and student acuity levels, including anxiety and other mental issues, are also a concern, and there are significant academic gaps. This next slide captures our findings for dropout prevention and graduation. And this is based on information from Mr. Frank Armenta. We have seen that high school students leave TUSD to attend credit recovery programs at charter schools. High school students are seeking a flexible school day schedule. Five years of enrollment data indicate that students withdraw during the second quarter. TUSD enrollment ambassadors and dropout prevention are needed to support students and schools need to offer credit recovery programs for all students and some homeschool families might be interested in the CTE programs that our district offers. In conversation with Mr. Hernandez, we learned that the district can create a tuition schedule for courses and homeschool families can

056use ESA vouchers for tuition. So, we could basically capture more students for our population. And this begins our recommendations. Recommendation number one, we recommend to the board that we identify a tuition schedule for courses such as for the advanced placement or AP courses and the CTE courses. We recommend that information is added to the district website regarding concurrent course enrollment. And we also re uh recommend that we distribute this information to homeschool families. Recommendation number two, which we're going to discuss right after this presentation. Um, we request that we recommend that the district uh alternative education program or DAPE is mandatory. Recommendation number three, we recommend that the district provide transportation to date project more high school and the teenage parent high school. Recommendation number four, we recommend that the board um supply additional staffing

057at Project Moore High School, including an elective or arts teacher, a social worker, and instructional aids to support our English language learners and exceptional ed students. Recommendation number five, we recommend that additional TUSD enrollment ambassadors and dropout prevention staff are hired to support our students. Along with that, we recommend that all high schools should be funded in order to be able to offer credit recovery programs to all of our high school students. And we thank you for considering our recommendations. Great. Thank you, Chairperson Chu for, uh, going through that presentation and for all the work. Miss Shaw, as a board leazison, is there anything you'd like to add? >> Thank you, Dr. Shan. Thank you, uh, Miss Chu for, um, summarizing all the work that the committee has done so far. I'm very pleased with

058the recommendations. you know, they came uh through uh via all of our staff giving reports, the committee members asking so many in-depth questions um and really considering what would be best for the students at those specific um alternative education sites. Um I'm really looking forward to us um voting on some of these recommendations and all of them especially the transportation one. um you know when I was at Project Moore or uh a DAP site or uh the teenage parent high school especially that one um I think transportation is a major issue um and it can can help those students um you know stay in school, go every day, show up on time um and just help them be uh better prepared for for learning and the day. Um and so thank you for all your

059work. I do want to shout out uh Miss Brianna Chilius who's in the audience and is also on the committee. I think that you two are the only committee members here. Um but thanks everyone if you're listening online for your work. Um and I'd love to see if any of our board members here have any questions or comments about the recommendations. >> Thank you Miss Shaw. This is a information item tonight for committee report. We do have one action item which we've moved to follow this one on the date uh recommendations. County board members, any any comments, questions, feedback? Go ahead, Miss Shaw and Mr. Romero. After that, >> oh, Miss Lunro, sorry. Sorry. Just on a process note, you before you begin the conversation, the only reason that the other five recommendations are not

060on tonight for action. Staff still needs time to do budgetary impact, staffing impact, get them in shape for governing board conversation for action. So, you may have questions about feasibility. I just want to let you know upfront we haven't done those studies. One of the six we have and it's coming up. Uh the one recommendation that does have budgetary impact and we are in shape for a robust discussion is the mandatory date recommendation. >> All right. Thank you Dr. Troy. Yes, Miss Lunar Rose followed by Mr. Romero. >> Okay. And um thank you for your presentation. Um and um thank you Miss Shaw for all your work on this committee. I know this is a labor of love for you. So I do appreciate your work on this. But my question is um my first

061question I I'll open it up to the rest of my colleagues after my first one. Um so let's say we make DAPE mandatory. What is the consequence if the student doesn't attend? Has that been discussed and and and thought out further? >> We we haven't thought that out at this point. >> Okay. And is that due to still trying um and I guess maybe this is a question for Dr. Trillo still trying to figure out um what the what staff's going to come back with. >> Yeah. So so some of that we're going to discuss in the action item. Okay. In terms of if date becomes mandatory, what happens to obeyance? if a bandance is still an option and DAPE is now the de facto, what happens when kids are at home? So, we'll get

062into that as the action item follows. >> Okay. Okay. I mean, I and I guess maybe I'm just jumping the gun, but I think that's the first thing that jumped out at me is um because with some students, sadly enough, we can offer all these programs and they decide yes, I'll I'll I'll take your offer date or some sort of alternative education, but then they choose not to fulfill that. And so what is the next steps on that? And so that was my first question. So thank you. >> And Dr. Shaw, >> good. >> If I if I may uh just respond to that. So I believe and if if I may jump into Miss Chu, one of the reasonings for that was because every month when we get the data from Dr. Nunees, we

063see you know uh five kids accept DAPE and maybe three or four not accept DAPE and stay home. And so, um, I believe a lot of the times mostly people stay home rather than opt in for DAPE. And so, when they don't choose this alternative program, they're at home. They're not keeping up with their studies. And so, we wanted to kind of try to create a concrete pathway to stay involved in their school community and stay on track to graduate. And you know what you you mentioned was also a concern to me like of course we can't force anyone to come. It's the same like school is mandatory but we know that um uh students still don't come to our um general education environments. Um and so we don't want it to be punitive at

064all. We're just trying to you know get parents and students to choose a pathway. >> Okay. I appreciate that because I, you know, I that's the one thing I would be concerned about is making this punitive or at least seemingly punit punitive, >> right? >> Because if anybody's dealt with a high school student, you know they are sometimes. So, you know, um I would just want to make sure that if we as a board approved this recommendation that there's some sort of I don't know if safeguard is the right word or something in place that says this is not punitive. this is for your benefit and that's how I'd like for that. So, thank you. >> So, I had a couple questions on recommendation one and then recommendation five. So, going with number one first,

065we're talking about CTE on here. Identify tuition schedule for courses. Um, so what as far as on that first point right over here, what are kind of our solutions that we're talking about for these CTE programs for um for these students? Do we have any suggestions or recommendations on specific plans or just kind of an overview of what we need to be doing? What we had discussed in the committee was that we have some programs that maybe homeschool students aren't they don't have access to. Um so if the students were able to use their ESA vouchers, then they could actually pay for a course through TUSD as opposed to going somewhere else. >> And what you brought up is is fantastic. And again, I know uh Chuck's not here to talk about it, and I

066know we're going to have this recommendation come up later, but I think this is a great way, like you said, distribute information to homeschool families. How do we know who they're homeschooling or even charter school families? What are we doing to market and promote our CTE programs at our high schools to these other schools or homeschools or charters? And if there's a way to bring them together, at least again, I'm not sure the details on that. So, I'm hoping when we do come back to recommendation one that is brought up into that because I think that is phenomenal information that you guys brought uh to our attention here and I'm uh looking forward to see what we can come up with that. So, thank you very much for coming up with that. Recommendation five going

067into um uh mentioned here all high schools should be funded in order to be able to uh offer credit recovery. And one of the other points mentioned early was I think it was some homeschooled families, let's see, um, high school high school students leave TUSD to attend attention recovery programs at charter schools. So I guess that information was from Frank Armenta and I don't know if he needs to, you know, you can probably answer these two if he needs to come on more when we go to recommendation five. So what how many what what was mentioned? Why are people going to these other schools as opposed to doing um recredit recovery in uh TUSD in the discussions of looking at this as a lastcase scenario where it's a past fail versus a grade associated to

068it. I can speak to a little bit to the former and this is Frank got into some of this. I've been reviewing a lot of this information because we're losing a lot of credit recovery. Um most of the high school students that are credit deficient, they're leaving for live in-person alternative schedules. The computer-based credit recovery that we run in the high schools is not reaching a maximum amount of effectiveness with this population. When you think about it, I'm already making poor choices. I'm already falling behind. I'm already missing school, which is the number one driver for falling behind on my assignments. Falling behind on your assignments, getting a bunch of zeros, that leads to poor test performance, which then leads to credit loss, right? So, if I'm already making a series of choices that are

069leading me down this path, I'm not necessarily going to have the discipline in the agency to navigate the online environment, create my own schedule in hold myself accountable. And I'm not saying that our current model is all bad. It does work for some students, but what we really need to be moving to is an alternative schedule that features live instruction on our high school campuses where students can come to school from like 2:00 to 6:00, get a meal and have teacher le instruction that's small group and that's alternative in nature. So that that's really going to be the goal that we're going to be moving to and of course does require a cost analysis which is part of this us costing out this recommendation and why we're going to be back. But when you look

070at why so many of the charters do well, they specialize in credit recovery and it's teacherled. It's live instruction. They're structured to it. And that's really where we need to move if we're going to be effective because then you can truly earn a grade. You start talking about pass fail. That's harder to parse out when it's computer-based versus somebody is holding me accountable. It's live instruction. You're in my classroom. I now have greater control over is this C work, D work, A work, B work or or C work. So stay tuned. We're coming with that. >> So then then then at that point that would reverse that not knowing the other you know if we continued on the computer thing I would want to look more at the past fail. But if we are actually

071our plan is to be more effective in getting these students to have to take these classes and in a small group environment. they have to be that, you know, be in that class to pass and get a grade. I'm I'm for that totally. So, just the current system with on the computer I've not been a fan of. So, it's encouraging. Again, looking forward to this recommendation of how we're going to move forward to give our students better tools when it comes to credit recovery and help them make better choices after they've made the bad choices. Thanks, Dr. True. >> Thank you. I have a question um on the findings for DAPE. Can you go to slide six please? Can you tell me how that uh first bullet point and how that conclusion was made? Uh

072DAPE is successful in providing students with interventions for success. uh in a few moments we'll go into the action item about this topic and I know we'll be talking more about the longitudinal study but uh according to the three-year longitudinal trend of student outcomes the analysis did not find evidence that DAPE leads to superior outcomes for students when compared to long-term suspension without services and looking at the chart in that presentation we'll go into in a few minutes that DAPE was actually worse in terms of recidivatism rates compared to long-term suspension without services and there wasn't much difference in outcomes for time to reaffend attendance in subsequent years and graduation rates. So can you tell me more how the committee uh made that conclusion on that first bullet point and what measurements you were using

073when you made that conclusion? >> So we had many conversations with Dr. Nunes and she did share a lot of data um and information with us and to be honest that came from my notes that I had ended up writing. So I I couldn't tell you specifically but I do know that Dr. Nunes has um some like you said some studies and information but our our conversation really did focus around how when we have students who have that uh build that relationship with an adult right then they have that connection and it's kind of like what Dr. Truo was just talking about right now. When you have that connection with a student and a relationship, then that helps motivate them more. Um, and that just gets them more on the right track, >> right? That's

074the that's the intention. I'm not sure the data really pans out for that in terms of the date program. >> Dr. Shaw. >> Yeah. Go ahead, Michelle. I just want to remind the board that the date that we have now is a far cry from where it was back when it was formed as you know uh for me you and Miss Luna Rose like during co we cut back a lot of D staff members the like when it was at project more at least one of the sites you know we had a separate teacher for math a separate one for science English language um and now it's like pretty much just one teacher teaching all the subjects, kids stay in one room. They don't get like um like in our class or anything to kind

075of break up the day. And so um I mean I remember back in 2021 all the anecdotes um when we were cutting back Dave about how much it was it had like a positive change and I still think that it is a positive program. I am curious about Miss Dr. Nunees's um data because yeah, the stuff in the next agenda item was surprising to me to see um because I don't remember reviewing any of that information at our committee meetings. So um you know again it DAPE currently is a far cry from where it used to be. I think we can staff it better and and provide more programs and get more students in there. It's all a matter of like if there's only five students or three students in in one site then like

076why would we have three different staff members at each site. So it's all a matter of enrollment staffing and kind of just building up these programs and providing students with what they need to be successful outside of the DAPE environment. >> Thank you Dr. Shaw. I'd like to thank you and your committee for all of your hard work. Um, I really appreciate um all of your discussions because I am in favor of new pathways to graduation. I think we need to figure out new ways to get our students there. So, I do appreciate that. Um, and I'll just save my comments and questions for the other agenda item, but I just really wanted to thank you and the committee. >> Thank you. >> Well, thank you. We'll move on to our next uh agenda item

077which is on the same topic. So we're going on to uh item 9.14 alternative education committee recommendation to make DAPE uh program mandatory. >> Good evening Dr. Shaw members of the board Dr. Thruillo Mr. Ross. My name is Yolanda Nunes and I am the director of alternative education. I have the pleasure of sitting with Miss Shaw and the alternative education committee once a month to discuss DAPE and the other programs that I oversee. Um, so today we're going to go over some numbers for DAPE just to support making DAPE mandatory. And um, here is the presentation overview. I wanted to provide a a historical numbers for the last two years. So we have 2425 enrollment numbers, 2526 enrollment numbers, and then I also wanted to uh show you some class sizes that we've had in

078these this last year and then go over some staffing and then provide a quick summary. So what you'll see on this slide is 2425 school year date numbers by month. And I really try to make it as easy to read as possible. Uh because date is a little it's it's not very linear, if you will. So every month we we rely on the sus the long-term suspensions that we receive from our student relations department. And of those suspensions that we receive, we call parents and we let them know about DAPE. So what I provided for you in these next three or three slides, four slides is the number of suspensions that we received from um our student relations department, the number of students that accepted DAPE, the number of students who were offered an obeyance

079contract, and then the reasons for not attending DAPE. And I think what if we look at the last column, we'll see why most students um who are long-term suspended decided to to either attend or not attend. So on the further right hand side, you'll see that um for August of 2425, we had 11 suspensions. Two students accept the date and four students uh were offered an obeyance. But then of those of those students that were suspended, three did not attend date because of transportation and then two of those students were were withdrawn. So I just wanted to explain these these data tables for you so you could make a better better informed decision. This again is for uh last school year, school year 2425 middle school. And then the next slide talks about um 2425

080high school numbers by month. And again, it's the same the same information of um how many suspensions we receive students because they're a little older. Parents let them make their decision and um al although there have been some issues where there have been transportation issues um and there is an asterk there in December they're there for staying home and those those were students who were offered a combination of out of school suspension and an obeyance contract. So what that looks like for us is uh the student was offered maybe 15 days of out of school suspension and then the remainder of the 45 days or the 30 days that they were suspended the administrator allowed them to go back to school on an obeyance contract. Our current school year again it's the same thing where

081we have a middle school on this data chart. uh we had five suspensions in August, 13 in September and and the suspensions just vary throughout the year. Um and then again the the third column gives us the amount of students who accept the date, students who received an obeyance and then the reasons for not attending. This is the middle school chart and then the next chart is the high school chart. Um here we see more students staying home because parents are giving them the option to stay home. And the totals at the bottom are 152 suspensions for high school, 52 accept the date and 22 received in advance. I also wanted to review the class size and the class size for for DAPE school for DAPE sites just varies from from week to week depending

