001I was struggling. Yeah, that's pretty. We can just order The sauce is good. forever. So what you do is you let it slow Now I know. It's true. Actually, I've read that and I have >> Yeah. 42 ingredients. feel proud of yourself. >> Yeah. I We actually have a student My parents. It was like gas station. I can't imagine it. >> Yeah. Yeah. I mean My dad later Jersey. I I do. Yeah. most opening up your Put our hands in there. Was it 10 minutes? Every time she's like picture It's beautiful. You don't have Wonder. That's okay. >> No, that's okay. comfort. >> Did you over Target whereverals. red shirt. This style starts like I know a lot of people I'm so >> I don't Did you find already? That's the best part. Are you
002ready? That's very So yeah, I think you might ask them what they did. I don't think I ever I was like I'll have exercise. I know But it's like weird one. Yeah, exactly. >> Yeah, I get that. It was like I felt like Yeah, some people get sens. I don't have sometimes weird. I think that's more exercise. exercise and it helps you like your I'll have to watch. I mean, it's not You can't I was I was practicing. That's why that's All right, good evening everyone. We're going to get our meeting started. Uh, today is Tuesday, May 12th. On this day in 1941, inventor Conrad Zeus presented the Z3, the world's first working programmable, fully automatic computer in Berlin. Uh very apts as we're talking about AI later on in the board meeting tonight. Uh
003today we also celebrate the birth of nursing with International Nurses Day with the birth on this day of Florence Nightingale in 1820. And a quick shout out and thank you to all the nurses I've worked with for the past three decades and all the help and support you've given me in my career. Uh, that said, uh, Miss Hine, can we have a roll call, please? >> Miss Ludos here. >> Mr. Romero >> here. >> Miss Shaw >> here. >> Miss Extram >> here. >> Dr. Robbie >> here. All right. All five of us are here. And we're going to go on to our land acknowledgement statement. We still don't have anybody for the student check in. Okay. So, I'm going to turn over to Miss Luna Rose. >> She is here. >> Oh, you are
004here. Okay, great. Sham. >> Okay. We have Sham Alerty here. It's 11th grader at Palavery High Magnet School. Is it Sham or Sham? >> Sham. Sham is a junior at Palver High Magna School when is a member of the National Honor Society and president of the college and career club. Sham was part of the presentation to the TUSD board on the 4-day school week and is entrusted as a student ambassador giving tours and educating the community about her school. She can be described as hardworking and a creative person who loves photography, baking, and taking on leadership roles. Sham enjoys making people feel welcome and bringing positive energy whenever she wherever she goes. She's passionate about growing, learning new things, and creating a better environment for the people around her. Sham is a true titan at
005Palaver and I believe you gave me a tour a few months ago when I visited as well. So, thank you. And I'll turn over to you to read our land acknowledgement statements. >> All right. On behalf of the governing board of the Tucson Unified School District, I Shamel Kuring acknowledge that the schools, buildings, and facilities of the Tucson Unified School District reside on the ancestral homeland of the Toono Odahham Nation and the federally recognized tribal land of the Pascoya Yakoy tribe. >> Thank you. >> Good luck to you the rest of the school year. Thank you. >> Just a week and a half left. Uh, and next for our pledge of allegiance, I'll turn it to our board clerk to read the student bio for our special attendee for the pledge of allegiance. >> Thank
006you, Dr. Shaw. Um, our student this evening for pledge of allegiance is Lily Luna Rose. She is a senior at Ringcon High School with a strong passion for the arts and creativity. An accomplished artist, Lily is deeply involved in ceramics and clay club, often bringing home beautifully crafted pieces that reflect her talent and attention to detail. She also enjoys drawing and painting and even design and created her own prom curs using artificial flowers. In a recognition of her artistic dedication and achievement, Lily recently earned the prestigious Arizona State Seal Arts of Proficiency. Students who are selected for this honor demonstrate excellence in fine arts coursework, extensive extracurricular involvement in the arts and complete a rigorous senior capstone project evaluated by a panel of experts. Lily will receive her arts seal chord at the upcoming Arts
007Under the Stars event this Saturday at Ringcon High School. Lily has also been a dedicated member of the Ringcon University color guard since her sophomore year and has proudly served as captain. Her passion for color guard will continue this fall as she joins the color guard team for the University of Arizona Pride of Arizona Marching Band. She plans to study fine arts while considering a future in emergency medicine. In her free time, she enjoys films from the Marvel Cinematic Universe and shows like The Pit and Chicago Fire. Lily says she has truly enjoyed her time here at TUSD and is grateful for the education, the teachers and staff who supported encouraged her along the way. And now you may read the pledge of allegiance. So please stand. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the
008United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. And thank you to our student speakers this evening because it is to speak in front of a big crowded room is is still quite a lot. So, thank you so much. >> And for Lily and thousands of others, this is our last board meeting that you will be a student at TUSD. So, congratulations to you and the hundreds and thousands of others who will be graduating in just a few days. All right. Uh Dr. Tia, we have a couple of agenda adjustments for tonight. >> More than a couple, so uh hang on here. It's a it's a list. Um so uh after the call to the audience uh we do
009recommend because we do have a lot of family and supportive friends for tonight's appointments we would recommend the following sequence uh following the call to the audience 8.2 8.4 8.5 8.6 8.7 8.8 and then the assistant principal item 6.3 to follow item 8.8 8 and then the movement of item 9.1, the ASDB item directly following 6.3, and then the audit committee items 5.1 and 8.10. My final agenda adjustment because one of our employees tonight has a family commitment and won't be able to be here until uh after the 8:00 hour would be to move item 8.3 to follow item 10.1 essentially the final item on the agenda. Okay. All right. Any objection to that governing board? All right. All right, I'll take those unanimous unanimous consent for those agenda adjustments tonight. And back to you,
010Dr. Trillo for our superintendent report. >> Yes. Um, President Shaw, members of the governing board, um, and all of you joining us here this evening, uh, as always, very, very proud to report of all the wonderful things going on in our district. Gene would go in advance. Um, I had the opportunity to visit with, uh, principal via Nova, Mr. Ravia Nova recently out there at Booth Thicket. Had a wonderful time touring the campus. What a difference uh in climate and culture and interactions with our students. Very excited to see some of the changes uh going on there at Booth Fick. So I want to thank uh Mr. Vanova and his team for welcoming me to Booth Fickett. I also uh had the opportunity uh to go to Bria Early Learning Center thanks to the good
011folks at uh PNC Bank who donated $10,000 uh to the creation of an early learning outdoor garden for our youngest learners uh out there. It was amazing for me as a preschool dad to see uh two and a half year olds and three-year-olds actually watering the plants, uh understanding that seeds grow and learning at such an early age how to be wonderful stewards of of nature. So, I want to thank the good folks of PNC for that donation and the wonderful staff there at Bria Early Learning Center for welcoming them in. I had an opportunity to uh celebrate our partners at the recent family and community engagement uh event that honors all of the partners that we have uh in the non both in the nonprofit sector and the public sector that support the work
012of the family and community engagement centers and teams. So, just being able to spend some time and thank all of our wonderful contributors, whether from Walmart or Target or Youth on Their Own, uh any of our partners that donate uh services and goods to our family and community engagement centers that go to our students. I communicated to them just that uh not not only how grateful we are as a district to see such strong strong partnerships with them, but they join a wonderful ecosystem of caring adults that really do everything possible to take care of and eliminate as many obstacles as possible for our learners so that they can thrive in our schools. So, I had a wonderful lunch and I want to thank director uh face director Lacy Grahalva for putting together that wonderful
013lunch and the talented students of Sanorita's culinary arts team providing a delicious lunch for everybody uh that day. Uh, a couple weeks ago, I had an opportunity, I don't know if it was an opportunity, but I guess an obligation to spend a day at the Capitol, uh, talking to some folks who have some different ideas about public education and trying to be the best advocate that I could be. Uh, it's always difficult, uh, talking to folks, uh, who have entrenched ideas about what public schools are and what public education does for students and families. and just really how much funding we actually need uh to create an amazing learning environment for students. But nonetheless had some productive conversations even with those I didn't agree with. Uh being able to share a room and a space
014and to make our case uh for TUSD. The same topics of course on the agenda, concerns about the unlimited expansion of empowerment scholarship accounts and what that is doing to our budget as well as public education here in southern Arizona. Uh discussion about facilities and the restoration of our capital funding that needs to happen like yesterday. And then of course concerns about Proposition 123 and the continuation of Proposition 123 funds and how that means an additional $2.3 million for our budget. Had an opportunity also to engage our own Puma County legislative team up at the capital stressing the importance of their advocacy for their home district uh up there at the Capitol. and couple weeks ago had an opportunity to congratulate our new teacher inductees. Uh TUSD, I don't know if we do a good
015enough job celebrating the work of the new teacher induction program. It is literally like the only district in the state that gives every first and secondyear teacher a full-time outside of the classroom 40 hours a week, sometimes more professional mentor that comes to you and goes into your classroom and helps you lesson plan and does whisper coaching and models instructional strategies. And just to give you an idea of how effective this program is in preparing for my remarks to our graduates, when you look at first through secondyear attrition rates across the nation, it's 48% for major urban school districts of our size. Here in TUSD, it's 21%. So mentorship and on the job embedded support makes a difference. and our new teacher mentors, they're master teachers themselves who love the classroom and came out of
016the classroom out of a passion for teaching other adults how to be amazing with children and young people. So, we celebrate them. It was a pleasure uh to not only celebrate our graduates from the new teacher induction program, but our hardworking mentors as well. And my favorite event of the year, uh, had an opportunity the first weekend in May to go celebrate the endofear extravaganza that is opening minds through the arts year-end student showcase. Uh, just an absolute wonderful opportunity to celebrate in all of its glory and, uh, thanking all of our parents for supporting their students and supporting the arts uh, throughout the year. I want to thank Dr. Ashcraft and her team for uh putting together another year's amazing event. And I want to thank all of our students for their uh participation
017and their commitment to the arts. And this year's theme about being a good neighbor, I think, is important for the times that we live in. To see such young people uh performing music and choir ensembles centered around themes of neighborly kindness and acceptance. I was very very proud of our young people to see them performing on those themes. And I want to thank uh President Shaw. He he was there uh with his kids as well enjoying the event. And last weekend I was able to attend the Legacy of Excellence Scholarship Banquet. Big thanks to the legal the legacy of excellence scholarship committee uh under the leadership of Miss Natalie Clark and support from African-American uh student services. In all uh almost $100,000 raised for scholarships uh for African-American students in the Tucson Unified School District.