082on the number of suspensions that we receive and the number of families who are accepting DAPE services. So this chart is a little more cumbersome to read. Again I tried to make it as easy to read as possible. Um and I hope uh it makes sense. So we do have four sites. We have Dulan, it's a middle school site, and Southwest, which is a middle school site. Duelan serves our eastern most middle schools. Southwest are southern and westside schools. And then we have Menllo, which is at the former Menllo Park Elementary School, and that serves our high schools, our our westside high schools, and then Palivvery, which serves our high school um high school um high school students. Um, and if you'll see here is I I I broke it down into the number of

083new students in the in that second column. And so what that is is students who accept the date and then what they and then how it affected the class size. So if you see Duelan, you'll see that in August we did not receive any suspensions for any East Side schools. So the class size was zero for the month of August. But then we go into September, we received four students, four new students, which in increased the class size by four. Total numbers that we received uh throughout the year was uh 32 students at Menllo at Dulan, excuse me, uh 13 at Southwest, 34 at Menllo, and 25 at Palivvery. And the total number of students that enrolled in Date this year were 104. Um and and it's also important to say that we do accept

084uh long-term suspensions from other school districts. And the system there is if they call student relations asking if they have if we accept them, we do, but they have to come in. They have to enroll at their home school, if you will, but they're not allowed to go on their campus. They come straight to DAPE, finish off their suspension from the other district, and then we send them back to the to the home school. Um, DAPE staffing. Um, I do have a senior program coordinator that oversees the daily operations, uh, schedule, student orientations for DAPE. Um, data collection provides teacher develop teacher professional development and evaluations. There are six teachers, four classroom teachers, one at each site. One exceptional ed itinerant teacher who serves all of our special eds across the four sites. and then

085a transition specialist who helps with transitioning students back to their home school which is a a process that we've strengthened over the last year and a half. Um she also provides community outreach um activities and then also is the substitute. So, what you'll see in our in our uh budget is we really don't use our substitute line because she covers for teachers when they're out and that helps with the consistency for students and and kind of keeps those behaviors at bay. Um we also have four intervention monitors to support the teacher in the classroom. One of the processes that we use is we don't allow students to go to the bathroom by themselves just because things happen. So, we we do escort them to the bathroom and bring them back. provides the break for the

086teachers during lunch and just provides overall support for students. Um and then I do have two restorative practices. They are itinerant. They focus on the two two uh two sides of the of the district. One one focuses on Menllo and Southwest and the other one focuses on Dolan and Paloie. Um they provide personalized um support to foster emotional regulation and help build sustainable coping mechanisms for navigating trauma triggers. So in summary, in the 2425 school year, we had 54% of long-term suspended middle school students attend date and 46 long-term suspended high school students attend date. In the 2425 school year, we had 46% middle school students attend DAPE and then 40% long-term suspended students attend DAPE. Um, our class size varies from week to week depending on the number of suspension and obeyance contracts and

087students accepting DAPE services. And then our staffing just adapts to the diverse needs of student populations. Sometimes we do need to send additional support within our within our group to support certain classrooms depending on on the students that we're serving and and the needs of of the classroom. That concludes my presentation. Any questions? Governor board is okay. We do I think we have three presentations from staff. Can we do all three presentations and then open up to questions? >> All right. Okay. Thank you. Great. Thank you, Dr. Nunees. Um, and we are we doing the budget one or the data one next? Which one would you prefer? >> Ask uh Dr. Dr. Hely Freigherus, our senior director for assessment evaluation, to give a quick overview of a fairly comprehensive effectiveness study and impact analysis on

088the extent to which DAPE and obeyance, our two primary interventions for long-term and short-term suspensions, improve academic outcomes and reduce instances of recidivism or reoffenses. Dr. Frightus. >> Thank you. Um, good evening Dr. Shaw, governing board members, Dr. Jillo, legal counsel. So, Dr. Drew requested us to do an a study in the fall of 2025. And so, this is a summary of the results. We worked very closely with Dr. Nunes on the um collection of the data. So, I want to thank Dr. Nunes very much for um for her participation. Okay. Um before we get started and for our viewers at home, I just wanted to start off with some definitions uh because we're I'm going to be using words like obeyance. So a district alternative education program or DAPE. So it's a voluntary educational

089option currently that is offered in a supportive and structured small groupoup environment designed for long-term suspended students. So long-term suspended students have options. Dave is one of them. Another one is an obeyance contract. And with an obeyance contract, students can return to school after being long or with a long-term suspension. And those days are held in an obeyance so that they do not have to serve those days. And so parents, administrators, and the student must sign a contract with specific consequences that the student must follow during that time. And then um another term that I will be using in this presentation are short and long-term suspensions. And just to delineate the difference. So uh short and long term is when students don't attend school. And so shortterm is between 1 and 10 days and then

090long-term is between 11 and 180 days. >> [clears throat] >> Um, one other thing, oh, just quickly, one one thing that I do want to note, and that's that, um, um, because there's been a rise in obeyance contracts that the number of students being referred to today has reduced over time. So, just um, just be aware of that. Okay. So, our research questions were, do students who attend DAPE experience better outcomes than they would um with a long-term suspension without services or a suspension, I'm sorry, suspension without services or and our second question was, do students who attend Dave experience better outcomes than students who have advanced contracts? So, those were sort of our guiding lights when um when we undertook this uh research. Okay. So there are great analytical limitations with uh discipline data.

091Uh the um discipline data is inherently complex because every student takes a slightly different path and so to quantitatively account for all of those differences um was very challenging for my team. Um, so we uh we did account for as much as we could and um and please be aware that discipline consequences are dependent on the context of the individual event. So one suspension may not look necessarily like another for reasons that led up to it or um how the um offense unfolded. The third thing that is very important to note in the um in our analysis was that we used available data. So we did not collect qualitative or social emotional data as part of this study and so there may be benefits to these programs that um that we were not able to

092capture in this analysis. That may be something for a follow-up study. Okay. So what we did do was a regression analysis which is a uh statistical process. And so we compared student outcomes between DAPE as one group, obeyance contract students as another group, a short-term suspension as another group, and long-term suspensions. And what we looked at as outcomes was recidivism, which means um to offend again. So recid recidivism rates of the number of offenses and also the time to refend reaffend from the prior offense. We also looked at attendance rates uh within the year of the suspension and then the subsequent year. And finally we looked at graduation rate. And um so what we did was um and this is part of the regression process and that's um it's really important to try and make

093these different groups as similar as possible for comparison. And so what regression does is it takes into account u different uh variables that stu um that are associated with students such as their demographic profile, if they're e students or xed students. uh what type of discipline they received and so then we matched them so that these students across the different violations were very similar for the analysis. Okay. So this is a whole bunch of data uh sort of combined into one slide. And so I'm going to walk you through this. Uh so there are um five categories across the top. So the first one is the recidivism rates, the number of offenses. So um after the um after being long-term suspended, you know, were the number of offenses higher or lower? The second one is

094time to reaffend. How soon after uh did these students reaffend? Then we go into attendance rates of the same year and then subsequent year and finally graduation rates. But I do want to issue caution because uh we had a um smaller sample size and a larger margin of error there. Okay. So then um in the first column you'll see uh the different groups attended DAPE. So those are students who attended DAPEN contract or students who uh went through an obeyance contract, short-term suspension without services and long-term suspension without services. And so what this data shows is so if we just take the first column of recidivism rates, it shows that students who attended DAPE reaffended more frequently than students who experienced other disciplinary dispositions including obeyance contracts and short and long-term suspensions without services. If

095we look at the next column, the time to reaffend, students who had an obeyance contract and short-term suspensions without services took longer to reaffend, which is good, took longer to reoffend than students who had long-term suspensions um which were DAPE and no services. Now with the attendance rates, we saw that students who attended date had contracts or were short-term suspended all outperformed had higher same rate attendance rates than students with long-term suspensions without services. And additionally, students with obeyance contracts and short-term suspensions continued to have higher attend uh attendance rates the following year as well. So graduation um and we had to sort of push this out to seven years uh just to account for all the students that we could. So students who experienced a band contracts and short-term suspensions were more likely to

096graduate up to seven years after cohort year than students with long-term suspensions and date participation. So that is the uh the data and uh just u for Dr. for Shaw's sake or for other uh number lovers the uh blue the difference between the blue and the red is statistically significant >> including for graduation rates >> h >> including for graduation rates >> yes well we're using caution with that one but yes because we have such a large margin of error >> okay so the findings so do students who attend DAPE experience better outcome than students who have a bayance contract what our data showed is that obeyance contracts result in longer time to reoffend, better same year and subsequent year attendance and potentially better graduation outcomes when compared to date. So these findings suggest that

097obeyance contracts improve student outcomes by keeping the students more closely connected with their school community while complying with structured consequences. Then our next um research question was do students who attend DAPE experience better outcomes than they would have with a suspension without services? And this analysis found that really there was no difference between students who attend DAPE um versus long-term suspended students with these measurable outcomes that we presented tonight. And so finally this quantitative analysis found of the four disciplinary disip dis dispositions analyzed by this research the superior outcomes in order are short-term suspension followed by obeyance contracts followed by long-term suspensions and lastly date. Please note that short-term suspensions are different from long-term suspensions in the severity of the infraction. So just take that into consideration when you look at this ordered um disposition

098or the suspension type. And then what is also very important is that we did not and could not address um other factors that um that might be beneficial um in these programs such as social emotional skills building. And so that would require more um more research uh in the future. And um and then I would like to conclude uh with the understanding that each suspension is context dependent and benefits from a tailored approach that meets the students need. And with that I conclude my presentation. Thank you. >> Thank you Dr. Pus. The last one's on the budget and for for sake of time I see that the budget uh presentation uh is looking at all the different programs and dropout and alternative education. I don't see one slide specifically on DAPE. Do you have for

099sake of tonight's discussion do you have any data or anything we can present in terms of the specifically the date program? >> Yeah, so DAPE is alternative education and dropout prevention. So, and those two departments are funded separately. And so, as the kind of the presentation mentions, um, alternative ed, which is kind of the the mostly the foundation for, uh, Dr. Thruhi or Dr. um, Nunes's department, is is this budget right here. So, this is the 1.4 million essentially that they currently have. Uh, most of it comes from DEG. They get a little bit of funding elsewhere. Um the other part is dropout prevention which is the other half of it. Um this is primarily funded through a property tax. So we've been levying a property tax for dropout prevention for many many moons long

100before any of us were any any one of us was you know around here. Um and so this is u funding like DEG it's use it or lose it. Um it can be increased if the board decides that they want to increase the levy on the property tax to fund the dropout prevention department. Um, project more on the other hand, it you know, which was in here. I think I might have skipped it. Um, it we, you know, we just funded like a regular high school. So, we just treat it like a regular high school. They they receive additional support. Um, overall between dropout prevention and alternative ed, they receive about $2 million. Um, so based on the 104 students, um, we're spending about 20,000ish per student, which is definitely much higher than average, um,

101than our other schools. Um, this is the same breakdown in staffing that you saw for the two departments. Um, they do have, you know, they they run a number of vacancies on the alternative ed side. Sometimes what Dr. Dr. Nun's department will do is they will reuse those dollars for other functions within the same um within their same programs. Um but otherwise, I mean their their staffing has generally been consistent at least during the tenure that I've been the CFO. Um so there's Project More High School. Like I said, we run them like normal. Um I know that TUVA was mentioned um by Miss Chu earlier. Um TUA is the same way. we only received 95% of funding because that is an entirely uh online school. Um and then u one other thing that I

102didn't put up here is in regards to dropout um to all to credit recovery, we do fund uh we do spend about a million dollars um and providing high schools with sections for teachers to hire uh these kind of credit recovery courses. And so every one of the high schools receives a portion. Those are managed, those were previously managed by uh by Frank Armenta. They're now managed by Dr. Nunees. Um but there is about a million dollars that we do allocate that is not presented here above and beyond for credit recovery sections at the individual high schools. So >> I'm sorry I'm confused. So on those in the slides, which one is the DAPE like this the program, six teachers, four BIMs, >> two restorative practice facilitators? So that is so alternative ed is DAPE

103but then there is the function of dropout prevention that comes in right behind it. So those two together kind of form the date but the basis of it is alternative ed to that slide two >> second yeah slide two alternative education department budget >> right >> so how much of this is DAPE >> that is all DAPE right here >> okay so the 1.35 that's all date the all date right there >> positions that were mentioned in Dr. Correct. Okay. >> So, yeah. So, that is I don't know if you have any other specific questions, but that's kind of the basis of it. So, >> um yeah, depending on what you all want to move to do. Uh there aren't enrollment ambassadors, there aren't, you know, some of those positions that are in there, fine

104arts teachers, things of that nature. Um it would depend on how you all want to move forward with that. That we'd have to find funding in order to do that. Thank you, Mr. Hernandez. >> All right, governing board member had a chance to um ask questions. I'll take the first question um for Dr. Nunes. Um I know you presented some different data potentially to the alternative education committee. Can you talk about the data you had and then looking at the analysis that was presented tonight? Like why this kind of speculating like why would you think that? So half the students did and half the students didn't that were long-term suspended. Um why do you think that there weren't better outcomes for the students at a date based on the data that we have Dr. Um,

105I believe that this study was done for last school year and we were barely starting the the transition components where I work with I partner with Emerge Center for Domestic Violence Against Domestic Violence, I'm sorry, as well as with Goodwill and they provide not only uh circles and support within the date program, but then they also support students when they return. So, we have yet to see what that looks like this next year, but it was more solid this year than it was in the last school year. >> So, the three-year longitudinal study, when did it end? like one of this >> um I I reviewed it and actually the data that we used was uh data from 2122 all the way to 2425. So there were four years four cohorts that we followed longitudinally

106over time >> as much as we could. Yeah. Glenn Michelle, >> you said three years and four years and I think the last uh row you said seven years. >> No, that that was for graduation rates that we pu pushed it out to seven years just to try and get as many graduates as possible included in the study. >> Can we go back to her presentation and pull up slide five, please? Um so you mentioned around slide five that the data reflects students of similar backgrounds um controlled for student ethnicity ex status and violation level. So what we saw that doesn't paint DAPE in a positive light is not the totality of the data. Are you uh focusing on like black students or you know students who have like level five? I don't know. Um

107like what is your control group and why is it not the entire enrollment of DAPE compared to those who opted to stay home and receive no services? Because I think that's the comparison that we really need to be looking at. Um so uh the way the way that the groups are put together is um so let's say we have four groups. So we would want to have a um let's say for example African-American students if there were 4% represented in one group. We would try and have an equivalent percentage of African-Americans represented in all the groups. uh if it was a violation level four certain violation, we would try and see that that was also similar across the groups because when you do this kind of study, uh the outcomes really depend on that the

108groups are um matched as closely as we can get them for equivalency um so that we can understand the differences within these matched groups. Well, I think the equivalency of all of them is that they're in DAPE or they qualify. And so I don't know. I I feel >> your question say I think the confusion is the word controlled here is not the controlled here on that orange isn't the same thing experimental versus control group. What controlled here means is that like things were weighted and matched based on different factors. So like when you're comparing the attended date versus obeyance or short-term suspension or long-term, they were things were weighted in a way so that each of the groups had a similar racial breakdown and uh suspension level breakdown. So it's not a control versus

109experimental group. That's not what the control here means. It says that things were weighted in a way so things matched between the different groups >> between the four different groups. Yes. >> Can we go to that slide? I think it's a couple slides in the next one actually. No, the next slide. >> So, what you're telling me, contrary to what you just said on the previous slide, this this sampling here is all the students who qualified for DAPE, all the ones who qualify for a bandance and not a breakdown or a hyperfocused control group of students with a specific ethnicity or violation. Is it the totality of students or the control? >> It's the totality of students within these four groups um who match >> who match what >> who match each other so that

110each of the four groups are more similar than different >> as far as ethnicity or violation level >> um services that they receive. Yeah. you know, so there were a number of factors that we took into consideration so that um we were comparing more apples to apples. So for students uh who attended DAPE you know that the students uh resemble the same sort of profile of students that also in this study um accessed an obeyance contract or short-term suspensions without services or long-term suspensions without services. So four different groups that are more similar than different. >> Yeah. >> Within each with >> Okay. Thank you. I >> and sorry for the confusion there. >> No, it's okay. And I think if you're going to break it down or aggregate it with ethnicity, we need to

111see that like plainly. Um and I think the mo more important data here would be you know something like this but to include everyone not just those in specific groups because it is pretty misleading to you know see this outcome um trend but now to know that it's one specific ethnicity or one specific violation and how can we even gauge that from looking at this? not one specific um ethnicity. So, let's just say hypothetically that the students in the Bayance contract were 60% Hispanic, 10% African-American, 15% white, and then the other um ethnicities. Then we would try and match that distribution of ethnicities in the other three groups to get the best fit within all four groups so that they looked more similar, right, in terms of the variables that we controlled for. >> Okay.