018The stars of the show, of course, were the scholarship recipients that were honored that evening and the generosity of the community to see during donation time just over $30,000 raised in the span of like 15 minutes due to the generosity of the community supporting the Legacy of Excellence event. So, another wonderful year for uh Legacy of Excellence and I want to thank uh governing board members Dr. Ravi Shaw and Sadi Shaw for attending that event and supporting the Legacy of Excellence program. And lastly, had an opportunity last week to address our principles and celebrate one final instructional leadership academy and talk about where we are headed for 2627. and not that we're headed to uh closure of schools or consolidations, but we're headed towards a new vision of meeting the needs of TUSD learners today,
019tomorrow, and going forward and pursuing uh strategies that will ultimately lead to increasing our enrollment and the reemergence of TUSD as a preeminent option for K12 education. Stay tuned. That presentation is headed your way publicly and for the board at our next governing board meeting. and President Shaw, members of the governing board, that does conclude the superintendent's report for the evening. Great. Thank you, Dr. Trillo. Is there anyone here from the Jewish Philanthropy Association? No. Okay, great. All right. Thank you, Dr. Uh, Miss Lunar Rolls, I turn it to you, our clerk, uh, for a call to the audience. >> Thank you, Dr. Shaw. Good evening, everybody. Members of the public may speak during to the call to the audience. The governing board clerk shall be responsible for recognizing speakers and for maintaining order where
020it may be appropriate. Those who speak in person or want to have their comments read shall email or call the board office or complete a request to address the board form before the meeting. Speakers who have not completed a request form are not permitted to address the board. The speaker must state their full name and topic prior to the meeting. Speakers are encouraged to be brief with a maximum time of three minutes while more than one speaker may speak together in the time allowed. Speakers are reminded that they are not allowed to speak more than once and they may not transfer or delegate their time to others. If there are documents for the board, please give them to the board office staff and they will ensure each board member receives a copy. Those attending those
021attending the meeting and or speaking before the board shall observe rules of good conduct. Speaker shall refrain from inappropriate or slanderous remarks and because TUSD serves students from preschool through high school. Speakers should be aware there may be children present and listening. At the end of the call to the audience, the governing board president will ask if any board member wishes to respond to a criticism, wish to ask staff to review a matter, or wish to ask that a matter be put forth on a future agenda. No more than two members may address each topic. And our first speaker this evening is R. Grahalva Gomez. Good evening board members. Hello, my name is Rori Gomez and I'm a PBLO High School junior. I'm here on behalf of myself and my peers who emailed the board
022about our YPAR policy proposal to ensure diverse student body is our diverse student body is properly represented and celebrated. As a quick debrief, uh, policy PD26, aka PBLO diversity 2026, would allow students to display their personal artwork or flyers freely and allow us to update and add to our collection of student made murals at PBLO. To answer your questions, for those of you who read the email, thank you. Uh, we are still in the early stages of getting administration on board and have the and have the support of PBLO meta and its sponsors. We plan to speak to our onampus admin when they are available about developing a plan of action and permissions. Secondly, we would be asking for all walls chosen by students for murals by students as well as other projects and art.
023We can't wait to collaborate with you further on this policy. We appreciate all of your insightful feedback and we continue and will continue to be in touch. On a separate note, I along with many other PBLO students have concerns about, excuse me, have concerns about our bathroom accessibility. Towards the beginning of this school year, our bathrooms have been locked for the first and last 10 minutes of each class period. This was inherently tame, but later on towards the end of first semester, certain bathrooms remained locked throughout the entirety of each period. It has gotten to the point where only one boy's restroom and one girl's restroom is open at a time. Students have taken longer to come back from excuse me. Students have taken longer to come back to class from uh leaving for the
024bathroom because some have to travel from the first floor of the east wing to the second floor of the main building and they might take even longer if more than two students have to use the bathroom at once. Myself, I have had to search for a monitor to ask them to unlock the nearest bathroom many times. If I can't find one, I have to see if I can use a library faculty restroom, which is an inconvenience to teachers and staff. for next school year or better yet as soon as possible. I and many other public students ask that the school bathrooms remain open at all times. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Next is Katie Senko. I'm requesting the board an extension since I will be using a sign language interpreter because there will be
025a delay. >> That is fine. >> How many minutes do >> Ladonna? How much time do you think >> this? >> Five minutes. >> Thank you. >> Any objection from the board? >> Take the unanimous consent to extend the call audience for those that need interpretation services. Ready? >> Good evening everyone. My name is Katherine Sienko and I am the president of the Arizona Association of the Deaf. Thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight. I also want to acknowledge the effort made to ensure communication access for tonight that matters because the future of deaf heart of hearing and deb blind students mean a great deal to me and the many many members of the community. I want to also briefly reflect on the April 28th board meeting. What stood out to me was seeing
026board members ask thoughtful and sometimes difficult questions, engage directly with community concerns, and take time to better understand the impact these decisions could have on our students and families. That level of encouragement matters. It reflects the kind of careful governance the public hopes to see when decisions involve vulnerable student populations, specialized services, and significant public funding. That's also why communication access is so important. Arizona and federal law requires meaningful communication access at public meetings, including qualified interpreters for deaf, heart of hearing, and deafblind individuals. When access is uncertain or improvised, deaf community members are placed in the position of fighting to participate in conversations that directly affect our education, services, and future. Looking forward looking at tonight's agenda, specifically the proposed allocation of $815,000 in Medicaid federal funding to support students potentially transitioning from ASDB.
027I want to be clear that I'm not opposing support for students. My concern is about transparency, sustainability, and informed decision-making. TUSD recently approved approximately 10 million in budget reductions. Because of that, it is it is reasonable for the public to ask how is this funding model and will it be sustained long-term and how those decisions are being financially justified. I say this not as a community member only, but also as someone who has more than 20 years of board and governance experience, including serving as both a board chair and vice chair. Transparency, accountability, and clear financial justification are essential components of good governance, particularly when public funds and specialized student services are involved. I also want to raise concerns regarding consistency and transparency. >> Sorry. Notification. Sorry. Go ahead. In this proposed agreement of service
028minutes outlined in this agreement, it is not clear whether this is functioning as a flat cost model or if we're looking at service minutes. It is because of this it it because neither of the current contract nor addendum E appears to clearly define that framework. I also want to raise concerns regarding consistency and transparency. When I reviewed prior TUSD governing board agendas, including the January 27th, 2026 meeting, other expenditures included detailed explanations, funding resources, and financial justification. That same level of detail does not appear on the present here proposal of this size and significance. I also want to identify that support alone does not replace an lived experience. It does not replace cultural and linguistic appropriate uh environments for students with sensory disability. and it doesn't replace the community here before you, the identity, the
029access that has been intentionally built into a specialized educational system. That is why I'm saying it's critical that we must slow down and fully engage the communities most directly impacted by the decisions today, our deaf, heart of hearing, and visually impaired students, their families, the educators, the community leaders and organizations. I appreciate the district's ident identifying community partners and resources. However, I notice that several important stakeholder organizations were not included in today's presentation. So, I strongly encourage the district to engage with those organizations including the Arizona Commission for the Deaf and Heart of Hearing, the National Association for the Deaf, and the National Deaf Center on Postsecondary Outcomes and National Federation of the Blind. Thank you for your time this evening. >> Thank you. Thank you. Next we have Cameron Rodriguez. Thank you. I'm Cameron
030Rodriguez. I'm a teacher at Rinkcon and this is my ninth time here and I'm going to be frank with the board this evening. What is the plan here? Because the district's plan from the outside no longer looks coherent. If the goal was to deny my claim cheaply, that failed. If the goal was to make me go away, that failed. If the goal was to contain this within workers comp, that failed. If the goal was to protect general counsel, that has also failed. It exposed the board while protecting him. So, what is the actual winning condition? Because keep going is not a sound plan. Let general counsel handle it is not a plan when general counsel is the liability. and wait until the hearing is not a plan when the carrier's defense has already filed the
031accident report that proves my claim is valid. Six months of pointless litigation, a huge waste of money. And on top of that, if the hearing proceeds on May 19th, the district will secure both an adverse ruling and a bad faith ruling against its own insurance company. The company will then decide only a few days later, in two weeks, how much to charge the district and premiums for the coming year. It will probably not be generous. And if it wasn't bad enough, the insurance carrier recently subpoenaed my own principal, who will either have to commit perjury or admit that the TOSD general counsel coached her to provide false statements on a sworn form. Both serve to put the blame and cost solely on the district. Anyone's livelihood is fair game as long as it protects the
032lawyer. Retaliation is clearly this administration's brand. So is taking money that isn't theirs to spend. Look at the top picture on the back of my broad sheet. The admin honeypot. 11.7 million deficit in the employee benefits trust and 13.2 million rate on money intended for employees not admin. The retaliating tonight item 6.14 by trying to fire a veteran auditor because he noticed employee benefit money was missing literally the next day. one day. There's been so much retaliation that nobody seemed to notice. TUSD was recommended a $12 million contract allowing a private corporation to engage in AI assisted surveillance of minors, your children. The meeting item reads, "Legal considerations not applicable. They will be easily accessed by ICE to the corporate back door. No matter how many policies TUSD puts into place, they're already all with
033TPD. But that's okay. Too busy retaliating against teachers and auditors. What is the plan here? Because whatever plan this is, it's a bad one. Be a good neighbor. Thank you. Next is Lisa Fur. Can we get the five minutes, Mr. Armstrong? Thank you. >> Good evening, president and board members. My name is Lisa Fur. I am an alumni here speaking this evening regarding the ASDB TUSD addendum E and the transition plan item 9.1. I appreciate the district's efforts to support students during this transition. However, the discussion must go beyond staffing numbers, technology purchases, or building modifications. The real question is, can this plan truly provide an equivalent languagerich educational environment for deaf, visually impaired, heart of hearing, blind, and deafb blind students. Accommodation is not the same as equivalency. providing sign language interpreters or technology
034does not automatically recreate the languagerich educational environment. The peer interactions, the cultural connection and specialized support students receive through dedicated deaf and blind educational programs. It's very important states educational environments matter. Some states have already recognized that many local school districts are not fully equipped to provide the comprehensive educational environment that they require. Florida school for the deaf and blind under Florida statute 10002.36 as a specialized statewide educational model. The this reflects recognition of deaf and blind students and their needs for direct communication access, specialized instructional supports, trained professionals, peer interaction, and languagerich environments that cannot be replicated through mainstream placement alone. Simply, this is not just about physical placement. This is about educational equity, language access, and long-term student outcomes. I want to bring your attention to the 2023 US Supreme Court decision Perez
035versus Sturgis Public Schools. The court unanimously ruled in favor of a deaf student who alleged he was denied meaningful language access and opportunities for many years. Language deprivation occurs when deaf children do not receive consistent and fully accessible language exposure during critical developmental years of 0 to three. The effects can impact academic achievement, communication, mental health, and long-term educational outcomes. Students can physically attend school and still experience isolation, inconsistent communication access, and long-term educational harm. Federal special education systems often evaluate p placement through least restrictive environment, the LRE, and that measure sometimes referred to as indicator 5. However, for deaf and heart of hearing students, the least restrictive environment is not determined solely by physical placement in a mainstream classroom. It must also include direct language access, meaningful communication access, and opportunities for peer interaction
036and language development. I would also like to address concerns regarding educational interpreting services in the K through2 setting. Many educational interpreters are deeply committed professionals who work extremely hard to support students. However, many are also newly graduates from college or university programs and are placed into highly demanding educational environments with minimal support. In many K through2 settings, educational interpreters are expected to work solo for the entire school day with deaf and heart of hearing students. Research has shown has long shown interpreter fatigue can occur after approximately 20 to 30 minutes of continuous interpreting. Which is why professionals interpreters in the community as you see here this evening are working in teams for assignments that are lasting for an hour or longer, especially when the content is complex. Yet in educational settings, interpreters are often expected
037to interpret continuously all day long due to budget limitations. Children may not recognize when information is incomplete or inaccurately interpreted to them. Time is up. >> Thank you. >> And I do have a handout that I'd like to provide for as an attachment to the board. >> Thank you. And Ladonna, we do have an the next speaker is also needs services. >> And with that is um Elizabeth Smith. Okay. And who do I give my um additional handouts to? This young lady over here to the left or your right. Thank you. Thank you board members, superintendent, president for the time to speak tonight. My name is Elizabeth Smith. I want to explain my background just a little bit. I am deaf myself. I'm a mother of three deaf children, all of whom go to ASDB.
038I'm also a teacher of the deaf, four TUSD at Miles. I'm also a member of the deaf community and I deeply cherish deaf education. I'm here because I have many roles and I would like to explain all of the hats I'm wearing, but I'm asking you to seriously reconsider and reject the proposed contract to partner with ASDB. Over the last several weeks, our community has had varying discussions and questions raised about not just TUSD's partnership, but the future of ASDB and if the campus will close eventually or not. Many staff members, family members, students are intensely grieving because our campus is being shut down and relocated. um and also the school designed to serve many students including deaf students, blind students, deaf blind and multiple disabilities. This this allows an environment where these students can
039thrive and while bringing them to a mainstream environment on paper seems like inclusion and seems beautiful and the most appropriate language access instruction and involvement in the community isn't really inclusion. If we bring them into these mainstream settings, they are going to experience isolation. The legislature rep refused to provide funding for ASDB to be able to continue to have our campus thriving. And now our agency is being forced to make decisions for deaf and blind education throughout the state of Arizona. Our community sees what's happening. We sees the programs shrinking. We see our community being forced out. And it seems like technology is meeting the needs of LRE on paper. But again, the lived experience is very different. When students lose access to direct communication, they do no longer have a strong sense of identity.