112Well, I I get that. I just don't think it's really I I just think we should be looking at all of the data and not just PE groups that you would assume are similar solely because they share one characteristic >> or multiple characteristics. I want to see all the date data for as long as we have it. all the obeyance contract data for as long as we have it and so on and so forth with the short-term and the long-term uh students without services. >> It um that that would create challenges just with the statistical method, but we could do a descriptive analysis for you if you would like. >> Go ahead, Mr. Just out of curiosity, was um Anna's department involved in any uh getting any this information? >> Anna's department are experts and

113we lean on them all the time for um lots of definitions and support and understanding of um what an obeyance contract and suspensions. She's been a tremendous support to us. >> Is there anything Anna can add to this presentation, >> please? So good evening uh President uh Sha esteemed board members Dr. Trillo and Mr. Ross. Thank you so much um Mr. Romero for asking. I work very closely with Dr. Nunes. I've worked with the alternative education committee and I work very closely with Dr. Fredus as well. And so first and foremost, DAPE is a magnificent program. It is wonderful for kids. That's we see it with kids in those programs and the joy that parents feel and the support that the kids get in that space. So I just want to say that first and

114foremost when I look at this longitudinal trend of student outcomes because the data from this is based off of the coding that David Scott does in synergy and off of the reports that we run that we partner with Dr. Nunees to run. She develops some parts of it. I develop some parts of it. The synergy team makes magic. Dr. Fredus takes it and does lots of different comparisons. For me, the takeaway with this data, having been in education for a very long time, yes, this is accurate and also intuitive. Short-term suspensions with services, yes, kids will have a better outcome. They're not gone that long. They have their services. They come back. We see this in just the raw data without a comparison study. Then yes, next for sure obeyance contracts. Even with the amazing

115programs, partnerships, and solid educators that work for Dr. Nunes and DAPE, a kid should be in their regular programming if they can safely do so first and foremost on a contract for behavior in their school. It does not surprise me that those kids are more successful. They stay with their friends, their social setting, their routine, their regular teachers. They may have some tier three supports through our equity department. Dr. Nunees may have her dropout prevention folks meeting with them, but they're in their school. They have not left. Then we look at long-term suspension without services and attending date. So when you look at long-term suspension without services, yes, some of the kids will get themselves on track and this data shows that with a little bit of a higher success rate than attending DAPE. However,

116the question I ask myself is, but how better off are the kids that attended DAPE entering in academically? they have a stronger foundation. So that to me when I look at this data I understand why it is that way. We don't have this huge success rate with DAPE in terms of the kids coming back and you know the recidivism rates and all of those pieces that Dr. Fredus speaks about but you're also only capturing 40% of the students that come through our long-term suspension. So, for example, I thought a lot about this today. I was like, "Throw me in, coach." So, we had long-term suspension hearings this year. These are level four and five offenses. Every single one of those kids qualifies for DAPE and is offered DAPE services via our hearing officers. We saw

117that 40%, 46%. That's what it calculates out when you look at the raw numbers of the 102 105 approximately um in terms of who goes and is referred. So we have over a 100 plus kids every single year that don't participate in DAPE. Now we average about 26 opportunities for DAPE a month. So that's anywhere between 18 to 30 some months long-term suspension hearings. When I think about and I'm going to go back like two presentations to the mandatory piece, the questions from student relations, there are many logistical, right? The compliance, what do we need to write out? What are the processes? And transportation has always been a barrier. We're looking at 26 on average students rotating in and out of the date program at different periods of time. So you may have three kids

118from one from the east side, one from the west side, one from the south side, all needing to go to date starting at the same day. Then you may have six the next day, then none the day after that, then three after that. So I think that yes I I do understand this data. I know the base of it. It makes sense to me the obeyance contracts in short term that's our kids back in our schools in our program. Sure. When you look at further how do you utilize the programming that is beneficial when the kids are there. There are some significant challenges from a logistical standpoint and I don't think that the alternative education committee is not aware of those. I know that these issues have come up multiple times. I've been a guest

119thankfully there. Um but that's that's some raw data. um obeans contracts. We had 364 in 2425, 427 and 2324 [snorts] and we are looking at and this is secondary because those are the folks that will qualify for DAPE our elementary will not 290. So I went, "Oh, we're issuing I think more bandance contracts." And I look, I go, "Oh, that's proportional to the fact that our suspensions have gone down, which I shared with you before." So it's a good thing. Um, and then I think you need to have a date, but then what happens if a parent says no? as a person in charge of attendance and enrollment. You know, there's other districts that literally if they don't attend, they just unenroll them and they lose that ADM and they're fine with that because these

120kids have not behaved and they didn't attend their alternative program and that's that. So, since you asked, Mr. Romero, I've got numbers if you'd like any more data. I'm happy to share >> and and I appreciate you know you coming um prepared and you know I've uh built um you know a lot of respect for you in all the research you and your team have done and I've seen that and seeing you there I I figured you had some more information >> for sure >> that was pertinent to uh to this discussion. So I appreciate you being able to be have that information immediately for us. >> Yeah. >> Because that information I feel is very valuable for this presentation. >> Yeah. Thank you sir. I wanted to be prepared to help our wonderful director

121friends here. >> Go ahead Michelle. >> And I also want to thank you Miss Warmbbrand for bringing that information. I agree like it would be great to have on this chart if we get a revised one the like academic readiness information. If we can have that data that would be fabulous just to uh use that as another comparison. Um as you said it would be challenging and and logistically we'd have to prepare I think if we were to make DAPE mandatory. Um, and of course we can't force anyone to to come to tape, but I think making it mandatory though will capture more students and keep them in the school mindset so that they're not languishing at home uh for up to 180 days without really any guidance whatsoever and not be prepared to reenter

122school um if that is their choice or opportunity. And so um you know we the committee members and myself did ask for some information from legal and otherwise on what would happen if the board would approve of date being mandatory. Um and I don't believe we received that um as of yet cuz you know it it would probably take some staffing um and just some logistical planning and all of that legal to to jump into. So, um, it I mean it doesn't appear that we have anything else in regards to that matter, but I don't think it's an insurmountable challenge to um, kind of work out the logistics. Um, and I don't think that we plan on, you know, persecuting families for saying like not going into DAPE even though we state that it's mandatory.

123I think we're just trying to shepherd more students into these programs so that they are more academically prepared when they go back to school. >> Can I ask Miss Sh? I'm a little confused. So Dave has already offered to everyone with a long-term suspension that isn't going through advance. So by making it mandatory, what is different? >> Well, it's optional. You have to opt in, >> right? So when if we make it mandatory, then you're assuming then or we would assume there's a there's a there's a stick for not doing it. Well, >> so are we disenrolling kids after 10 days or >> because it's offered already? So I'm really confused on what the difference is now. >> Well, that's being proposed. the difference I mean I think it starts with the the date script

124in the um hearing the hearings you know where they're offered it given the opportunity instead of saying oh if you'd like to opt in to date then you know blah blah blah saying you know you've been long-term suspended you you don't qualify for an obeyance contract um and you can go to one of these two sites we'll provide you with transportation and your student can stay on top of their studies um for the remainder of their long-term suspension. And please keep in mind that like we have the committee and the board did um you know agree and approve to um extend date from like I think it was 40 days to 180 days now. So, it's all kind of lining up and I'm sure if we kind of changed the language to make it mandatory

125that we would have more enrollment in our day programs, >> so are we going after the students that are staying home or the ones that are taking the advance? >> No. No. Yeah, the students that are staying home like the ones with the obeyance. Like we're not trying to vive for advance contract students. It's all of those ones that, you know, stay home, whether it's just because they opted out or they didn't have transportation. Like, we want to be all-encompassing and be a home for those students who don't qualify for advance. >> And did we because I know there's on that thing there was some that said transportation and some said stay at home. Do we have a feel for why those maybe you out there? why the families decided for their students to stay

126at home. Was there reasonings? Was there top two, top three reasons why they stayed at home versus going to date? >> Governing board, um Mr. Romero, u the main reason that middle school students stay home is the transportation barrier. >> Okay. >> For high school students, um it's just my my child doesn't want to go today. they want to stay home throughout their suspension. And it it really is just that for high school students. Um when when parents are upset, they do withdraw their student um when they're upset with whatever happened at the hearing and all those pieces. Um but mostly um the transportation component would be beneficial for our middle school students. That's where I see it has affected it most. Um, and high school students, parents just let their students choose if they

127want to attend or not. But I agree. Should stu students attend Dave so they can continue their their courses and their learning? Yes. And um I will reiterate what Miss Warmbbrand said, obeyance is always the best scenario for for students, for long-term suspended students. >> And then I notice on a lot of these, you know, as far as people that are attending these programs are less than 50% on most of those. So, the ones that are staying home, whether it be from transportation, let's just um and they're opting out to go to withdraw their kid from our schools. What percentage of those that don't that keep their kids in school are actually coming back after that suspension? Do we have that number? >> I don't have that number, but I can get that for you.

128Do we think it's majority or split? >> The majority that return back after their suspension >> return back or don't return back or just >> I would say the majority return back. >> Majority do return back now as opposed to maybe mandatory. Can we make it more as a suggestive and promote it as that alternative? Um, again, mandatory. I think for a lot of people may, like you said, they would say, "Well, then I'm going to pull my kid out. Um, you're not going to tell me what to do with my kid." >> Correct. >> Um, again, and maybe it's just wording as far as that goes. Again, we're we're having to deal with withdrawing of students from our district. You know, this is something we're going to have to continue on a on on

129an ongoing basis. How do we maintain our student um population? >> How do we make it more appealing to them? Yes, these students made bad decisions. Yes, we want them to still be, you know, um educated and contribute to the society. But is there another solution that you think other than maybe mandatory or promoting? Or maybe we look at these two different middle school and high school as two different things. And maybe if we focus on these middle schools, we have less of those that are having this issue in high school. I'm not sure. You are you are all of the experts. I'm just throwing out other ideas from my perspective. I I would like for this for this board to consider providing transportation maybe instead of using the language of mandatory and see if

130we can get more students that way and and maybe saying um yes we have this this this uh program and if you can't bring your child we provide transportation and I think um making it mandatory yes for us it's great but Um the the barrier has always been the transportation component and I do support our alternative education um advisory committee. Yes, we should. There has to be something where we do get more students enrolled. Is is the term mandatory a little scary? Maybe. But but maybe if we use it as a as a requirement. I'm I'm not really sure what that language would look like, but we do have to do something different to get more kids into daycare. >> And and that's a good I think a starting approach. And then again, maybe if

131we're looking at like the middle school, go back to that one and offer it as you know, we have this option for you. And like you talked about transportation being a barrier, how do we use small buses or some type of thing for them or depending on the length of the a suspension whether it be I I'm not exactly sure again what that looks like, but how do we make it attractive to make them want to come to that? So, it sounds like the language on what we're calling it and then making it attractive so that they can get to have those services without uh an extra um burden to the families would be helpful to make this a successful so we're not having as many students that are staying home. Am I understanding you

132correctly? >> Yes. >> Thank you. >> So, governing board, we're about an hour and 15 minutes into this discussion now. Um I just personally I I can't see myself tonight with the data presented supporting any expansion of DAPE. Uh the cost it would take to provide transportation to 20 30 students all around our district with changes every single day to the transportation routes and adding all that cost to this program when the data isn't showing that there's much better outcomes for those with Dave compared to those long-term suspensions without services. So I I don't think I can support any expansion and and of these services tonight based on the data presented. And I'm not sure what the will of the board, but I want to I want to just get us moving to the end

133of this discussion. And if there's a motion on the table, I haven't had a motion yet, but I think we need to conclude this discussion at this point. Um, real quick, Ricky, um, thinking about just financial for for the average daily membership, the students who are long-term suspended but staying home, they don't add to our district budget, right? >> If they're if they're turning in work, if they're assigned work and staying in contact with the school, they will still generate ADM. It's it's the moment that they're completely cut off from the school. Um, so the obeyance contract would still generate some ADM as long as they're actually doing any type of work as part of their long-term suspension. >> Okay. But most of those long-term suspended families, I would assume, pretty much go no contact.