040They aren't able to connect with their peers. And I've heard many, many stories of people's lives being changed because they were able to go to ASDB where they had full access to language and great opportunities. the commun those outcomes do matter. As a teacher in the public school, I've seen districts struggle. I've seen interpreter shortages constantly, lack of services, no ASL specialists, no curriculum that is designed for deaf and heart of hearing students or those with language differences. I have spent many hours investing in specially designed instruction for students and looking for trainings to further myself so that I can help them appropriately. There is a lack students have a gap that they are facing and equal access for literacy looks a lot different and we need to find a solution that works for the
041deaf students. There's a moment when I leave work and I feel an immense amount of grief because I know they deserve more than the system is providing both TUSD and ASDB. Please help to continue forward progress and do not help push our students out of ASDB campus. It might look again like inclusion, but it is less access, less language, less community, less opportunities to thrive in the future. Our children deserve better and they deserve a future where deaf and blind education is strong and not diminished. Thank you. >> Thank you. And we do have another one. Yes. Sorry about that. Nadonna uh Casey Hasset ready. Good evening to USD board of directors. My name is Casey Hasset and I am deaf blind. I grew up experiencing both an oral and a deaf and heart of
042hearing program in the public schools. I'm here tonight as a community member and a stakeholder. The system is broken. The deaf community knew, fought, and warned about this for years. What happened last at the last TUSD board meeting on April 28th where there was no interpreter despite a request got nationwide attention. It's now actually being discussed beyond Arizona. Even special education directors across Arizona are talking about this incident. For many people, this may look shocking or embarrassing, but for the deaf community, this is one of our common issues we deal with. We are used to being overlooked when it comes to communication access. Even when requests are made far in advance, this is not just about one meeting tonight. This reflects a systemic problem. And it has reached the point where Katherine Sienko, who is
043an expert in organizational psychology, showed up without an interpreter and instead of going through the proper agency, staff tried to handle it informally. They asked a few people who knew some ASL but were not fully certified. This is embarrassing and it's extremely bad. We already knew this from the start. The system is broken and this connects directly to you. A much larger issue for education of deaf, heart of hearing, deaf blind, blind and visually impaired students including students with other disabilities. Deaf students have already lost access through incidental learning. the information hearing students naturally can pick up in everyday environments, conversations, and situations. But that gap, it doesn't stop here at the school. Many deaf people only learn self- advocacy after high school. Many of them learn those skills after graduation. I myself and as
044an example, I first learned how to request an interpreter when I was in community college for classes, then doctor appointments. No one taught me how. Not just that, writing a check, filing taxes, applying for a credit card, and making phone calls using video relay service with certified ASL interpreters. These are basic life skills that so many deaf students are expected to just figure out after high school without proper preparation. My main point this evening is what happened at the TUSD board meeting is directly connected to the failures in the educational system. So I ask you if deaf, heart of hearing, deaf, blind and blind and visually impaired students had full access, resources and incidental learning opportunities during their education. They would leave school prepared to live independently, thrive as they became adults, and contribute as
045taxpayers instead of struggling to access a basic system. Students should not have to fight this hard for their access. For the blind and visually impaired students, they deserve a safe learning space with appropriate resources and services. Blind and visually impaired students should have access to ASDB as their safe learning environment. And it is ASDB's responsibility to ensure they are properly supported. Many of these blind and visually impaired students do not want to return to public schools because of the lack of support, the lack of resources, and the bullying. And honestly, I don't blame them. I experienced bullying myself in the mainstream environment. Students deserve to learn in an environment where they feel safe, supported, understood, and have full access to the resources they need to succeed. Because of these concerns, I do not agree with
046the proposed plan under agenda item 9.1 regarding the transition of ASDB students into TUSD schools. Thank you. Thank you. We do, but I don't know if you needed a break. >> Okay, I'll take you one. Um, Donna Jones. Nope. >> Oh. Yep. You got her. >> Yep. >> Oh, you good? >> Yeah, we're good. Okay. >> Hello board members of TOSD. My name is Donna Jones and I have two deaf children who are now grown adults. who have actually understood and know tsd well. My first daughter Tracy was originally intended to go to the Arizona school for the deaf and blind. However, I was told, "Oh no, your daughter must go in the district where you reside," which at that time was TUSD. I was as a deaf parent did not understand. We were planning
047to relocate from Colorado. My parents lived here and it did not make any sense to me why would I send my daughter whose first language is ASL, completely deaf into a mainstream school. We went to Weller Elementary and then after two years we went to Shoemaker. Those teachers and those environments, the educational interpreters, the aids were not fluent in a language that my daughter used. They used a language system called C. My daughter was completely isolated. She had no friends except for her special education class, which she knew she was in special education. I wanted my daughter to be in an environment with all peers who were like her. >> And that's why when my second son Lee was born and ready to enter into public schools, I fought three years with TUSD refused to
048allow me to take my son and my daughter out of TUSD. After the third year at that IEP meeting, there was one individual who finally admitted at the table that they said, "Oh, we have someone who can sign your daughter is allowed to leave the school and go attend ASDB." You can't imagine the immense joy that I had as a parent. Three years of hitting a wall, not having access. So my son and daughter were I thinking great. We both transferred our children to ASDB and even though she had been in an environment here at TUSD, what I learned is how much bullying she had experienced because she was the only deaf student. She experienced it because she did not have an ASL language interpreter, again, a signed system that had been forced upon her.
049She was continually ridiculed. I told my daughter, don't give up, to continue using her native language, which is American Sign Language, a recognized language, everything that we use in our family. Once she transitioned to the school at ASDB and she saw the recognition of her language, she saw that the signed English system was not effective in communicating for her or for other children. We knew that we made the right choice. And I told her, "This is where you will stay. You have a languagerich learning environment. But if you ever wanted to return back at some point, you would have to deal with an interpreter who may not be fluent, who is not your teacher, and recognize the disconnect. Your teachers in your school are trained to work with students who use an oral language. So
050in closing, ASDB is where our students need to be. ASDB school for the deaf and blind is where they deserve to go. And I hope that you TUSD would agree as a district that you would break this proposition and leave the students where they belong in the environment that is languagerich and perfectly designed for them and not send them to TUSD. Thank you. And next um is Thor Halverson. >> Hello board. My name is Thor Halverson. I grew up in a mainstream environment and then had the opportunity to go when I was older to a residential school. I majored at in college at deaf education and psychology. I was an educational interpreter for 15 years. But as a deaf individual, many people think, how is that possible for a deaf person to become an interpreter?
051and I'm also a deaf poet. My concerns this evening, I know firsthand what a mainstreamed educated environment looks like. Being a military child, I went to a school for the DoD where I had no support, zero design for people like me who are deaf, no educational interpreters. As a result, I experienced language deprivation for many years. And it wasn't until later that I was exposed that to language after I graduated that I immersed myself in the community. So my concerns this evening are about the best educational environment which is a language culturally rich environment. Language taught in direct instruction based on shared experience, identity and connection. The development of mentors and role models must be present. Deaf individuals need to be able to see themselves and the educators who are teaching them. If these students
052are placed in a classroom in TUSD, where are they seeing other deaf role models? Where are they seeing other deaf kids for those interaction, those conversations and not immediately recognizing they are different? I promise you isolation will happen. So really, if you think about the goal, we do already have the best educational idea set up and that's right down the road at the Arizona State Schools for the Deaf and Blind. All the services are in one place. All the services that you could need do not to be chased within a district from sight to sight. All the specialized staff in one place. Even though ASDB has fired those teachers, that's not your responsibility. How are you going to satisfy the need? How are you going to meet the deaf children where they're at, their need
053for language development, language fluency? How will you as TSD provide that and set that up? The identity, the development, the culture, and the interaction. 50% of learning is social. We know this. We need that. We also need a shared community. We talk about community support and engagement. They're deprived of that. For our blind and visually impaired, it's the same. I am low vision. At ASDB, I have the capability to thrive. I have resources like braille. I have different technology whether it's sports participation. I have the ability to to be involved. All of those resources are already set up on a specialized campus ready to use. And right now the process so far looks like it has been sabotaged. Yes, there's community turmoil, but really I'm asking you board members, be thoughtful. Ask ASDB, what is
054ASDB asking you? Is that truly acceptable to take that burden? Think about ASDB and what they are asking you to absorb. What does that really mean for you as a district, for your students? The isolation and the language deprivation that you are now responsible for making up. Please understand, if you sign this contract, that is 100% on you. You have absorbed that responsibility that they are dumping on you and putting at your feet. Thank you. >> You can take a break. Thank you for Next is Lillian Fox. Members of the board, President Robbie Shaw, Superintendent Trillo. Um, I don't know what to say. You're in a mess. I was a longtime teacher here. You don't have the resources to provide what these children need. Um, I'm using this and I'm starting at the bottom on
055a radio program. TUSD or Dr. Trillo excused TUSD's miserable academic achievement because our kids are all poor. He claimed that 80% of TUSD students are on free and reduced lunch and that only 20% of Arizona students are on free and reduced lunch. Well, according to the auditor general, 20% of TUSD students are impoverished, not 80%. And that's versus 14% of on average Arizona students are poor. That is no excuse to believe and say that children can't be educated because they're poor. That's lousy. No superintendent should say that. It's impossible. It's possible to educate poor children. They can outperform wealthy children provided they're given the support they need. they don't get the support they need in this district. Furthermore, he also claimed that the PBLO students who came and addressed the board were just confused. He
056claimed they really do have yellow school buses and he committed in this in the board meeting that he was going to provide yellow school buses for them. Well, he's not doing it and he announced it on the radio because he said they already have them. They don't need them. If you go on to the TUSD website, you can check and see there is there are yellow buses to take you to the reservation from PBLO, but not much else. 90% of the of the area where PBLO students live, there are no buses. So, it's not true that they have access to yellow buses. Um, furthermore, um, your CFO has told you that he's required under Arizona's statutes to code everything you buy or budget with the bond money as furniture and equipment. That's not true. That's
057absolutely not true. If you turn over to the next page, there is a letter from a manager at the auditor Arizona auditor general saying, "No, bond money is supposed to be cut coded appropriately. Code it for whatever it is. I will happily send all of you the USFR uh codes if you'd like to read over them. That's nonsense for him to have said that. So you are left with $87.3 million of unexplained money that he's coded as furniture and equipment. That is no way that you are going to buy $87.3 million of um furniture and equipment. This next chart compares the amount of money 87.3 represents. That is enough. >> Your time is up. Thank you. Next is Kirsten Cummings. Good evening board. Um, now I don't have written comments. I can't even uh trip
058over cursive letters. Uh, Superintendent Trio. Uh, my name is Kristen Cumins. I work for the Educational Materials Center, which is the central library for the district and is under the umbrella of fine arts. I am here to ask you to either remove item 6.14 or uh take it for discussion because no reasons are given for this audit committee member's removal. None whatsoever. And he like you is a public servant. So the public before you and watching would like to know why he is being asked uh why you are being asked to remove him. Uh even though he is a volunteer, he does qualify as a public servant just as you are volunteers and qualify as public servants. uh he as an audit committee member is serving a very important role and I believe if he
059were to leave the audit committee would not have quorum though I could be wrong. Um, and also I think I read in an independent news source that we just lost our recently appointed internal auditor, which is also alarming because I saw him on Zoom at the April 15 audit committee meeting. What is happening? We need to have public discussion, public record. This does not look good at all. If we want the public to support our district, we need to be transparent. Um, yes, they have supported us in the past with the bond. They've supported us with the override, but things like this do not look good. and we're just going to we're going to lose more students, I'm afraid. So, please either remove this item or discuss it so it's all out. Thank you. >>
060The 45 minutes is up. >> Thank you. >> So, board, we have a call to the schedule for 45 minutes. We still have 10 more speakers remaining. Of the uh and two to be read of the 10 speakers to uh here in person, uh four of the items relate to an agenda item uh on the agenda tonight. So I will move that we extend call to the audience for the four speakers with items related to our agenda tonight. >> I'll second. >> Dr. Shaw, >> go ahead, Miss Shaw. I'd like to uh make a substitute motion to allow all the uh speakers who are signed up tonight to speak. >> I'll second. Okay. So, there's a substitute motion in a second to continue call to the items for all the 10 speakers. We do have
061a lot of items. Let's be another half an hour about plus we have all the appointments. We have ASDB to discuss as well. So, it's going to get us into a late. We probably won't even get to ASDB until about 9:00. I know we've had discussions in the past about not talking about important issues after 9:00 so the audience can be involved with that. So I will leave the governing board to make that decision. All those in favor of extending or the substitute motion to extend call to the audience for all the 10 speakers say I >> I >> say no. Uh those who oppose say nay. >> Nay. Item fails. Uh 2 three. And so we go back to the original motion to extend call to the audience for the four speakers with items
062related to our agenda tonight. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? >> Item passes 5-0. So, we have four more speakers tonight and I'll let Miss Luna Rose take it back. >> Mention which ones are >> um we have in terms of I'm not sure if they will be needing services. Um Ava Crawl, Steve Wakuku, I hope I said that correctly. >> Dwaku. and um Carrie Huggin Hodgkinson >> and then Guadalipia Henager is our last speaker. >> Okay. Um so uh Ava Crawwell or Crow sorry Good evening to USD board members and thank you for coming members of the community as well. My name is Ava Cra and I am a former employee of ASDB. I am now retired. I am also a parent of two grown children, one of whom
063is deaf. My deaf daughter has five children. Unfortunately, they don't live in Arizona. Reflecting on the speakers earlier tonight, looking at their experiences, whether it's being having direct experience in a mainstream setting or going to a deaf school, it's heartbreaking and it's touching. I didn't have that opportunity at all. I was before this era. I grew up, I would say, 60 years ago with no interpreters whatsoever. that at the end of my career, I was the ASL specialist at ASDB. Children who came to us were already behind in their language development. They didn't have exposure in their homes and school is where we could address that language gap without that extra support from the school specifically to teach language both reading and writing and social skills. Their language would not develop as it did and
064that what we had seen. We would overexpose these children from the moment they stepped on our campus. We need to have languagerich programs for these students, not simply services provided to them. There was one student I worked with directly who came to us from the reservation. This student originally had no language to speak of whatsoever, but I worked with this person one on-one. When they left us, when they graduated from ASDB, they were accepted into Galedet University. When he graduated from ASDB, he wore his native regalia and he also spoke and gave the speech that day of that night of graduation. Having that opportunity to provide him one-on-one instruction made it so that he was able to fully succeed and set a wonderful example for those other students in his presence. Thank you so much
065for listening. >> Thank you. Our next speaker is Steve. >> I know I'm going to bitchuku. >> Sorry, sir. Thank you. Good evening board members. Uh, thank you for the opportunity to speak in front of you. My name is Steve Dwaku. I am a graduate of the Arizona State Schools for the Deaf and the Blind, class of 92. I am here to let you know that I would not be in the position that I am um without the experience of ASB. I attended ASB from 1978 to 1980. Then I left and I went to the reservation, the Hopi reservation, and it didn't quite work out for me. So they sent me back to ASB from 1984 to 1992. My concern is that uh it looks like PBLO might close. And if that's the case, um
066why are you guys offering to send a cluster of students there? Uh which doesn't make sense to me. I am asking you board members to slow down, look at everything because you know there's a lot of there's a lot of uh that goes there's a lot of that's involved with this assist of technologies um braille um everything I you know and so I'm just asking you guys to please re-evaluate you re-evaluate your situation. I'm currently a Fry employee. I've been with Fries for quite a number of years. I've been I've I am a successful employee for 35 years with them and uh 20 year shop steward or union member. So with the without the experience that if I went to somewhere else, I wouldn't have been able to, you know, prosper to excel in what
067I do today. And I, you know, I don't want to see my my whole school get closed down because we can't provide for our kids. Our kids deserve better. I don't have any kids, but I'm speaking up for them. I'm going to advocate for them until our school is fully reopened. I don't understand why people want to close it. Everything is there. Everything is there. and to close it would just that would tear apart the not only the the deaf and blind community but the attic community as well. ASDB is an institution of learning and it's been in that side of town for over a hundred years and let's keep it there. Thank you for your time. >> Thank you. >> Next we have Carrie Hodkinson. Thank you board members for allowing me to speak
068tonight. As a parent, I have three children. You have touched the lives of all of them in one way or another. Full disclosure, I'm employed as a second generation educator at 12200 West Speedway for another week and a half. Um, we moved here for the school for the deaf and the blind. My daughter is deaf and she's blind. She was at a local school because they wouldn't take her right away, but we were one of the wonderful TUSD schools. However, no one could talk to her. They found one member who knew a little bit of sign language, had taken one sign language class at Puma Community College, and brought her in to hang with my daughter for the six weeks she was there currently. Why did we move? Because my daughter said to us at
06910 years old, I want to talk to my friends. I don't want to talk my friends through her. She pointed at me, her mom, the interpreter. She wanted to go to school. She could talk directly to them. We picked up everything we had and we moved three states down to the Arizona School for the Deaf and the Blind. Would I do it again? Yes. Why? She's currently, like this gentleman behind me, employed at a grocery store competitively for six years at this point. She's a graduate of the project focus program at the University of Arizona and she resides on the council at the college of education alumni council as a member. That's pretty successful as the many people behind me. Parents need transparency. They need communication and they need to be listened to. Please, my
070second school, my second child, you lost because of the school closures that TUSD went through. I would like to commend you for the public opening community forums that you had to include parents during that. Please continue to do that. But remember, parents have autonomy and we can make decisions. My daughter who is was you'd kill me for this. But she graduated magna cumla at the University of Arizona. She had over 4.0 gradepoint average. She is currently next week joining the very prestigious MEPIN program at the University of Arizona. TUSD lost her. My son Kyle went through TUSD, graduated from Tucson High, and got a D in sign language class because his sister is deaf and he signed it how she did and the teacher said that's wrong. I appreciate the efforts tonight. If my daughter
071was here speaking, you would have four to five interpreters in front of you for access as opposed to three. Thank you, interpreters. Please remember that parents do have the autonomy to make decisions and that's very important. We can't follow your plan or anyone else's. You can't count on numbers because we're going to do what's best for our child. Thank you very much. Thank you. And our last speaker this evening is Guadalupe Hener. Um, good good morning to all and TUSD. Um, and and thank you for your hard work. I would like to thank board member Astrom for speaking up for our schools. I really hope you run for reelection again. Before I start, I would like to say the majority of the people voted for affordable health care, affordable housing, low food prices, and low
072gas prices. and some other things. War is not what people voted for. The majority of the people here and all over the world wants peace. When engaging in fair negotiation, give peace a chance. International law is is against the international law to invite invade neighboring countries. Um um when trying to improve the students well-being, we need to look for the root causes. Our children and students are the casualties of war. In 1957, President Eisenhower warned us against the military indust ind military industrial complex that goes against preserving our peace and protecting our military people. They are the our children's and students are the casualties of downturn economies, lack of clean air, clean water, healthc care, food security, school funding and house security. We need to call the GOPled House and GOPled Senate and tell them
073to start governing and fund the things for the people. Thank you. >> Thank you. That is our last speaker and we have one to be read. >> We did not. Okay, >> our governing board. Now, our governing board has the opportunity to respond to criticism, ask staff to review a matter, or ask that a matter be put on a future agenda. Reminder that no more than two members may legally address each topic. >> Dr. Shaw, >> go ahead, Miss Shaw. >> First, I want to thank everyone who came to speak tonight. If you uh weren't able to speak, please do email your comments to the governing board if you haven't done so already. Um, in regards to uh Miss Lillian Fox's comment, I'd like to ask staff to review the matter discussed regarding the auditor
074general's response to the bond codes. Um, and then last, I'd like to thank the uh blind and visually impaired as well as the deaf and heart of hearing community uh for sharing your concerns uh tonight. And I would like to ask uh to be put on a future agenda a presentation on the cost and logistics of maintaining the languagerich learning environment at the ASDB campus in partnership with ASDB. Thank you. >> Thank you, Miss Sha. I want to thank our interpreters for doing amazing work tonight. Thank you so much for all your effort. And I do want to say one thing. Uh the internal there was a comment about our internal auditor. There is no change in position. Our internal auditor is still working for the district and I've been emailing him all week long
075back and forth. So there is no change in that role. >> Staying open >> and there's Go ahead. >> You can. >> Yes. Um thank you this and thank you so much. Um I just uh the young man u Ro Ghalva Gomez left already which I understand because there's school tomorrow. So um I just wanted to acknowledge um our student the our first speaker um he's very passionate about things that are happening at PBLO High School and he as he is the president of Meta. So I wanted to commend him for his um remarks this evening. um and um I will hopefully be meeting with him and uh the students from MetHa very very soon or if not right before the next school year starts. So um I just really encourage students to come to
076the board meeting. Um and to our uh deaf and heart of hearing community, thank you so much for showing up this evening. Um, I know that this is a a very big change for your community. Um, and honestly rather shameful of what ASD ASDB has done and the state for your community. So um, and I know that it makes you very nervous and so we will having hopefully a nice um, robust discussion a little bit later. And I also wanted to echo Miss Shaw's comments and thanking Open Doors Interpreting and Ladonna Gabrielson for and her team for all their work this evening. Um it's a lot as you can see if you're not familiar with um interpreter and ASL interpreters. It is a different language from English. It is American Sign Language. It's not English.