134>> Yeah. And so, and at that point, once they reach the the 10th day, they >> once they they essentially are eligible for withdrawal by the district, they are withdrawn. um if that's the case. >> Okay. And so this agenda item is specifically for making day mandatory, [clears throat] not necessarily the transportation thing because I know um we have some staff members who are getting presentations ready. But real quick, I would like Mr. Ross, I know you haven't, I guess, been asked to weigh in on this. Um, but from your expertise, what do you think of us just making date mandatory in a legal sense? >> Uh, good evening. Uh Miss Sha, one thing that I would want to take a close look at um which obviously this is in your control too, but to

135take a look at how DAPE has been cast and described in the post unitary plan. Um and if they're you're going to make a change to make it mandatory, there may be you know some just the the normal analysis that you do for any change from postunitary plan. Other than that, it really from my view becomes a the board's philosophical view of what you want discipline to be. And again, you're you're looking at the costs of these various provisions. But from a legal perspective, this is all in the board's control, but you'd want to, you know, make sure you analyze the the desegregation impact of making it mandatory and do that full analysis that the board and the postary plan expects. Um, we're happy to to, you know, propose, you know, look at that more

136closely and see what elements might be uh might be impacted by that. I imagine we'd have to check with our data people that you just heard from to analyze that piece of it. >> Okay. Thank you. Uh well with that I am you know obviously for getting more students who are marginalized and need help to go into the programs where they're able to keep working on school work and get services that they need. I am happy that Dr. Nunees has connected so many community groups like Goodwill and Emerge to uh interact with these students. I see that we are on an upwards trends uh for DAPE and so with that I will move to um make DAPE uh mandatory. So, I appreciate all the work um the committee has been doing like all your advocacy

137for DAPE and you know, maybe this come back to us um with more data next year if these programs are working with um with the programs and and partnerships that are in place. And so, I look forward to having this come back to us, but the motion dies for lack of a second. Thank you everyone. M go ahead. >> Yeah. Um I do believe that we need transportation for our students to um day project more. So, I would like to see um some budget analysis for that. >> And Dr. uh Trillo, could you just give us an idea of when that will come to the board? >> We [clears throat] can probably do something as soon as maybe second week in second meeting in July. Is is that going to take too long? >> That's

138for all the recommendations of this committee. >> Yes, because we already have them I already have them assigned out. I got my team assigned different Yolanda got the Dr. Nunes got the brunt of it. I sent her a big long request list of everything that needed to be analyzed before the board could take action. So the other five recommendations are going to be slotted for the second um the second meeting in July. Uh with regard to routes, I really would working with our team, I'm going to be pressing for white fleet utilization and regular routes. There should be regular routes going to and from DAPE locations from set points across the district and they should be small white fleet vans. So, it's doable. I also would challenge I think our team and I know this

139this isn't a popular conversation. I also think that to increase the amount of students that are either accepting advance or actually more specifically DAPE if they haven't accepted advance I think we should look at some sort of an incentive like maybe a reduction of the overall suspension days because basically you're competing with the couch you're competing with students that are really making poor decisions and in a lot of ways the adults around them aren't making the best decisions they're frustrated they're giving up. They're struggling. They're stressed as parents. They're probably working. And so there's a lot of factors that go into that. So we've got to create not just the transportation, but we've also got to have that incentive. Your most actively involved parents that are attending the hearings and things. Most likely they they're

140going to be choosing either obeyance or date. So we've got to get to that crowd that's like we're competing with the option of staying home. I would ask our team to really kind of what does that look like? Obviously, that would all carry a, you know, um, um, performance impact analysis, the PIA, if we're going to be moving to mandatory. And then I think it goes without saying, this isn't any kind of legal advice. It's just more Arizona law. We can't, I think everybody knows we can't physically force people. >> We can do all of these things and at the end of the day, we can't physically force a student to either go to the advance or go to Dape. But th those would be my recommendations. any transportation. I'm have been thinking about how

141we can do that without changing up routes every, you know, week, but we can build that into our recommendations when we're back like the second board meeting in July. >> Great. Thank you. And if we can also review this same recommendation again in July with some of the requests from the board and the comments that we've made, I would really appreciate it. Thank you. >> Just one more comment. I want to make sure that um the committee that you didn't see this data before tonight >> and I think that's also an issue. Thank you. All right, just a quick process check before we continue on. Um Miss Hine, are there any comments for the public hearing? >> One. Okay, so we have one comments for public hearing. Um so board members, what I'll propose is

142that we do um item 9.2 2 9.3 for the appointments next and do the public hearing and then do consent. >> Any objection? All right. Unanimous consent for that. So, Dr. T, we'll go to 9.2 administrative appointments, reassignments, and transfers. We have an interim principal for Marshall Elementary School. >> Yes, President Shaw, members of the governing board tonight. We're excited. Uh we get to welcome two more uh wonderful administrators to our team. And tonight's our first recommendation. She is currently serving as the assistant principal at Pister Middle School where she's done an outstanding job over the last couple of years and uh we're very very excited to be recommending uh Miss Siobhan Daniel to serve as the interim principal principal for Marshall Elementary. Great. Thank you, Dr. F. Government board members. Go ahead, Mr. Romero.

143>> I'd like to make the motion uh to accept uh this >> second. >> All right. Uh item is moved by Mr. Romero and second amendments uh Extramm. All those in favor say I. >> Any opposed? Item passes 5-0. Uh Miss Daniels, congratulations. [applause] >> We also always offer our incoming principles a moment to speak to the community. Thank you, Dr. Trujillo, President Shaw, and members of the board. When I started in education, I thought it was to teach kids. And I quickly learned that education is more than a job. It's a calling. Every day, educators give so much of themselves to support students and families. Not because we have to, but because we care about making a difference. My favorite educational quote is, "Kids don't care how much you know until they know how

144much you care." And as an administrator, I've learned that this quote rings true for adults, too. To the dedicated educators, staff, students, and families at Pister, you made work feel like home. To Mrs. Valencia, thank you for making me laugh even on the hardest days. To Mrs. Gunnels, words can't express fully how grateful I am for your leadership and mentorship. To Miss Ayala and Mr. Casillas, thank you for making work fun and for continuing to brighten my days. The Panther community helped shape me as an administrator, and I care deeply for all of you. I'm honored to serve as the interim principal of Marshall Elementary and grateful to the governing board and the district leadership for their trust and confidence in me. I look forward to getting to know the community, the students, families, and

145staff at Marshall and I'm excited to be a Mustang. Thank you. [applause] >> Great. Next, we have item 9.3. We have an admin uh interim assistant principal appointment tonight to fill the vacant position. Now, >> yes. So, we have one administrator departing Pister and now we've got another uh outstanding candidate to step up and accept the leadership assignment uh over there at Pister. So, uh tonight's recommendation uh currently serves as the uh principal's designate blendman. Correct. Uh where she's also served long time as a staff developer, as a curriculum service provider, and uh a graduate of our own in-house administrative prep academy. Um, so Leadership Prep Academy, it's always great to see our our graduates stepping into to new leadership opportunities. So tonight, we'd like to recommend Annette Ooa Bearano to serve as the interim

146assistant principal at Pister Middle School. >> Governing board. >> I'll move the item. >> Second item moved by Miss Luna Rose, second by Miss Shaw. All those in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Item passes 5-0. Congratulations, Mr. Choano. [applause] >> All right. and governing board will take a quick break to do some photos and I think it's been a long meeting so far so quick breaks for just break sake five minutes just stand by you. See One, two, three. I know you don't Saturday night. I'm not I'll do my best. come down real quick. >> I'm going to get started. Starting the meeting with Z. >> All right, we're going to resume the meeting. Governing board members. All right. Next, we're going to have our public hearing for the fiscal year 2627 proposed desegregation

147budget for Tucson Unified School District. I have the script here. All right. Public participation during the public hearing for the fiscal year 2627 proposed desegregation budget. Members of the public may speak during the fiscal year 2627 proposed segregation budget public hearing portion of the agenda. The board president or board clerk shall be responsible for recognizing speakers and for maintaining proper order by setting such limitations as may be appropriate. Speakers during the public hearing should restrict their remarks to topics related to the district's desegregation budgets. Speakers are encouraged to be brief with a maximum speaking time of 3 minutes. Those attending the meeting and or speaking before the board shall observe rules of good conduct. Speakers shall also refrain from inappropriate or defamatory remarks. Defamation includes false statements presented as facts about identifiable persons that could

148harm their reputation. Please note that making defamatory statements at a public meeting may expose a speaker to personal legal liability. Because TC serves students from preschool to high school, speakers should be aware that there may be children present and listening. Reminder, contents of each card are public information. >> First, um well, our only speaker this evening is uh Lillian Fox. My name's Lillian Fox. Sylvia Campo submitted a written uh statement that she wanted read for this and so I don't understand why that's being skipped. >> Ma'am, that's not being skipped. you are the you're the only public speaker and I will be reading her comments after you. >> Oh, good. Thank you. Um, [clears throat] I have a couple of questions or a couple of statements. Last year, before last year's budget, they got the

149board to agree to make cuts to the DEG budgets for a number of departments. You had a bunch of presentations and you were told that the DEG budget was being over spent, so you had to make those cuts. So you reluctantly made the cuts you were told you had to make. But then when you look at the budget for last year, it turns out that a bunch of DAG money was shifted to the transportation budget and the amount of M money in the transportation budget was reduced. Well, DEAG money is in the transportation bus or budget for transportation to magnet schools. It's not there to fund just everything. So that makes no sense. that the DEC budget money was shifted into transportation and M money was shifted out. Um, that's the main thing I have

150to say. But in the things tonight, because I won't get a chance to say it, you're scheduling or not you, CFO Hernandez is scheduling the budget book not to be available until November 30th. The budget book is your budget and normally that is approved on the same night that you approve this expenditure budget report that you're going to be approving tonight. They're approved together. Now under this schedule, it's being delayed until the school is on year is almost or the fiscal year is almost half way o over. That makes no sense because the only thing that the public and the board really understands is what they see in the budget book. that's simple, easy to st to understand. You can tell who's getting the money and and whether it's M or DG or what it

151is. The little report that you send to the state that's commonly called a budget, but it's not. It's an expenditure budget. That's just statistics that the state wants. Nobody understands that. There are very few things in there that make any sense to normal people. One of the things in there is an [clears throat] estimate of what your enrollment is going to be for the following year or your average daily membership will be because that determines most of your funding. This year your average daily membership is being reduced only by 2%. Last year it dropped by 3%. You need to be asking hard questions about why you do not have a 3% drop. why your attendance actually or average daily membership actually improves next year. Don't let that pass without some sort of explanation. That makes

152sense. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> Okay. And our um letter this evening is from Miss uh Sylvia Compo. Governing board members, this is to articulate several objections pertaining to the lack of notification which has been provided to the public, inclusive parents, students, teachers, administrators, social justice activists, td property taxpayers, and those of us who've been involved in the TUSD desegregation case since its onset. I served as the Mendoza plaintiff's representative for 20 years and also worked in TUSD as an exceptional education teacher, speech therapist, bilingual ed educators resource teacher, and was TUSD's first equal opportunity education and employment director. While serving on the TUSD governing board, significant progress was made in many areas, including second language acquisition, parent community engagement, exceptional education, least restrictive educational environment issues, the posting of governing board

153meetings with a 5 to six day public notice instead of what was reverted to recently a single day, which meets legal requirements, but hampers suitable notice for public review and comment. Tonight there's a public hearing regarding the unitary stand status plan budget which was posted on June 9th and is scheduled for action on June 16th which allows for five work days and one weekend for members of the public to find the public posting on the TUSD desegregation website since the no other notice is provided. The three attachments to desegregation budget each appear to have 825 pages which may be duplicative but without time to cross reference it is not known. First, finding the public notification is challenging. It requires members of the public to search for such postings daily, which is an unreasonable task and

154a barrier to parent and community engagement. Since court supervision of desegregation court order was lifted, there has been no independent oversight of desegregation programs, magnet schools, services, etc. to determine student outcome data. Importantly, and importantly, how each corresponds to budget allocations and expenditures. It has all become a rabbit hole mystery. The sham process to include community input results in little to no minimal input, such as tonight's board meeting from individuals like me who make an effort to keep up with what TUSC is doing, especially in the area for the purposes of accountability to the public. Long ago, the administration made clear that input from the community regarding desegregation matters was not welcome, especially from those of us who know and understand the history of the case up to the present. However, it is the governing

155board that is responsible for all facets of the unitary status plan. Remember that one of the most critical elements of the USP is community and parent engagement, which has been totally neglected. Shame on the board for not demanding friendly processes that allow and support legitimate public input. Added reference. The below section of the desegregation website page shows PAS which have been posted in 2026. Please note the short turnaround time for members of the public. Sylvia Campboy. And that is it for our public hearing comments. >> Okay. Thank you, Miss Lar Rose. Next, we'll go to item 7.1 or our consent agenda. Item 7.2 to 7.5. Dr. Trillo. >> Uh, President Shaw, members of the board, the administration recommends passage of the consent agenda as arranged and presented. Thank you, Dr. Trio. Governing board members. >>

156I'll move. >> I like to pull 72, please. >> All right. 27.2. Anything else? >> All right. So, uh, Mor Rose, can you amend that to or receipt your motion? >> Yes. Um, I'll move to um 7.1 7.3 7.4 7.5 um for um >> So, it's just 7.3 to 7.5. >> Oh, 7.3 7.5. I'll second. >> Okay. >> All those in favor say I. >> I. I. >> Item passes 50. Uh, Mr. Romero, uh, the floor is yours for 7.2. >> So, just looking at the 7.2 for this um, cell phone tower on looks like Whitmore on here expires on January 31st. If I'm understanding correctly on here, they want to switch I guess or five um additional five terms for five years to eight additional terms of five years on that. And also looks

157like they're they want a rent reduction uh on this as well. So I guess my concern is first of all an additional you know 8 time five well my math isn't that good but that looks like 40 to me uh years and um again we don't know what 40 years is going to happen later on in our schools. I just have a hard time doing something that can almost be up to 40 years on these schools. And yes, our decisions will affect whatever happens later down. And then also rent reduction, why we're doing the rent reduction on that also. Um I'm not I'm can't support that either. So those are just some items that I wanted to bring uh to attention. >> Dr. Sha. >> Yep. Go ahead, Miss Shaw. >> Um and I I

158agree with Mr. Omera. I'll be voting against this item for many of the reasons he stated also. It's you know, when you get locked into one of these leases, um it's very difficult to get out of it and um it costs a lot of money, too. Um so, >> thank you. >> Do we have staff who's going to be speaking to this? Mr. Odin >> Odin >> President Shaw members of the board first I want to clarify it was an odd way that they termed the uh renewals but basically they're taking the original five renewals that they already have that go until uh let's see it's uh the 20 uh January 31st 29 uh and they're adding three more to that. So, it' actually be uh January 20 uh January 31st, 2024, 2044, I'm sorry.