077So there's a lot of nuance to that and there's a lot of things outside of the community here at Miles that we'll have to learn. Um so um looking forward to working with your community and um thank you. >> All right. Thank you everyone. That would conclude our call to the audience. So here's what we're going to do. Uh next we have appointments. And so uh if they're approved by the governing board, we'll go through the appointments. will give an opportunity for our principal appointments and our um uh executive executive and director appointments to say a few words at the microphone and then there is a whole line of people ready to congratulate you. We'll go through all the principal appointments and we will do photos and then we'll do the assistant principal appointments as
078a consent item that we pulled and we'll announce everyone uh and then be able to do photos with the assistant principal group as well if you are here with us tonight. So we will start with 8.2 2. Uh, executive director of curriculum instruction and professional learning, Dr. Trujillo. >> Yes. Uh, President Shaw, members of the governing board. Uh, tonight I'm proud to recommend one of the district's most amazing instructional leaders. She has an impressive record of academic excellence and service to students as a bilingual educator, as an elementary school teacher, then later as a counselor, then going into secondary and working as an assistant principal. uh at PBLO. Her service sites include Davis, Robeson, Pueblo High School, but most recently uh she has established herself uh as an elite instructional leader. Uh quite frankly, one
079of the best principles that we have in the entire district. When you look at the almost 10-year transformation of CE Rose into the premier, one of the premier K8 schools, not just here in TUSD, uh, but in the state of Arizona. Uh, she is relentless in her pursuit of academic excellence for every student. She's relentless in creating an award-winning climate and culture for her staff, her parents, and she's relentless in making sure that she is nothing less than engaging for the parents and the community that she serves. I think this is a a wonderful example of the right leader at the right time uh coming in joining our district uh leadership team. So, tonight I'm proud to recommend for your consideration uh for executive director of curriculum instruction and professional learning, Mrs. Uh Alma Carmona
080Alai >> Dr. Shaw >> Miss Extramm >> I motion to approve that Miss Almona Carmona Aldai to serve as the executive director of curriculum instruction and professional learning. >> I'll second the item. This is a new position as we reconfigure our curriculum department to truly meet the needs of our students and learning. All those in favor say I. I I any oppose? Item passes 5-0. Congratulations. >> Good evening, governing board president Dr. Sha, governing board members Dr. Thruillo and legal counsel. I would like to extend my sincere gratitude for the trust and confidence you have placed in me with my appointment as executive director of curriculum instruction and professional learning. I am truly honored and excited to begin this new role and I look forward to working alongside Dr. Huitt and our departments to advance
081the district's vision. I am also deeply thankful for the CE Rose community where I've had the privilege of serving as the principal for the past 10 years. CE Rose will always have a special place in my heart. While I will miss this incredible community dearly, I am confident that it will continue to thrive and reach even greater heights. Thank you for the opportunity. It truly is an honor and I look forward to transitioning into my new role. Have a wonderful evening. >> Congratulations. And if 8.3 is still not here, Dr. Tia, we should skip that and move on. >> Miss is not here. >> Okay. 8:00. All right. So, we'll go on to 8.4, principal of Myers Ganong Elementary School. >> Yes. Uh, tonight's candidate spent many years on the campus of Ringcon High School
082as its MTSS coordinator. He was in our administrative preparation program, leadership prep academy. Then he left us, went to Ngalas, became a successful principal in his own right, having one of their premier elementary schools. Came back and is currently serving as the interim assistant principal uh at Tucson High, our district's largest school. And he has uh he threw his hat in the ring uh a few weeks ago to serve as the next principal of Myers Ganong. thoroughly impressed the hiring committee in that community. So, tonight we are proud to recommend uh Mr. Gabriel Wong to serve as the next principal of Meyers Ganong Elementary. >> Dr. Shaw, I'd like to move the item. >> All right, we have a motion. I'll second the items. We have a motion, a second for Mr. Gabriel Wong for
083principal Myers Gong Elementary School. All those in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Item passes 5-0. Congratulations. Thank you. Got a little ahead of myself. I want to sincerely thank um all our school families, staff, district leadership, the governing board for the trust and confidence you've placed in me by recommending me to serve as principal of Myers Goodong Elementary School. I'm truly honored and grateful for the opportunity to serve this wonderful community and continue supporting students and families in Arizona. As I begin this journey, I'm excited to learn more about the school, its traditions, its incredible people, and this community and the community that makes it special. The Mustang is a symbol of strength, determination, heart, qualities that I see reflected in our TSD community. Here's a fact about wild mustangs. Wild mustangs live highly
084social, tight-knit groups called bands. These bands rely on complex social structures to survive. And the key to the success is collective movement to maintain stability. Alone, we can do so little. Together, we can do so much. I truly I truly believe the best schools are built through strong relationship, shared purpose, and a caring community. I'm excited for all we will accomplish together as Mustangs. Congratulations, soon to be principal Wong, future Mustang. Next, we have item 8.5. We have the interim principal, Catalina High School. >> Yes. Uh, President Shaw, members of the governing board, uh, tonight's recommendation to serve as the interim principal for Catalina High School. deep roots in none other than the PBLO warrior community where she served as a social studies educator uh since 2012. Became a culturally relevant master teacher and became
085a um assistant principal uh serving at Catalina High School on an interim basis. And now we are proud to recommend her for the interim position of principal at Catalina High School. So, I'd like to recommend for governing board consideration, Dr. Jessica Mckia Barnal to serve as interim principal at Catalina High School. >> I'll move the item. Second, >> Mr. Romero. >> Um, just real quick, I just want to kind of put it on the record here from what I understand on this. Um there was supposed to be 2 years u in our policy as far as um administration um experience on this. Um just on the record for policy I just want to make sure that um it is it is known that that was a a caveat on that and I have nothing against
086the qualifications just at this time because of that policy I will not be able to uh to vote on this one. >> Okay. Thank you Mr. Romero. We have a a motion by Miss Luna Rose and a second by Miss Extramm approve Dr. Bernam Mahia for interim principal Kalina High School. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Opposed. >> Item passes 41. Congratulations. Good evening. Thank you, Superintendent Rojo and the members of the governing board. I am the daughter of Jose Mahia Mariam Moreno. I come from a family of educators and I am a product of TUSD schools. I want to begin by thanking you for the trust that you have placed in me to serve as interim principal of Catalina. I am truly honored and grateful for this opportunity. Catalina is a
087very special place. It is filled with loving, diverse, and resilient students who bring life, knowledge, hope, and energy to our campus every day. I am fortunate to work alongside teachers who consistently go above and beyond to support students academically, emotionally, and personally, while also ensuring they feel safe, valued, and seen. We have an amazing grounds and custodial staff whose hard work makes our campus beautiful, clean, and welcoming, creating an environment where students and staff can thrive. Our office staff, support staff, counselors are equally knowledgeable, welcoming, and always willing to make every event, program, and daily interaction an extra special event for students and families. I understand the responsibility that comes with this position, and I do not take it lightly. I know leadership is not something done alone. It requires collaboration, listening, and a commitment
088to community. I promise to continue working collaboratively with students, families, staff, district leadership, and the board to further polish Catalina into the gem that it is. Catalina already has a strong foundation built on care, commitment, and community. I am excited to continue supporting that work and helping our students succeed in every possible way. Thank you again for this opportunity and for your continued support of Catalina and the Tucson Unified community. >> Congratulations. >> All right, next we have item 8.6, interim principal Otterbach Middle School. Dr. Trillo. >> Yes. So, I would be remiss if uh before we introduce uh tonight's uh interim principal candidate, we didn't take a moment to celebrate the transformational and inspirational work of an amazing instructional leader, Miss Teranica Sanders. the journey that she has led uh at Utterback Middle School
089from the moment that she walked through the doors back in 2017 to now a school that is one of the few avid national demonstration schools of excellence is absolutely amazing. Let's take some time to give her a round of applause as she says goodbye. With that being said, we are blessed to in a lot of ways have her co-pilot in a large part of that journey who served with Miss Sanders as her assistant principal at Utterback Middle School. His roots also go back to PBLO. a lot of PBLO warriors uh before us this evening where he served as a dean of students uh before uh joining the staff of uh Utterbach Middle School uh where he served uh for four years as an assistant principal, one of the co-architects of that wonderful transformation of Utterbach
090Middle School uh before pursuing a leadership opportunity where he is at now. He currently serves as the principal at Alter Valley Middle School. And as amazing as that experience was for him, when the opportunity to step in and provide leadership for his beloved Utterback community came available, he did not hesitate. So tonight, uh, we would like to recommend for your consideration interim principal for Utterbach Middle School, Mr. Ricky Valdez. Dr. Shaw move the item. >> Miss Luna Rose. >> Second. >> All right. Uh item moved by Miss Luna Rose, seconded by Miss Shaw. All those in favor say I. >> I. All the oppos. Item passes 5-0. Congratulations, Mr. VALDEZ. >> Good evening, board president Dr. Sha, members of the board, Superintendent Dr. Trujillo, Utterbach staff, families, students, and community members. It is truly an
091honor to stand before you tonight to accept the opportunity to serve as interim principal of MAG Utterback Middle School, the place where my journey as an administrator first began. During my tenure as an assistant principal, we accomplished incredible things together. We became an avid national demonstration school, opened a Verizon Innovative Learning STEM lab, and created an esports and broadcasting suite that expanded opportunities for student engagement and innovation. We even renovated a once dilapidated theater into a space our community can be proud of. Once again, these accomplishments were never about buildings or programs alone. They were about believing what our students deserved and working together to make it happen. I would like to take a moment to recognize Miss Teranica Sanders for her incredible tenure at Utterbach and congratulate her on a well-deserved new opportunity. Thank
092you, Teranica, for your leadership and dedication to the school community. I am grateful for the foundation you helped build and I wish you continued success in your next chapter. Can we give her another round of applause? I know she's back here. Although I stepped away for a year to serve as principal in another district, this school has always felt like home. Returning now is both humbling and exciting, and I am grateful for the board and the district leadership for the trust you have placed in me. As interim principal, I commit to leading with integrity, listening with purpose, supporting our staff, partnering with families, and always keeping students at the center of every decision. To our teachers and staff, thank you for your dedication and heart. To our families and community, thank you for your continued
093support. And to our students, thank you for inspiring us every day. Your future will always be our priority. This school helped shape me as a leader, and I am proud to return to continue building on the strong foundation already in place. Last, but certainly not least, I would like to thank my wife Melissa and my family for always standing by my side. Their unwavering belief in me has allowed me to pursue my dreams, and I could not have achieved this without their love and support. Thank you very much. >> Congratulations, Mr. Valdez. Next, we have item 8.7, interim principal of Hollinger K8 School. >> Yes. governing board members. Tonight's recommendation has a long history um as a an advocate for a two-way dual language. She served for 5 years as the magnet coordinator and curriculum
094service provider for Davis uh Romero bilingual magnet. For the last four years, she's been serving as the assistant principal at Hollinger K8. And so when a leadership opportunity presented itself, she didn't hesitate uh to step in and continue that service in a larger role perspectively there at Hollinger. So tonight we are proud to recommend for interim principal of Hollinger K8 uh Miss Katherine Arquist Burke. >> I'll move the item. Second item moved by Miss Luna Rose and seconded by Miss Shaw for the appointment interim principal Hollinger of Miss Anquist Burke. All those in favor say I. >> I. Any opposed? Item passes 5-0. Congratulations. >> Good evening, Superintendent Trujillo, board president Shaw, board clerk Lunar Rose, and all the governing board members and legal counsel. I want to express my immense gratitude for trusting me
095in this opportunity to continue leading at Hollinger. Thank you to my family, my parents, the Hollinger families, the Hollinger staff, uh, current principal Jackson, our entire team at Hollinger. Um, in the four years that I've been a proud bulldog as AP, I've developed strong bonds with the staff and families, and I look forward to continuing to serve this important part of our tsd community. Thank you again for your trust, and I wish everyone a good evening. >> Congratulations. >> Next, we have item 8.8, interim principal of Kier K6 School. >> Yes. uh members of the governing board. I remember when I first came to the district 10 years ago in the earliest days uh of my interim superintendency at that time. One of the first classrooms I visited was tonight's recommendation. And to this day,
096I've been hardressed to find such excellence in daily instruction. And she was such an amazing teacher. And I think what makes tonight's recommendation special for the Collier community is tonight's recommendation is not just uh for an interim principal that went to the school as a student and taught at the school but also is the daughter of a teacher who taught at Collier for many many years. Um and we're very very proud tonight uh to recommend just an outstanding educator and an emerging leader we think is going to do a wonderful job. So, our recommendation for interim uh principal of Collier Elementary is Mrs. Jennifer Osborne. >> Dr. Sh. Dr. Shaw. >> Go ahead, Miss. >> All right. We have a motion. I'll second the item. So, we have a motion second for Miss Osborne for
097interim principal of Collier Elementary School. All those in favor say I. I. Any oppose? Item passes. 5-0. Congratulations. Dr. Shaw, governing board, Dr. Trillo, thank you so much. This happens to be a picture of me in Mrs. Rocher's second and third grade class at Collier. And it was in her class that I decided I wanted to be a teacher and I have been blessed to spend my entire career at Collier. It truly is my second home and it is a very special place to myself, my family, my boys also attended there. Thank you so much for allowing me this opportunity and I promise you that I will continue to love and support the Collier community as long as I can. Thank you. >> Congratulations. >> And Dr. I see Miss Hurley in the back. >>
098We do have item 8.3 if we can knock. >> Okay. So, we'll go back to 8.3 then. uh administration uh director of professional learning and leadership development. Another new position that we created with our curriculum department overhaul. >> Yes. Uh governing board members. Tonight's uh recommendation for professional learning, director for professional learning. Also very very deep roots in the district. One of the original new teacher mentors for the district from 2008 to 2012. then becoming a a professional development coach and academic trainer for another four years uh before joining the staff of Sawarro High School uh as an assistant principal and then really breaking through uh as a leader and really demonstrating amazing leadership as the founding inaugural principal of the district's newest high school at Innovation Tech High School. She has a passion for
099professional development and professional learning. you can see it in just about all the PD sessions that she leads and the way that she coaches her staff. So, tonight we're very proud to recommend for the position of director for professional learning uh Mrs. Patricia Ble Hurley >> second. >> All right. Item moved by Miss Shaw and seconded by Mr. Romero for uh Miss Hurley as our new director of professional learning and leadership development. All those in favor say I. >> I. Item passes 5-0. Congratulations. >> I'd like everyone to take out a piece of paper. Good evening, governing board member. Dr. Trillo, legal counsel. I first just want to say thank you. I just came from my son's confirmation tonight um with my whole family to be here. I am super blessed and honored um to
100have the opportunity to be the director of professional learning for TUSD. I will tell you to my innovation tech high school family, it will be a little hard to walk away. I am very proud of what that school has done for six years and I know they'll continue to succeed even though I won't be there. But I promise you professional development and leadership development in TUSD is only going to reach the stars now. Thanks again. >> Congratulations. So what I'll do, governing board, before we break for pictures and then break. I know it's hard to get us back up here. Let's do the um 6.3 and then we'll break for photos with principles and our assistant principles. Okay. So we have item uh consent item 6.3, administrative appointments, assistance principles. We have 10 of them.