159Um so, it's really an additional 15 years is is all it is. It's not an additional 40 years. And then the reason for the the reduction is they have no tenant on the there there's no tower. There's a tower there now, but there's nobody no provider on that tower. there's no cell service off that tower. Um, so they're paying rent and not getting any rent in. And so the way I put this together is I I put together essentially a ground lease uh until they do find a provider. Uh the ground lease is actually um even counting the easement. Um but counting the area that's dedicated to them and then counting the easement and adding it to that and looking at the value of that land. Uh it's a 10% return on our capital capital

160value or capitalization rate and that's actually higher than typical capital capitalization rates. So, um, you know, typically an easement would be much less. You wouldn't expect a capitalization rate at the same rate as a as a dedicated piece of land. So, um, it's more than a fair uh, ground lease for us and uh, it would go into a full cell tower lease um, when they get a tenant on the site. >> So, how long have they not had a tenant? >> Do we know? Yep. About three years. >> So even without a tenant, they still want to continue this for another 15 years. >> They want to try to get a tenant. >> Now I know it's talked about three fiveyear terms. So if after that first five years things change at that site, we

161can at that point not renew those two or we stuck into that 15. >> We're stuck into the 15. That's the way all of them end up working. Um, >> yeah. >> All right. Well, thank you. >> Yep. >> I'll move the items. >> Second. >> Item moved by myself, second by Miss Extramm. All those in favor say I. >> I. Any opposed? >> Opposed. >> Item passes 32. Okay. Well, next we go on to items 9.1, approval of proposed of the fiscal year 2627 proposed annual expenditure budget for the Tucson Unified School District. Yes. Uh members of the governing board, I'd like to welcome our chief financial officer uh Mr. Hernandez uh to present the proposed budget. Uh and then of course I I will ask Mr. Hernandez um address any questions or concerns

162that arose during the um public hearing. Sure. Good evening board members. So this is the uh proposed fiscal year 27 budget for the school district. Um, so just a quick overview, you know, we'll talk real briefly about uh what the state did, what our timeline looks like, some of the factors incorporated into the budget proposal that's before you. Um, we'll review the override, a board approved budget allocations, as well as the reductions and reallocations, the capital outlay. Uh, we'll take a look at what the comparison looks like from uh May of last fiscal year or the current fiscal year and next fiscal year. Um, I'll address some of the classroom spending estimates that have been discussed. um by the public previously and then I'll just give you a sneak preview of property taxes. So, um

163budget update. Uh so, as you all know, the legislature approved um finally a budget on Friday the 11th. The governor, my understanding, assigned it yesterday. Um so, it is now state law. Uh the auditor general nonetheless issued preliminary budget forms because obviously we were running kind of late um allowing school districts to have proposed budgets ready before the statutory deadline of July 5th. Um they will issue final budget forms. My understanding is this Friday. Um so we will come back to you uh with revisions to incorporate any changes that are coming from those forms uh by September 15th. Um so the current preliminary forms are being used to develop the proposed budget. Um and again we'll provide a revised budget when we come back in August to incorporate any changes that might have been um

164not accounted for in the forms that the that the auditor general is issuing this week. So that is um brief timeline. We're here today uh to request approval of the proposed July 14th. We'll come back for uh the adoption. Uh at that time we'll have a public hearing um and a truth and taxation hearing. We'll come back on the 11th for the revision. In October, we'll talk about the annual financial report. In December, we may do a revision. Um, and then May, we may also have to do a May revision. So, at that point, it just kind of becomes our usual cycle of of budget changes. So, the factors incorporated in these in this budget are are the following. So, there was a 2% increase to the inflation on the base support level, which increases

165the budget M by about $5.3 million. Um the one time for introduced price lunch weight that we've been receiving for the last several years of um is estimated at 2.3 million which is consistent with the the amount that we received in May uh during the fiscal year 26 budget as well as the one-time increase to the district additional assistance which is going to be added to the capital budget just about $989,000. Now, our teacher experience index did decrease. Uh, so the average number of years to our student to uh to of our teacher experience compared to the statewide average is less than that state average. So, we lost about $378,000 in budget capacity from that decrease in TEI. Now, the projected 2% enrollment decline, um, which is going to create a loss of 5.7 million,

166which overall by being offset by the increase is really a net loss of $662,000. The reason for the 2% increase is, as I've mentioned before, this is a decrease of the weighted student count, not the average daily membership. Right? Average daily membership is a component of weighted student count. But what we're seeing as I mentioned in uh in a presentation to you all back in May, we're seeing increases in the number of students who have higher needs, i.e. Xed students. So we're seeing increased enrollment in Xed students, increased enrollment in students who um who are uh English language learners as well. And so they carry a larger wage with offsets the average daily membership. So ultimately the 2% is consistent based on the fact that even though the average daily membership is going down, the

167increase in the weighted student count continues to move up. Um as of today, the enrollment that uh numbers that I received from student enrollment is that we've lost 500 students since the 40th day compared to the enrollment for 2627 which is 2%. So even on the headcount we're at 2%. So all the data right now indicates that 2% is consistent. The 3% is was entirely just a loss of [snorts] students in the kindergarten in the high school which is something that was totally not projected. Um that is data that we not had based on the trends that we had in the prior three years. So that 3% in my book is an anomaly compared to the data that we've looked at consistently over multiple years. Proposition 123 um was not renewed. So, this continues to

168be a bone of contention between the legislature and the governor in reauthorizing Prop 123. This means that the district is losing $2.7 million in budget capacity that we've been awarded for multiple years since 123 was in existence. So, that will no longer be available come fiscal year 27. The override allocations, uh, we've gone through these before. Uh, obviously the brunt of these are the salary increases that have been approved for all staff. So, the consensus, the $3,000 from consensus, and then the 4% that's going to all other employees. Um, you can see that we've allocated dollars for the attendance initiative, uh, the expansion for counselor positions, the expansion of CTE positions, the expansion of fine arts teachers, the expansion of interventionists, the expansion of physical education teachers, the expansion of social workers, an expansion of

169the preschool initiative, and now the certified librarian pilot project. All told, about 44.9 million affecting about 6,821 FTE. All thanks to the voters of Tucson Unified. On the flip side, um it back in February and March, the board approved several budget reductions uh that had some offsets. So overall, there were reductions of $7.2 $2 million that were approved across multiple items that you can see there both in February of February 24th and on March 31st. Some of the offsets that came off of that though is that there was the hiring obviously of a deputy superintendent, an executive director of curriculum instruction and professional learning and a director of professional learning which offset some of those. So the net permanent savings to the district is $6.8 million. there is still the attrition factor that will be

170coming through based on the number of students. Now, if the number of students continues consistent to what we've been seeing, there might not be that much attrition and the budget may actually have growth. Um, so once we actually solidify those numbers after kind of the July melt, if you want to call it that, then we'll be in a better position to have a better estimate about how much attrition will be incorporated into our budget. Our goal continues to be 10 million though. The capital outlay investment, uh, these were all approved by the board back in the month of April. Um, you can see the breakdowns. I gave you everybody, the five major departments that received the majority of capital allocations in the district across the multiple categories that are in there. The unrestricted capital outlay

171proposed budget limit is $20.4 million. So based on the these allocations, there's still an allocation of 2.4 4 million that is allocated among all of the remaining departments. Uh the remaining departments that are not listed on there all have just they all have multiple amounts ranging from as small as a couple hundred dollars to a couple thousand dollar uh which is why they're not listed here. But once we actually have the budget laid out, you'll be able to see where everything is allocated. Now, this budget right here on capital does not include requests that are supported by other funding sources like the bond grant funding, auxiliary, or any other miscellaneous budgets. Um but o overall this is the actual capital outlay limit that is provided by the state legislature in the latest budget adoption. So

172what does it look like side by side? Um you can see that there is obviously a decline in the weighted student count about 191 uh to the student count which is about 2%. You see that the base support level and teacher experience index have gone down. Um our audit fees have gone down. We're spending less on on non-federal audits. Um, our budget balance carried forward is definitely significantly declining based on the current estimates that we have on spending through June 30th. So, we're only expecting just under $8 million um to be carried forward in M. That's still an improvement from where we were because at the beginning of the year, we were expecting half of that to be carried forward. So, we've definitely been able to be put in a better position to improve that.

173Um, there is no Prop 123 allocation. uh we've reduced the transfer of uh capital to M by 7 million. So there's only $3 million going into M from the capital fund. Then you see the one-time funds from free and reduced lunch. And the biggest line item of all is the $44.9 million from the override. So all told, our M budget limit is $414.1 million. On the capital side, the most significant changes is obviously the decline in enrollment means that we're getting a smaller capital allocation. There is the decrease in that transfer, right? So, we're only transferring 3 million from capital to M um which is consistent to try to get off, you know, to move away from that high priority or that high risk um uh report from the state auditor general. We are expecting

174a decrease in our budget balance carry forward as well and a decrease in the prior interest earned. All told, our budget limit is $20.4 million. Either way, both budgets are seeing an increase. So, M will have an increase year-over-year of $22.7 million and capital will have an increase of $646,000. Um, from my perspective, this is probably one of the better budgets that we've had since the end of ESSER. If just kind of looking at the numbers the way they are now, classroom spending estimates. I know this has kind of been you know it's it's pretty it's it's a very subjective kind of formula I will call it even though it's uses a lot of data that's provided by the auditor general it's ultimately how you want to interpret it but our current estimate is that

175classroom spending overall based on the fiscical year 27 budget the way it's budgeted compared to where we are actual um the last report we received from the auditor general is that our classroom spending will go up by 4%. So we will cross that 70% threshold. Instruction will cross that 50% threshold. So the vast majority of those dollars that are allocated both NM and O um capital is not considered uh part of the classroom spending report uh will cause a greater investment in classroom spending instruction student support and instruction support. There's a there's a modest increase in administration and I will talk a little bit more about what that means. Um but there are decreases consistent with some of the budget cuts that we made around plant operations, transportation, um and food service. Food service is

176just expecting a decline in the amount of money that they're spending. It's not necessarily that they're being cut on their budget. Um they're budgeted based on the actual income they receive from reimbursements from National School Lunch Program. So administration, you know, and and this is something that I I I want to spend a little bit more time on. So, you know, one of the things to clarify is that when people come up here and talk to you about administrative spending, the administrative spending thought process is that this is it's it's 1010 or what will be 220 after July 1, right? It's just all the administrators that are housed in the 1010 buildings um that it's central administration, but it's not. Administrative spending is a combination of spending that happens across the entire district, including the

17788 schools. And what administrative spending happens at schools, every single principal is an administrator. Every single assistant principal, athletic director, their office managers, their admin assistants, and any expenses that support those individuals are all administration. So when you look at the right side you can see that out of the 39.7 million or or out of the 47.3 million rather that we spent on administration in fiscal year 25 more than approximately half is school administration. So about 23.5 million is spent at the school level whereas $23.8 million is spent at the district level. Now if you look at the right side and you look at kind of you know those six categories that I laid out those individuals who are considered kind of central administrators are executive administration. The out of those six categories they are

178at the bottom rung of the overall administrator spending that we that we have in this district. So we spent $47 million on administration in 2025. two million of that, you know, so about 5% of that is really truly administration. The superintendent, legal counsel, the board, the board office, those are administration. Um, but I mean there are obviously other administrative expenses that are part of the operations of the district, finance, we are administration, human resources, admin, technology, um, and people do trainings. So obviously there are components of that. that are other kind of administrative functions, but more than half are living at schools. That's where administration lives. So when you compare us to everybody across the Tucson metro area, where do we rank uh compared to So we actually out of the nine metro districts listed

179up there, we're number eight based in fiscal year 25. The school district with the highest percentage of administrative spending was Tankvertie School District which has basically the population of Tucson High. Um now the lowest amount of administration happened in Morirana. Uh and so not by much you know we're at 9.2 they're at 8.9 so you know a fraction of less than 1%. Um, but you can see that some of these ski school districts that are, you know, that are labeled as better or that are labeled as more prepared or all of those types of monikers are still spending more in administration than we are. When you look at the Tucson metro average, we're still spending less than the average. When you look at our peers, we're less than 1% from our peers. When you look

180at the state average, we're less than half a percent of our state average. So, our administrative spending compared to a lot of these, you know, other factors and some of the stories that you've been told don't line up because we rank eight out of nine. So, what is the total proposed operating budget for the district? It is $797.4 million across all funds. That is an overall reduction of about $2.2 million across all the multiple funds. The largest decrease that you will see right there that is probably more significant is the decrease in federal projects. And it's two funds. It's title one and it's IDEIDA. So there have been significant declines in the amount of money that we're receiving for title funding from from the federal government and idea funding from the federal government. Those comprise

181the majority of that federal project decline. Um overall everything remains rather consistent. The other funds that 10.2 2 million is multiple funds related to building renewal. Um, obviously we've we've kind of we're going back into a new cycle of submitting new building renewal requests. So, there aren't as many kind of out there, but ultimately those other funds that are in there, it's a loss of, you know, it's a decline of 210.2 million. It's not really a loss of budget. It's that we are not we have not submitted to the point that we have in prior years. Nevertheless, it's less than a 3% decline in the overall operating budget of the district. Property taxes, everybody loves talking about property taxes. Uh so just overall, our tax rate across the district will increase just over 75 cents.

182The majority of that is coming from the the override. Now, when we published the pamphlet to voters, we said that the override would cost them about a dollar and a nickel. um it's coming in at about 97 cents. So, but everything else, as you can see, is declining in terms of the tax rate. The levy to to for every $100,000 because that's how we calculated. So, the levy for every $100,000 of assessed valuation for a homeowner is an increase of $81 a year. Um, and again, the majority of that comes from the override because across everything else, we've been able to decrease our property taxes mostly because our valuation has increased significantly. Uh, the valuation in the district has gone up by about $183 million across the entire district. So, when it comes to taxation,

183it's kind of good to be big because it's kind of larger in the net assess valuation calculation. So, next steps. So, um, we'll, you know, we're asking for approval and I will take obviously take your questions on the estimated budget limits. On the 14th, we'll come back and have a public hearing on the adopted budget. Um, as well as a truth and taxation hearing on the adjacent ways levy. Um, we will use the new forms um and re and rewrite a budget by September 15th. We're we're obviously looking to come back in August and November 30th in regards to why the budget book is not being published. So, I will reinforce again, there is no policy or statute that says that you are required to adopt a budget book. This is a practice that this

184district implemented multiple boards ago on multiple CFOs ago. The reason we're not publishing one on day one is the reason we didn't do it last year because the legislature has been late. And so if I publish a budget book on an estimated budget, which if that's what you want me to do, it will not reflect what we're actually going to be operating on because the new forms are just coming out this Friday. And so I cannot use the new forms to have you adopt a budget because by statute, I cannot have you adopt a budget that's greater than the proposed. So the re the reason behind it is we want to incorporate the correct budget limits as well as the fund balances from the annual financial report that comes out in October. That's the primary

185reason. So certainly it's subject to change. You know if if you all feel that you want it earlier we can do it earlier and we will put include a caveat that you know that the board basically wanted us to publish something with estimates in it and we'll move forward that way. Any questions? Yes, sir. >> Yeah. I want to make sure >> we had a public hearing also for the proposed desegregation budget. Was there a presentation you wanted to walk them through or just the public attachments that are already? >> There is a presentation. I mean, it's I can, you know, blow through it if you want me to do it, if you want me to kind of show it off to people. It's a lot of um some of the same information that I've

186talked about in the past. Um but one of the things that that I've mentioned um particularly around the desegregation budget for next year is that it is the first time in four years that the DEC budget is structurally balanced. So it will actually have a contingency uh fund balance of about $3 million available for next fiscal year. All of the departments are funded. Um all of the cuts that you've unfortunately had to make in the prior years are continue to be there. The biggest reason for why the budget is is balanced is interventionists uh are now funded by override. So that $4 and half million dollar price tag um is no longer in the DEC budget. Overall, it remains consistent. I don't know if there's anything within the DSC presentation that you might have questions

187on, but um it's actually kind of pretty vanilla DC because it's actually balanced this year. So >> I do have a question on the contingency. We've struggled in like last minute decisions on spending DEG money because we use it or lose it. Do we know what we will spend it on or how that's going to work or how we'll be tracking that? >> So we're yeah we I mean we're going to be tracking on it. Um one of the biggest things that we've run into lately is transportation. Um the high cost of transportation. Transportation is funded 60/40 MO to DEG and even though yes you can't just use it for any transportation activity the majority of the transportation that we provide in this district is either magnet or open enrollment which is what's allowed to

188be spent on within that Dick line item so part of that contingency will be helpful in case transportation continues to unfortunately exceed their budget capacity which we're seeing but that is something that we are continuously to work on to bring that back in line. Um otherwise, I mean, if if there are other priorities that come along, you know, it's going to be another long fiscal year and and that's something that the board wants to focus on, we could certainly look at that. Um but in the past, we've been able to dedicated to existing operations within the DEC funded departments. >> Okay, govern board members, any questions on either that or the budget presentation that Mr. Hernandez just presented? Go ahead, Miss Shaw. >> Thank you for the presentation. Um, so is this the first year

189we've had a contingency fund in DC? Then >> this is the first year we've had a positive contingency fund. In the past, we've actually had to have a a negative contingency to balance it to 63.7 and then what's happened in the past is we've been using vacancy savings and attrition to slowly whittle down that deficit. Now it's the reverse. Everybody's allocated, everybody received, you know, their their level of funding and now we actually have a positive balance um that is essentially set aside for contingency. >> Great. I'm glad you mentioned the 3 million contingency for DEG because I was wondering after looking at the presentation in the uh public hearing item um and it's in the same item too but elsewhere that the targeted academic interventionists funded from Digg has been moved to the override

190at the tune of $4.4 4 million. And as far as I know, the board didn't technically vote on that. It was in our presentation in November 18th of last year. Um, just like a very small by line in the presentation, but I assume that the contingency fund that we're seeing now is some of the surplus from moving those academic interventionist. Correct. >> Yeah, that that's easy. Yeah, you would surmise that that's true. Yeah. >> Yeah. And really it's the academic intervention. It's in the DEG that kind of got us into trouble when we voted for it. I didn't vote for it, but um we've always had to kind of make up the difference ever since this position was added to DEG. And I think it's really unfortunate that we've moved these interventionists over to the

191override because this amount of money could have funded librarians. Like it could have it could have done the whole every school in our district having a librarian and instead we have these interventionists who have no standardization as Dr. Flory Huitt mentioned in our last governing board meeting. like I I didn't approve moving them to the override and I don't think voters really I mean it's almost 10 million that we're paying for interventionists out of the override and I don't think that's fair at all. Like I think librarians are interventionists themselves and they could go a lot further. Um, I'm still okay with interventionists, but it just wasn't my understanding that we were going to fund that and re prioritize that over librarians. >> Just as a point of clarification, there is a framework. It's called

192the level up program. Dr. Hwitt and the CNI division, they work very hard to put together professional development so that all of our interventionists are working off of the same framework when they work with our students. So we can talk about challenges with implementation from school to school which is I acknowledge is a challenge but I just want to clarify it's not 37 40 or 50 different interventionists doing 50 different things. Dr. Dr. Huitt on uh July 14th, I've asked her to facilitate a study session that will go through what the framework is uh in addition to what move on when reading requires with regard to um textbook adoptions, which is another matter that we'll have to talk about on July 14th, but I just wanted to provide that clarification. >> I appreciate that. And

193then if we can know when that actually was implemented because it seems like a new thing. Um also region 2 um from DG now that it's been removed 1.5 million where are we seeing that go because there's a lot of decreases but yeah budget is balanced not losing money. >> So the re so that part is seventh period teachers. So we allocate seventh period teachers to middle schools um and some high schools in order for those teachers to be able to participate in PLC's. And so by providing them seventh periods they can do that but we don't give the FTE directly to the school. We allocate those to every regional superintendent so that the school can't essentially play with that FTE right like hey I don't want a seventh period but I want a mariachi

194teacher instead. Can't do that. It's restricted under the USP to do that. So in order to set up a control method we allocate them directly to the regionals even though they're participating at the schools. Right now it says region two just because we haven't updated to essentially eliminate region two off of our chart of accounts, but it will be once all of the new schools are realigned um in our chart of accounts to the remaining four regions. So that's the only reason region two appears is currently region two that's where those schools are for those seventh period classes. >> Okay. Thank you. So, going back to the enrollment uh drop um and you talked about the ADM and I believe and I couldn't pull it on up um don't remember which meeting it was with

195the auditor general report. I think they had us listed around what they projected was 4% or something along those lines and I'm guessing that wasn't taken in consideration the ADM like you had discussed. Is that >> Yeah. And and it wasn't a projection. Um, so what it is is the high-risk report actually takes a look at a one-year decline and a four-year decline. So they average the four-year decline and then they take a look at year-over-year and they took a look at 24 to 25, right? So that's why that number is different than what I've got up here. But that weighted student count again has a lot to do with those uh those exad students and and I've shown that I showed that to the audit committee. I showed that to all of you to

196show that essentially other than last fiscal year, the average over the last three years in just average daily membership or in weighted student count, excuse me, has only been a 1 to 2% decline. Last year, that anomaly of decline happened in high school. We lost a lot of kindergarteners as well. So, we didn't have the enrollment in kindergarten. We had declines in junior and senior year as well. That's something that again left field. I mean, we none of the information that we've had up until that point was showing that we were going to have this just precipitous decline of students in kindergarten, 11th, and 12th. Um, obviously now they're incorporated in there because they're they're lost. I mean, unless they start coming back and so the information that we currently have, including the enrollment that's

197in synergy today, shows that there's a 2% decline in headcount. But we've seen an we continue to see an increase in the students in the exed categories particularly autism self-contained. Um and obviously we've got some uh hearing impaired and some visually impaired um students in there as well. >> And then we had our budget amount of 797 million on here. And then looking from the year before was only looks like a difference of two million on that. So our, you know, then with losing the one prop 123 2.7 there at our new $797 million price tag and I know we still need to get down there. What is our what do we need to get to in these next two years where we balance out? >> I mean it's still so we still have about

198$15 million to go, right? We've so our goal was 10 million. um our structural deficit is 25. That structural deficit still exists because if you if you remember the mantra that I gave you all and everybody else uh the wet blanket that I am is the override is not here to save the deficit of the district. Right? So, um, what I can do in May, I can provide you what that five-year projection looks like when you actually extrapolate the override and set it aside and just take a look at state funding versus actual expenditures minus the override so that you can see kind of that that deficit is still there. So, we are still about 15 million because our goal is 25 million by FY30. And I think we just need to make sure we

199keep that in view here that this is step one. This number needs to come on down and and I understand the need for a lot of these other positions, but we need to be um you know responsible with with that money to get to that point. And unfortunately, like you said, we'd have to make a lot of these uh other decisions that are be coming up also. So based on what you see here, we're on track, you feel, or we need to do more? >> I we we need I mean, we obviously continue need to continue to do more, right? So So obviously the work that that Dr. is working on in regards to the consolidation um and reconfiguration of the district. That is definitely going to put dollars back, right? That we're essentially overspending

200at this point, but there will need to be some additional cuts that will need to happen. Um because unless the unless the enrollment levels out, right, we're con, you know, that is still the number one factor for why we're losing. Um and so also remember weighted student count does affect our override capacity, right? So if our weighted student count declines are that $44 million will also go down. So and we've got commitments up to about 40 well up to the whole amount right now, the 44.7. So that weighted student count and the ADM will continue to be a challenge for the district um until we see essentially kind of a leveling off. >> Thank you. >> Yep. >> All right. I'll move the So tonight action tonight is to move the approve the budget and

201it's coming back to us for the hearing and final vote in July. Correct? >> Yes, sir. >> I'll move to uh adopt the budget as presented. >> Second. >> Item moved by myself and seconded by Miss Lenrose. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Item passes 5-0. Thank you. >> Thank you, Ricky. All right. Next, we turn into our curriculum team for approval of renewed use of TUSD and cooperative contracts for online supplemental curriculum materials and support services for next school year. >> Uh, board president Shaw, members of the board, um, we took to heart your your very um, serious feedback and concerns that not only reflect those of governing boards here in Pimac County and across the state, but a nationwide trend. uh the overdependence on devices and digital platforms

202that have somehow um invaded classrooms over the last five years and and started to become a predominant force for daily instruction. So what I asked Dr. Huitt and her team to do was really put together uh in advance of your vote a stakeholder engagement plan. Uh we recognize that there's significant concern. I share a lot of these concerns as I've had an opportunity to engage each one of you individually on the presence of these platforms and the devices. But at the same time, while we recognize that there is a dependence, there also is the fact that our teacher workforce right now have these tools right now available and are expecting to have them available for the first day of school. So before we do any major overhaul or change or remove resources, we want to

203make sure that we have a deliberate stakeholder plan. So I've asked Dr. Hwitt to really to present that tonight along with our recommendation of a one-year passage or continuation of these programs, which of course would allow us uh to engage in the stakeholder plan and come back to the board with recommendations and modifications. Dr. Huitt. >> Thank you. Good evening, governing board members. If I could have a quick moment to just quickly introduce my team. Michelle Merik is here from our academic standards. Dana Eles also for academic interventions switched and Dr. Holly Freighes assessment and evaluation. And Miss Heidi Arande is actually joining us virtually as well to support this presentation. So, thank you for the opportunity to present on this item tonight. As Dr. Dr. Ho stated, um, I serve as your assistant superintendent

204for curriculum and instruction, and tonight we're bringing forward for your consideration the approval for the renewal of the TUSD and cooperative contracts for online supplemental curriculum materials for, uh, support services for 2627. So, uh, I want to open with an acknowledgement because I think it is very important that we do hear the national conversation around screen time and it is happening here in Tucson as well. Our families are raising it, our teachers are raising it and we we take it seriously. What we're asking the board tonight is to give us the opportunity to respond to those concerns the right way because the implementing or removing platforms without a plan, without stakeholder input, and without compliance guard rails in place would create real barriers for our teachers and for our students. So, we're asking to do

205this together with our community in in a way that's strategic for our district that works for us. So tonight's presentation is organized around six areas. First, we're going to talk through our stakeholder involvement plan, who we will engage, how, and when with a board report committed to you for January 2027. Second, the board is asked to approve the five textbooks and supplemental materials before you tonight, which are Edenum, Canvas, Eureka, Eureka Math, I Excel, and I Ready. Third, we will provide an overview of each of these platforms, their instructional purpose, and our district role. Fourth, we'll address I Ready specifically, the compliance context the board needs uh to make an informed decision, including our state benchmark obligations, and a move on when reading grant. Fifth, we'll use we'll review some usage data that is uh

206across our district for 2526. So, this conversation is grounded in what's actually happening in our schools. And lastly, we'll close with the staff recommendation and our specific action we're asking our board tonight. So, our goal for this is to be transparent, to be evidence to be an evidenceinformed conversation through a very strategic community centered process. So, before we get into the platforms, I do want to spend just a moment acknowledging the broader context. Families and teachers across the country and right here in TUSD, they're pushing back on the amount of screen time their students experience in school. That is legitimate. We're not dismissing it. What the research actually tells us is a little more nuanced than what headlines suggest. Studies do link passive entertainment screen time such as your scrolling, your gaming, your social media

207to attention deficits and lower academic outcomes. But purposefully designed educational technology that's used with clear learning goals shows measurable benefits. Those are two different things. What's happening around the nation is at least 31 states have now passed or are implementing restrictions on student cell phone use in schools. Districts like LA Unified and Missouri and others in Oregon have moved to restricting classroom technology more broadly. TUSD we're navigating that right now and our position is this. The question is not whether technology belongs in schools. is really which platforms are worth our investment and how we make those decisions with our community not for them. So the platforms before you tonight have gone through a rigorous review process prior to their approval. We've been using them for some years. They are diagnostic tools. They're learning management systems

208and they are standards aligned practice platforms. But we recognize that even even purposeful technology deserves that scrutiny and that is exactly what our stakeholder engagement plan is designed to do. So I'm going to spend some time here because this is probably the most important slide in tonight's presentation because it does answer the question that we anticipate hearing the most. What are you going to do about the concerns we are hearing? Here's exactly what we'll do. So, beginning this school year, our curriculum and instruction department division, we will engage five distinct stakeholder groups in a structured documented process. We're going to begin with teacher focus groups where we convene teachers across grade level bands and content areas to share their firsthand experience. What what is working for them, what's not, what they would recommend. It's it's

209a conversation with our teachers to capture the reality of what's happening. Principal input. Our school leaders do carry that operational reality of implementing these tools at their schools. They understand their staff capacity, their community context, and what is and what's not sustainable on the site level. Their voice is essential. We're going to engage TEA, our Tucson Education Association. Any change to how we assess students and how we expect teachers to use those instructional tools has these collective bargaining implications and tea will be a formal early and ongoing partner in this process and family engagement. Families deserve the opportunity to weigh in on these platforms and how their students interact with them daily. We will create structured opportunities for family voice. So engaging them in real dialogue and most importantly our student groups. We're going to

210go directly to school sites to hear from students themselves what what do they experience? What is useful? What feels like pressure? Student voice will be centered in our recommendations. So all of that input will be synthesized into a formal recommendation report that we will bring back to this board in January of 2027. You will see the data, the community voice behind our recommendations. So let's walk briefly through what's under consideration tonight. Uh, first we're going to talk a little bit about Edenum. That's also known as Apex. This platform supports our Tucson Unified Virtual Academy and our credit recovery programs. It provides self-paced online coursework for students who need an alternative pathway, students who cannot access traditional classroom settings, or who need to recover course credits to stay on track for graduation. I do want to

211make an important note that this program specifically uh we are going for an RFP for 2627. So this year is really a bridge year to make sure that those services continue. Canvas, this is our learning management system. It's a platform that teachers and students use to access assignments uh to access their grades and instructional resources. It's the backbone of how our schools communicate instructionally. It's widely adopted and deeply embedded in our daily school operations. Eureka Math, we had a little bit of a conversation last week. These are textbooks and digital resources. This is TUSD's core math curriculum. Our digital bundles give us access to instructional materials as well as our assessments and it supports both class classroom instruction and practice for our students. And I excel is our tier one supplemental resource used widely across

212our district for standards aligned reading and math practice. It adapts to our student level and complements direct instruction. Finally, I Ready is our diagnostic assessment and state benchmark tool. It also supports our tier 2 and tier three interventions through what's called my path feature. And this one carries the most community conversation and I'll address it directly in the next few slides. So again, these are the textbooks and supplemental materials under consideration just with more detail in this slide for you, but I won't go through all of that considering our time. Let's talk a little bit about I Ready in TUSD. So first, I Ready is our district-wide diagnostic tool for K8. It identifies where students are in reading and in math. what they know, what they're missing, and what instruction they need next. It's not

213an optional feature. It drives differentiated instruction across our schools. Second, it is our state benchmark. Arizona requires our districts to administer a benchmark assessment that's aligned to the state's balance assessment framework. I already fulfills that requirement. Without it, we don't have a qualifying instrument to provide state reporting. Third, it satisfies the diagnostic mandate of the move on one reading grant. Move on when reading funding is tied to the use of a qualifying diagnostic tool as well as an intervention tool. It's a condition of the grant. Uh fourth, I ready is also used as our benchmark. It's embedded in our current with TEA. Any change requires that formal conversation with TEA. And last, I ready my path is used to support that tier 2 and tier three students in reading and math. It provides targeted skill

214lessons identified by the diagnostic results. In your attachments, there is a document that I uh labeled digital platforms. And you'll see on the very last page, there's an appendex of a sample lesson that teachers can pull from the I Ready platform to provide some of those interventions. That's direct instruction. They can utilize that to support their students. That's I Ready. I'm going to briefly talk through our usage for I Ready Specifically. As you can see on this slide, about 95% of our students between 94 and 95% of our enrolled students have active usage in both math and reading. That's almost universal participation. uh the diagnostic is being completed at a at about 95 to 98% rate across all of our grades. And then uh the time on task data for personalized instruction tells a more

215nuance story. So what you'll see here is that the district average is about 22 minutes per week in math and 23 minutes per week in reading. This that is our district average and it's actually against the recommended target for my ready that they recommend 30 to 49 minutes. The largest group of our students is in the 10 to 29 minute band which you see on the slide which is below target. This matters for two reasons. First it tells us that there is an implementation fidelity opportunity here. the tool is present and available but not always being used at the level that the research shows produces the strongest gains. And second, it is important context for that screen time conversation because at the recommended usage level, I already represents approximately 7 to 10% of our total

216instructional time depending on the grade band. The remaining 90 plus% is direct instruction. So I do want to welcome Heidi Adanda who's going to talk to us a little bit about the time on task as a share of instructional minutes. So Miss Heidi, I hope you are there. If not, I can. There you are. >> Yeah. Can you hear me? >> Yes. Okay. Good evening, governing board members. Um TUSD's bell schedules are built around instructional um minutes recommended by the Arizona Department of Education. In elementary AD uh recommends 60 minutes daily or 300 minutes weekly for math and 90 minutes daily or 450 minutes uh uh weekly for literacy. So this slide is intended to represent the proportion of those instructional minutes um of students on on I Ready on the my path for I

217Ready the recommended usage of I Ready as Flory Dr. if you had um shared is 30 minutes uh weekly which is about 10% of the uh recommended m minutes in um math and 7% in ELA. TUSD students are actually averaging um 22 to 23 minutes per week which is 79% of instructional time. the remaining 91 to 93% of instructional time is teacherdirected instruction. Um, and oftent times the the time that students are on uh using um the my path uh I Ready program is they're doing it in small independent groups while the teacher is pulling for small groups for um for instruction. So we hope that this slide provides clarity um in screen time on digital platform usage for our families especially as we move forward to develop informed policies and practices into USD. >>

218Thank you Heidi. Um I need to click on the next slide please. [clears throat] Okay, I do want to be transparent with the board about what happens if I Ready is not approved tonight without an alternative in place. First, TUSD would lose its qualifying instrument for state benchmark reporting through Arizona's balance assessment framework. It does require us to have one an assessment tool without it ready. We would be out of compliance there. Second, our move on reading grant. And this one has the most implications. It mandates the use of a qualifying diagnostic assessment and an approved intervention tool. Removing I already without the move on one reading qualifying replacement in place puts that grant funding at risk. It's a grant condition. Third, we would lose the only tool we currently have that provides our simultaneous

219district-wide screening data across all of our K8 schools. That data is what allows us to identify the trends to compare our data and track subgroup performance over time. And last I's role as our benchmark is embedded in our agreement with TEA and any change requires formal conversation with them which takes time which would create a gap period if we attempted it this year. So we're not saying that removing I ready is beyond scrutiny. What we are saying is that removing it tonight without a plan, without a replacement, and without stakeholder input, it would disrupt our students instructional continuity as well as our teachers uh tools and resources that they have, our grant compliance, and our obligation to have an assessment tool as a district. So our recommendation tonight, as you can see over here, is

220that to approve all five textbooks and supplemental materials as presented with the full understanding that we will engage stakeholders in a formal structured process and return with recommendations to you in January of 2027. Our stakeholder commitment we are making tonight is structured. It will be documented. And in January 2027, you will have the data. You will have community voice and you'll have staff analysis before you're asked to make any decisions about what comes next regarding digital platforms. So, uh that is our recommendation for tonight and at this point I welcome your questions. Thank you Dr. Huitt. Um and thank you for listening to all the feedback over the last couple of meetings uh in terms of some of these issues. Any questions, governing board members? Go ahead, Michelle. Thank you for the presentation. Is there

221a uh qualifying diagnostic tool for um like to qualify for the move on when reading that is not digital? >> I'm going to invite uh Miss Michelle Merik talk about some of those tools >> there. There are um we currently have assessing reading multiple measures in our district that um that they could use as well. Do we have that ready to go already or is >> not for everyone? No. >> So >> it was something that they could choose to use, teachers could choose to use and so we would need to purchase and train on that as well. >> Okay. So are there some teachers in our district using it currently then? >> Yes, there are some. I I don't know how many but there are some. Do you know their reasoning for choosing the

222um non-digital method >> as opposed to ready? >> Do you do you know Dr. >> I imagine there probably another source of data for our teachers. Uh however they still have to do the diagnostic digitally for reporting purposes. So that's still part of it. Um, one of the challenges too with the diagnostics, especially if you imagine in a kindergarten class, you have to test every student recorded paper pencil. So that takes more time. I Ready does save some time with that because it's uh students can do it in in one sitting for example when they do the diagnostic. So, is I ready checking students literacy from them just being like on a tablet or a computer and working through each problem or word or >> letter? It's an adaptive diagnostic. So it begins with some

223basic skills and then depending on how students answers it it creates e more challenging questions and then it determines where that student falls within those skills. >> But okay so during that diagnostic is there a teacher with one-on-one with the child going through this? >> No. >> And I imagine with the non-digital method that um um I forget her name. Michelle Michelle >> Michelle that Michelle um spoke about that is a one-on-one teacher to student, right? >> Yes, that's correct. >> Okay. Yeah, I would like to see us move towards that in the future. I understand that, you know, we can't leave everyone hanging at this moment, but if we're able to do one-on-one with students to understand where they are, like I'm really it just something doesn't sit right with me with having a

224student, a such a young student like and a computer and that's the thing that is testing them and determining where they lie. So, Thank you. Miss >> Hi, thank you. Um, so do we have an I Ready curriculum? Is that what the teachers are teaching our students? >> No. So I Ready and I'm going to bring Michelle again. It's not a curriculum. It's a tool that teachers can use as far as the tools that are available. They can pull lessons. So say for example, you do the diagnostic, it places you on a certain level. And as a teacher, I'm able to pull a lesson that's specifically differentiated for that student to target specific skills whether uh depending on what the diagnostic stated that's missing or there's a gap. So that's how teachers can pull some

225of those lessons to be very strategic. I'll let Michelle add. Anything else? >> I don't have much to add except that that that is true. Um the the diagnostic is adapted for each of the students. It does provide the students with um an individualized path. so that they are getting the literacy skills that they specifically need to practice. But in addition to that though, um what I really love and the teachers um have expressed that they like them too is called tools for instruction. And those are those individual lessons that Dr. Huitt was speaking about that teachers can um use these lessons in their uh teacher-led small group instruction to provide to provide their their literacy instruction. So what about math? >> Same thing. >> Okay. So I fre Okay. I frequently hear that um

226we're not even learning what is being tested. So how can we count on the diagnostic to be true on on our students growth if that's not even what they're learning? >> Maybe question. >> Do you mind providing some clarity on the question? So, if I'm understanding correctly, >> so a student says, "Hey, um, we're being tested on division, but we don't we're not at division right now. We're just or like three, you know, >> or like, you know, um, >> I Ready curriculum isn't matching like what we correct class." >> Yes. >> So, it's not meant to match because this because I Ready is an intervention for our students and so um, it's not our tier one curriculum. It's meant to bridge that gap for our students who are needing specific skills to get them

227to the grade level content, whether it be literacy or math. So they may So they're >> So do you understand like it would be confusing to a student if they're on the computer trying to take this test and they're not being taught what's on the test? So they're just clicking answers and and it's not really we're not really gauging like what they're learning. it's not a true benchmark if they're not learning what's on this test. >> So, it's a diagnostic in the fact that it's diagnosing what where the student is in their learning journey so that the teacher in when they're in their uh tier 2 intervention time that they can also reinforce the skills that they need in math or reading to go forward. But if they're not >> like I think what Miss

228X is saying like they're the testing or test being tested on stuff they haven't been taught yet. >> True. >> So then like if a kid hasn't been taught the vision, how can they be tested on it and how's it diagnostic? >> I just want to um add a little bit to hopefully clarify. Um, so you're you're correct that there might be questions that the student hasn't um been taught yet, but the test is adaptive because it's diagnosing exactly where the student is on their learning journey in in math or in literacy. So there might be questions that the student hasn't been taught yet, but they're again the test is adaptive. So it's pinpointing exactly where the student is so that it can create a my path. So, if a student is in third grade

229and they haven't been taught whatever curriculum yet and it diagnoses that they're in second grade math, >> how how does that help like the entire grade? I mean, that that school classroom. I mean, they're still not understanding and they're still just click like it's not a true diagnostic. I feel if we're not teaching what's on on on the test >> the test say I think there's a lot of work that needs to happen this next school year right in terms of these committees work with the >> teachers and um I can explain I I I don't need you to explain what I'm trying to say um I I just feel like we're setting up our kids to fail really because I hear time after time from students this isn't what we're learning in the class.

230And so I have to continually take these tests and it makes them feel bad. And and in some instances in schools, they're like showing what these kids are doing in a classroom and if they're not up to their peers, it's it's quite disheartening. Let me provide a little bit of context. So diagnostics similar to if you go to a doctor's office for example to get a diagnosis of of something you're feeling they have to evaluate what are those symptoms what are those gaps what might be what's exactly how can we pinpoint the gaps that the student has to then identify the lessons to help support that gap and what I does really well is it pinpoints exactly what are those skills the student needs to meet that standard what teachers can do during intervention is

231pull the lessons to target those skills skills. So, it's not uh core one instruction, our benchmark advance, our literacy. That's all universal for all of our students. >> Correct. I understand what you're saying, but you're I I feel like you're not understanding what I'm saying. So, I agree. They're learning division or multiplication, but then you're giving them an algebra problem that they haven't learned. >> Okay, I understand. I I'm I'm equally frustrated, Miss Extramm, and I've heard the same things uh from students and parents. What I wonder is as far as math goes, how often are students tested in the classroom on this platform? because I know as a governing board we're trying to reduce the amount of testing but if they're arbitrarily being tested once a week and being you know sometimes teachers show

232h how well or how not well students are doing in some sort of way during the classroom um or during class time excuse me um so how how often are students taking these diagnostics >> the diagnostic is three times a year beginning middle and and and and that's it. That's per our agreement with TEA. And what the My Path produces is that intervention support in the classroom, which we require or we ask 15 minutes three times a week. Um but as you saw from some of the usage, it's a little bit less than that across our district. So per the diagnostic a student if needed will get three three times a week 15 minutes on that same platform. >> It creates a my path for them. So yes it'll create a a path for them

233that says these are the skills we're going to target and it'll provide an activity for the student to build up to those skills >> with the computer and the students. See, what I worry about is sometimes you just need a person to be like, "Oh, honey, you got to carry the one and put it up here instead of constantly interfacing with the computer. You just need a a human to see what their issue is and say carry the one or you know, move this decimal." And so I'm just so worried that this these platforms are just doing a disservice to our students. >> Dr. Dr. Yeah, I I don't hear anybody having and just kind of listening to what everybody's saying. I don't doesn't sound like anybody has any concern about a before you learn

234it diagnostic. We want to see what you don't understand. I also don't think anybody has any concern about an afterunit summitive exam. What did you learn and let's compare the results. It's the what's going on in between as you've just talked about. It's as I hear governing board member extramm is it does this my path that now I take this diagnostic which I'm not supposed to understand it's supposed to kind of tell the teacher what I'm supposed to you know what my my areas of growth are conceptually in a it's a math class does now that my path actually actively show me how to do this stuff or does it demoralize me even more which gets to what governing board member Sha's talking about maybe it's a live teacher has to really get people again

235we know we know small group instruction right explicit instruction around core competencies lots of modeling so I think the challenge really is going to be with the stakeholder engagement piece is where do we dial back especially when we're starting to talk about the my path and the screen time and the interfacing the general concern is If I take a diagnostic that shows very clearly I am not proficient at three-step equations, a crucial concept I need for freshman algebra and I'm just handed the tablet or the iPad and the my path sets me up on a bunch of modules. I don't have anybody really interfacing and actively teaching. That's an area that I think we really need to work on. So for me hearing the conversation it's like what's going on on the in between and

236to what extent is I ready actively involved in the in between and maybe that's the area where we need to dial back and get more into live teacher instruction and small groupoup instruction one-on-one differentiated and I think that's where I see a lot of the frustration. >> Sure. So, I've expressed a lot of concern over the last couple months on these platforms on just digital use in general, not just these platforms, but any kind of curriculum that's being offered digitally. For the sake of tonight and kind of going into the next school year in a few weeks, I will move the item as presented knowing that there's going to be a lot of stakeholder work over these next six months to really figure out how to use digital effectively and how to remove a lot

237of it from our classrooms. So, I'll move the item as presented. >> I'll second, but I'd like to make a quick comment. Um, so, um, as somebody whose child has left the district really recently, I I'd asked her because I knew this was coming up tonight. What did you think about I rate ready as a student and um, she didn't like it. I know her classmates didn't like it. I know kids really struggle with it and I've heard that from my colleagues who have younger students. So, I'm glad that we're going to be doing this stakeholder thing because we're in an age where I think it has started to become detrimental, but at the same time, we can't go backwards to trapper keepers. We got to figure out what we're doing. And this is where

238perhaps, you know, interventionalists comes in to help. And so, um, I I think there's just there's a lot that we are going to have to be doing, a lot of work. And I really appreciate you ladies and work. I know you I know you're working really hard. So I'm I'm really looking forward to um the stakeholder meetings and what comes out of that. And please keep us informed of what's happening. Of course like to know, you know, as as soon as >> as soon as the first meeting happens. >> All those in favor say I. I. >> I. Any opposed? >> Item passes 5-0. Thank you. Uh Dr. Ty, I understand. Do we lose our ASL translators at 10 o'clock? >> Yeah, we do want to respect their 10 o'clock. Okay. So, we have 20

239minutes left. Uh, governing board, I'll propose that we combine 9.5 through 9.13 together. Any objection? All right. Seeing none, I'll take those unanimous consent. Dr. Trill will uh just vote on all those together for our And it's great that we've done so much work over these last couple months to get these bargaining agreements where they are, but uh let's present them and and vote on them together. >> Absolutely. Uh we do have uh Mr. Hernandez, I think waiting in the wings uh to be able to uh get us across the line here. >> Is it Hernandez or Fernandez? Which one's coming? >> Mr. Hernandez. >> I think it's Ricky. >> Oh, yeah. He's on his way. >> And then yes, for the AI item. Yes, Tracy, you're on deck. >> Okay, Mr. Hernandez, you're first.

240Um so the board has um opted to take the agreements as one consolidated item. So you'll walk through each one. Yeah. >> Major highlights before board action. >> Okay. Good evening again board members. So just quick highlights um on the agreements before you. Um I'll start with uh TA consensus. Um so a few things. Uh we've updated the definition of temporary contract. uh the right of assignment language for exed teachers, the language on candidate selection to be more inclusive. Um we've added language defining the work day and the work week for school nurses. Uh we've updated the separation notice dates from November 1st to November 15th and from March 1 through or from February 1 to March 1. Uh we've updated the language on judicial leave pay and this is going to be consistent across

241all the bargaining units. Um, it includes the override increase of $3,000 for TDR, TDRB, um, and XED. Um, and an agreement to increase the steps to $750 for future salary schedules. So, that is consensus. The white collar food service agreement, uh, we've updated placement language for voluntary demotions, um, like the other ones, judicial leave pay. We've also updated the calendar and holiday language uh to be consistent with the the new school calendar, the 3-day Thanksgiving and no spring holiday. Um and increasing uh all salaries by 4% for all of the members. Uh for Eli, we've added language on notifications of school closures to be March 1st. Um we've added language uh that the superintendent uh will prioritize employees in the art in article 8.4. Uh the sick leave separation notice has changed to March one.

242Uh we've added language on the district's intent to reassign. So the process for how the district will move forward to reassign school administrators. We've added language to conform with HR practices and added certificated teaching or administrator experience related to um to designated administrators. So ad, you know, sometimes there's a need for an a designate on campus uh during after hours and so we have agreed to language on what that's going to look like. Um we've updated the school year dates, added uh to article 11.1, we've added school year dates. Uh we've added K6. Uh currently there is no language regarding the new K6. And we've added language to include uh a market analysis for salaries that we will start for um school administrators this fall. Um we've added language to the bereavement leave that we've

243had before the two days of paid bereavement leave as well as the jury duty. Um and we've made some other small changes regarding the title of chief human capital officer that's kind of peppered throughout. Uh for CWA we've removed uh in article 310 we've removed the union community fund. Uh we've added language that conforms with HR practices in regards to reassignment. We've changed the year from 23-24 for layoffs. Um so uh so we currently we've we've essentially moved that year from 2324 for layoffs and we've added language to provide information on benefits. Again, we've incorporated the holiday calendar, uh the bereavement pay, the update on the jury duty, um and that the agreement the are is now effective from 2026 to 2031, so 5 years instead of two years. For non-bargaining um we've uh re

244the definition uh removes the term excluding initial probationary employees. We've also updated the holiday calendar um and we've included the bereavement leave. So I don't know if there are any specific questions. I know Mr. Freed had spoken to you about these at length during executive session previously though. >> I'll move the consensus agreements as presented. >> All those in favor moved by myself and second I miss Rose. All those in favor say I. Any opposed? Item passes 5-0. Thank you. And then next we have item 9.15 approval for the extension of the work with um ask me. >> Yes. Um, I want to uh welcome uh Tracy back uh with the team. Uh we're going to talk about um governing boards. >> Oh, ASME. Oh, that's right. I thought we were ready for the AI

245item. Jump in the gut. >> Yes. >> So, yeah. So, as um as we've discussed before, we uh we would recommend a uh we would recommend that we request an extension of the ASME agreement for 8 weeks. So through August 4th of 2026 to allow us time to continue um moving forward with ask me and then we would come back to the board at that time. >> I'll move the item. >> I'll second. >> All right. Moved by Miss Shaw, second by Miss Extram. All those in favor say I. I. Any oppose? >> Oppose. >> Item passes 41. Excuse me. >> Thank you. >> All right. Now, Dr. Trillo, we can move on to the study action 10.1. >> Yes. Um, before we move into this item, I know it's late in the night, but

246I want to take this opportunity to publicly congratulate our own associate general counsel Michael Arinoff, who has recently been um recommended to be appointed as a superior court judge here in Puma County. So, we're very proud of him. And this will literally Yes, this will be his final uh sort of duty for TUSD, helping out on this item. But we're going to welcome uh our director for instructional technology, Tracy Rowley, is back and we are looking for a specific action tonight and that's just to get um the revised um proposal out for public comment. Tracy, >> thank you. Good evening, board president Dr. Shaw, governing board members Dr. Trujillo, Mr. Ross, and all the people watching us in person and online. Uh my name is Tracy Metafi and I'm here tonight with Chris Anderson, um

247Jules O'herin, Robbie Hamadi, Michael Areronoff, um and to speak about the TOD artificial intelligence policy. Oh, I had the zapper. Um there we go. I'm just going to speak about um the security protections that we have in place for the AI and are the three proposed revisions that we are um going to be discussing. We'd like to start with expressing our deepest appreciation for approving the AI policy a year ago. Your action provided a stable framework and robust policy to govern the use of AI platforms and tools by students, teachers, and staff. And one year ago, you correctly recognized that AI would continue to revolve or evolve. Therefore, you included a stipulation that this policy should have a yearly review. So, we are here as a first read and to ask for approval for a

24830-day public review to gather public responses to the three proposed revisions to of the existing policy. We believe the alterations will hone and refine the policy so that it works for the people who are using it, our staff, our teachers, and our students. The proposed alterations reflect the current landscape um of artificial intelligence and addresses teacher and department requests for the use of AI. And we need your leadership to ensure that our AI policy continues to govern to evolve to govern the continuing secure, ethical, and responsible use of AI by our students, staff, and teachers in this evolving space. In fact, just this month, the Northern the Arizona Institute for Education and the Economy and Northern Arizona University updated its AI guidance for all schools in Arizona. And this guidance has really been our north

249star. I'd like to start with showing you a recent piece from Kun 9 about the use of AI of students in a computer science class at PBLO High School. And I have with you today uh Christina Laneir who is also featured in this piece from Kun 9 works its way into classrooms. TOUSD is giving some students an early introduction to how the technology works. As part of our special AI jobs of the future, Athena Kho takes us to PBLO High School where a computer science class is the center of AI work. Instead of just asking AI for the answer, these students are actually learning how it works. From coding to real world applications, they're digging into the technology behind it. >> Just cool to know how computer programs work. >> Dante Matanza found the one

250class that doesn't feel like a countdown to the bell. It'll help you learn what you missed or don't understand. >> After 19 years in the classroom, Nathaniel Adams admits he's still learning how to plug AI into his own lesson plans. >> I'm pretty sure it's going to be a part of the way they work, especially especially if they go into software development. And so, I wanted them to learn how to use it. I also wanted to figure out how to use it in the classroom. >> Using a platform called Magic School, Adam says teachers can set boundaries for how students use AI. students were generating ideas for some sort of app that they like a business that they're going to start with an app and so they could sit there ask it questions it would

251help them come up with ideas refine it and tune it into the sort of like document I was wanting them produce >> Christina Laneir is helping bring this technology into the classrooms >> there's always been cheating to some degree or plagiarism to some degree so I really think that we need to shift our focus away from that and really look at the possibilities of how they can leverage the technology rather than how that they can abuse the technology. >> For Dante, this class just clicks. >> It's a great way to socialize with other nerds like you. Yeah, I know. I'm a nerd and I get to nerd out over computers >> at Pueblo High School. Athena Kho K9. Me 52 day. Thank you so much, Jean, for helping us with that. Thank you. Um, next

252we're going to talk about the security that we do have in place for AI and Robbie's going to be speaking about that. >> All right. Thanks, Tracy, Dr. Shaw, governing board, Dr. Trillo. Uh, I will help Tracy and the team speaking specifically about security for AI because that came up in the past. Uh just to let you know anything that comes to TUSD or leaves TSD is protected by all the security platforms that we have for all the current technology whether that is logging on to the cloud using emails protecting for malware and viruses and hacks. So AI will have no difference in the way it comes in, the way it's protected, the way we protect our student data and staff and all the traffic and monitoring and alerts etc. So the network and cyber

253security tools that are enforced on network traffic and data include AI, they include data loss prevention, for example, DLP, uh any identifiable information, personal PII, uh wall garden, so etc. Anything that the infrastructure and our content filtering and firewalls and access controls cover will include AI. So there is no security breach uh via AI that would not have happened via something you use already like watching a YouTube video or getting a fishing email or uh or somebody hacking your password. So there's no added security. As a as a matter of fact, having AI within TUSD in our system protects us from AI. It's almost like the saying uh you need to be one to no one, right? If we get attacked by an AI malware and we're using old technology, TUSD will be at risk,

254the classrooms, the operation, and everything else. So, I'll be happy to answer any question that you may have about that, specifically student data and protection. Uh but also of course like the uh policy says we have to be compliant with all the uh uh the acts and the laws and the federal laws and state laws including SIPA and FURPA and COPA and uh section 504 of the disability uh uh act and and all the other laws and regulations. But uh uh I'll stop here and then if you have any questions regarding security specifically uh we'll be happy to answer that as well. So Tracy Thank you. So we would like to um uh propose three policy revisions to the current policy. We are proposing a refined definition to of AI to encompass agentic AI. Expanding

255this definition modernizes our governance, ensuring our guardrails remain firm and cap as capabilities evolve. By staying ahead of this curve, the district remains proactive in protecting our systems while preparing our students for the future. We are also proposing a secondary access expansion to ensure our middle school students are afforded the same foundational opportunities as our high school students to learn how to use AI ethically and responsibly as a tool and not as a substitute for critical thinking and creative thought. This is a grassroots request coming directly from our eighth grade algebra and middle school computer skills teachers who have asked for the opportunity to utilize district approved platforms platforms strictly certified by Ikeep safe as copa and furpa compliant which teachers and the district have control over. We are requesting that secondary students can be

256introduced to the tools based on teacher discretion of the modern workforce within a controlled, safe and age appropriate environment with teacher and district oversight. And then finally, we are proposing a policy revision regarding what we are calling embedded AI, which acknowledges the technical reality that AI is now inherent and a key component within some core productivity suites and search platforms. We do have our our robust web security umbrella that allows us to block unauthorized tools. Um, but AI is now an inherent and core component in many of our platforms. This requested revision addresses supporting our exceptional learners. Uh, one of these examples is an embedded AI tool for our students with speech difficulties. those as young including those as young as five with AI powered augmentative and alternative communication such as eye gaze technology and

257speech generation apps which provi which provide and help them with being able to express themselves. The AI built into these program into that platform grows with the student and adapts to the student learning their personal communication styles to make communication um expression natural and equitable. So, in conclusion tonight, this is a first read. We are requesting your approval to move forward with a 30-day public review to gather feedback from parents, staff, and teachers, our TUSD stakeholders. Uh we would then return in late July to present the feedback from the public review and present this for final action. Uh, our policy allows us to be able to provide for students and parents, teachers, staff members, stakeholders and constituents with a policy that is up to-date and aligns with our values and allows us to shape our

258own future. >> Go ahead, Mr. Rose. >> Thank you, Dr. Shaw. Thank you for the presentation. So, um, I know this has come back to us again. I really hope my colleagues will at least push this forward to the first read so we can hear from the community on what they think about this. AI is not going away and this policy I think is really needed um for our our safety and our students safety because I mean AI's moving so fast that I'm afraid that we're gonna leave our students behind if we don't have something in place. But I really want to hear from parents. >> So I I really hope we can at least get this out for public um comment. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Go ahead, >> Mr. Maro. So from

259my understanding, this policy is already there. We're just looking to update the policy. So this isn't a new policy. It's already out there. We've got this. We've got these guardrails. We're just adding these next levels on there. Some of the different things that my biggest concern is bringing it down from the high school down to this low the lower level. uh kids uh middle school type of of children. Uh some of the concerns and you know maybe people don't look or and again I'm not sure where this is going but with the younger students and then you're also talking about um uh uh you know um exe exceptional education students and things of that nature. Where does this line cross into a bad area? And I'm not sure if you anybody's familiar with the AI

260powered teddy bears that they make. And basically these are little teddy bears that uh a kid can talk to and they have you know um microphones in these things and these teddy bears now become you know console these children that they have concerns and things of that nature. They're talking about you know um some of these things were taken off because these AI things ended up getting offline and and and maybe saying you know talking about different things that maybe a child shouldn't hear. What are our guard rails? Are these uh AI things using um microphones, hotspots? Uh are they collecting conversational data like our te telephones are? Um how is this data also being stored and monitored to put our younger kids in that area and understand it sounds like some teachers want to

261do that in the algebra, but we need to safeguard our younger students. I I understand needing it for high school and after and like I said, we already have this in place. I don't think we need to update it for these younger kids right now. Again, uh to open it up to others to get that in there. We're like I said, it's already a policy, but I don't think getting younger kids into this right now is is not doing us a service. >> It would only be for district approved AI platforms and then we have four. That's it. Everything else is 100% blocked. There's no teddy bears with microphone. That's not approved. It's only the district approved AI platforms that have already are being you that those are the only ones they would have access.

262They are completely copa and furpa compliant. So there is no we control the data. They're closed systems. We have complete control over these and teachers have complete control also. They can choose to use it or not. And then when as far as like the teachers having control, what control can they see as far as what the kids are doing on this? Do they have uh a sight of seeing they can only see what the students are doing or is this uh you know with with like the principles can see all these things that the kids are doing on these AI platforms. Yeah, this is uh again for any security like a for AI, we will provide uh the best security available for AI like we provide for email, for cloud computing, for logging on to

263your laptop. There is never 100% security. That's it. That's it. we have we can configure the system to monitor to provide alert to even block uh anything that we feel is not necessary. In other word the way an IT security works and AI is no different is you block the system as much as you can and you open it bits and pieces rather than having an open like it is in the wide outside TUSD. It's wide open if you use it on your phone or or anywhere else within TUSD. The way it works, the system will be blocked and then we open bits and pieces whatever we want to open. The one thing that you mentioned about what can the teacher do, what can a system admin do, we block everything that we want to

264be blocked. The teacher will have the power to see what the students are using AI or other AI and block it or get an alert or escalate to a system administrator. The one thing also that is very important is the systems coming in are embedded in in in other word if you use a Chrome browser or an Apple Safari browser or a Microsoft browser AI is already there. We at DSD administrators have the ability to block or open it or open it to 50% like we do with any system. uh also what's very important to us to protect our students is when we use our own AI tools to protect from the AI hacks we have more power into securing the student and the staff and TSD in general so everything that you mention is

265out there but it doesn't mean that it has to come in to TUSD same as emails right now right now for example cyber attacks 80% of them are via email and all of us use email but when you come in to TS PSD, you're blocked. You're protected. Same with AI. >> Thank you. >> All right. I'll move the item for a first read uh for public comment to come back to us next month for a second read. >> I'll second. >> I moved by myself and seconded by Miss Lar Rose. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Opposed. Item passes 32. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Dr. Tri will be moving item 11.1 to a July meeting. Bump that one again. >> Make that adjustment. Yes. >> Okay. And so

266we have future meeting dates and agenda items. >> Yeah. July 14th uh back for the adopted budget. There will be a uh public hearing. We'll also have a study session on um preschool and early childhood education programs in the district. We'll have P uh Re uh give an update there as well. Uh we will also welcome back Dr. Huitt and her team uh to talk about some of the changes when move on when reading and some of the requirements regarding our textbook adoption and then a present the framework for which our interventionists are working. So we will be busy on July 14th. >> Thank you and I'll close our meeting. Thank you everyone. >> Have a good rest of your summer. We'll see you back in July.