101We have a appointment for assistant principal Sabino High School, Joy Hoskins. Uh, assistant principal Tucson High Magna School, Grace Holddron, assistant principal, Tucson High Magna School, Noami Morales, assistant principal, University High School, Dr. Kelly Bis Bristo, assistant principal of Dulan Middle School, Anna Madrid, assistant principal of Marbel Mccoral Academy. Benjamin Kowalsski, assistant principal also at Marbel Mccorpal Academy. Rose Carion, assistant principal of Borman K8, Flor P F P F P F P F P F P F P F P F P F P Fresci, assistant principal of Lineweaver Elementary School, Brooks um Brooks Lawson, and assistant principal White Elementary School, Anelica Orontentes. I will move the item. >> Second >> item moved by myself and seconded by Miss Extramm. All those in favor say I. >> I. Any opposed? Item passes 5-0. Congratulations. So for
102all the assistant principles, if you're here, please run the line here. We have everyone here to congratulate you. And we'll start with our principal and our director of candidates for preachers. And then we'll do the assistant principles and take a quick break before we address uh item 9.1 uh ASDB. >> Get a snack. You walk. All right, Chris. Proud of my buddy. Got it again. My music's sharp. Everybody congratulated We already did principles. Oh, Anna. It was Anna. Grab one. Five minute break. Ah, the visual You guys are brother. That was it. distinct. >> How are you? >> Close caption. That's all. >> Yeah. >> No, but That was Apple peanut butter. You know what he's Foreign All right, we're going to call this meeting back to order. Dr. Drew, why not? >> Dr. Dill,
103where's Dr. my favorite. >> I laughed at this. All right, Dr. Dia, we're ready to go on. We're going to be going on to item 9.1, Arizona State Schools for the Deaf and Blind Student Support Plan, an addendum to regional cooperative agreement between TUSD and Arizona School for the Deaf and Blind with authorization for the superintendent to execute the addendum. Dr. Trillo. >> Yes. Uh so before I continue uh I I want to acknowledge uh and number one I want to thank uh members of the deaf uh the blind the visually impaired uh community for coming out uh and making their voices heard. Um I really appreciate that. Uh secondly uh I'd like to welcome an old friend and uh she's over at uh ASDB now Greer Martin Parish. Used to work in the district
104used to be our uh exceptional education ombbuds person. So I appreciate you being here. And I also want to acknowledge this is an extremely painful moment. It is. And with that being said, I think it's also very important for those watching in the public for all of the ASDB families and students. I want to be very clear. The Tucson Unified School District did not choose this. We did not have any hand in the decision to close the Arizona School for the Deaf and the Blind. In fact, we have valued the amazing programs that have been available on that campus for decades. They have been a trusted partner in placement for students through our IEP processes, guaranteeing that our deaf and blind students have a campus that thrives. We don't have any jurisdictional authority over the
105Arizona School for the Deaf and the Blind. We can't force them to reopen. We can't force them to make different budgetary decisions. And so what we have is we have students that have been displaced. And whether or not this agreement gets approved, we are responsible for providing FAPE, free appropriate public education to students with disabilities that encompasses all of the resources and services and equipment that is going to be needed to provide that free and appropriate public education at zero cost to parents. That is part of the Individuals with Educational Disabilities Act. That's part of IEP compliance. We're going to have to provide that. Okay. The other thing that we really need everybody to understand as passionate as parents are, students are, as passionate as they are communicating uh about the need for a standalone
106languagerich environment that's self-contained and is provided by 100% certified teachers who are skilled in educational services for the deaf and heart of hearing students and blind and visually impaired students. It is the IEP team that makes the decision as to how much self-contained programming, how much resource programming, how much inclusive programming defined as students and general education environments. IEP teams and processes determine that on a student by student basis. the superintendent, no governing board member, no principal has the authority to override the decision of an IEP team. We don't we can't guarantee placement outcomes just by our administrative authority. We have to work within the IEP team structure that is part of IDEA law. And we recognize there's a lot of passion around this item, but I really wanted to communicate those as points of
107clarification and understanding as we go forward. Tonight, you're going to hear from our senior director for exceptional education services, Dr. Sabrina Sammon, and she's going to take us through not only the parameters of the service agreement with some assistance from our guest from ASDB, but then also the preparations that we are making for the selected hub sites. I can guarantee you that no student is just going to be placed summarily in a general education environment outside of an IEP process. It is the IEP process that will be determining placement. Not just for incoming students from ASDB, but any student with disabilities that we accept is subject to the same parameters of IEP compliance, which is team led with our IEP uh team members, parents, psychologists, our special education teachers and case carriers, and our related
108service providers that represent on that team. So, with that, I'm going to turn it over to uh senior director for exceptional education, Dr. Dr. Sabrina Sammon. >> Good evening, President Shaw, board members. Thank you, Dr. Trillo. And so this evening, I'm just coming to give some additional information about uh Tucson Unified School District serving as a thought partner with not only Arizona School for the Deaf and Blind, but also for families in our community members who have students who are deaf and heart of hearing or who are blind and have um low vision. So today I'm bringing information about this transition. Again, we recognize that the Arizona School for the Deaf and Blind has been a pillar in our community for over a hundred years. We recognize that this is a process that involves a
109lot of emotions. That there's a grieving process for what has lost and some dreams and some hopes for the future of additional students graduating and keeping this pillar in the community. Again, this is something that was unexpected to us and when we heard about the need, we came together to figure out like what could Tucson Unified School District do to support in this time of need. So, there are a few logistical considerations that we had if we were going to be bringing in students who are have visual impairments or students who are blind. That's the majority of the student population that we were asked to help support. What do we need to support students, the family, and the community? So, we were considering the ASDB campus and what Tucson Unified School District offers. And so,
110we started to take a look at, okay, what would keep the community together? What would require fewer transitions? And so, we started to look at our K8 schools because that would accommodate our elementary students as well as our middle students and then a high school option. And so we had a committee who used rubrics to look at all of the demographics at our campuses. One like what space do they have available on the campus like what is the readiness of that campus to take in new students. We started to look at a minimum of two classrooms that would be available because we're also supporting staff who would be coming providing specially designed instruction and related services um for students who have a visual impairment. We also took a look at facility needs like what do
111we need to access that campus? Which of our campuses are in a more ready state facilitywise? Which campuses might require more work? which campuses were on the list for bond improvements and then which campuses might just require more financial resources to make them accessible. So then the next step was working with our finance team to look at staffing allocations. So what additional staff members would we need to provide the services as direct service staff from Tucson Unified School Districts? So, which certified teachers would we need in addition to like a teacher of the visually impaired? Um, what additional related services would we need in addition to orientation and mobility specialist? And so through that process, we did request some additional positions and some additional funding for those positions. We also were taking a look at
112pair professionals and what kind of supports that they provide. Um there was a new position we were introduced to called an intervenor. And so we recognize that that is a position that's at the Arizona School for the Deaf and Blind currently. And so through our human resources department in collaboration with our finance department um we have created a job description for the intervenor. And so that will be also a service that is available. Another important part is technology and equipment. So what kinds of assisted technology other technology and equipment that would be needed to provide access for our students. So we consulted with technology experts from ESDB as well as our assisted technology team that we have in house here in Tucson Unified School District. Um we have Raina Robles who leads our assisted technology
113team. She's worked in the Tucson Unified School District over 30 years. Um on our assisted technology team, we have occupational therapists, speech and language um therapists, we have program coordinators as well as technology specialists. And so through the logistical steps and the considerations of the level of support that was needed, our team walked through the process to select some campuses. And so our collaborative site that were selected based on the criteria previously discussed our K8 option is Morgan Maxwell. So Morgan Maxwell offers the continuum of LRE services ranging from A with our student being in the GenEd classroom for the majority of the day as an option to B for being outside of the GenEd classroom about half of the day and then C being outside of the general education classroom more than half of
114the day. There are multiple classroom spaces that are available at Morgan Maxwell. Um there clear hallways and so wider space to navigate. There is welcoming staff. We have administration as well as teachers and other support staff there who are just really willing and able to take in new individuals and welcome families. Um there's flexibility based on exactly what the students will need. Um so that option is available. Then we also have prior experience working with students who have a visual impairment. Principal Neidato there in her previous district um work with some students who have a visual impairment. So she's familiar with an embosser. She's familiar with Braille. She has some familiarity working with blind students and she is willing to learn more. Over at PBLO PBLO High School with Principal R. That was the first
115campus that when the call went out that we're looking for a home for some future students said, "Yes, please choose us. We really want to be involved. We want to support." And so with some ASDB team members, we walked the halls of PBLO High School like midday um right after lunch. We saw the students navigating. We had an orientation and mobility specialist stand in the hallway just to kind of see how students would navigate around her or walk into her or be upset about her being um in the line of traffic and students were just like, "Okay, let's move over." And so Nelly is a monitor who has been at PBLO High School for over 20 years. And so Nelly told us about like we used to have quite a bit of students who were
116blind and have visual impairments here at PBLO. We haven't had a lot recently, but we did. And so Nelly was telling us about how they're all students and everyone wants to be included. They want to have a sense of belonging and they want to be heard. And so at PBLO, that is what they do. So PBLO has a system of if there's a student who has a need, they have the radios. So lots of staff members have the radio from the front office to the principal to the counselor to someone in the cafeteria, we can radio and say what the student need is. if it's something that is a more private matter, they do have a way to make a private message get sent to someone else who can come and support the students. And
117so we took a look at the elevator um just the traffic areas. Um we worked really well um with Jennifer Mayerson, the AP there, who took us around to see what classroom options that would be available for our students. We took a look at what elective options would be available. We took a look at which postsecary training electives would be available as well as the clothing bank and the cafeteria and other options at PBLO. So again, just the genuine desire to serve was imminent throughout PBLO High School. So again, that was the selection process and the reasons for selecting Morgan Maxwell K8 and PBLO High School to be the two options. This keeps the community of students coming from ASDB together as an elementary and middle school cohort and then transitioning um together to PBLO
118High School service model and agreement. So the cooperative site locations we've identified as Maxwell and PBLO High School. And so that's a part of our agreement tonight. Our host district is the district where students would be receiving services. So that is the Tucson Unified School District. Our placement district is the district where students would be coming from. And so when we started to look at students who are blind or have low vision at ASDB, the majority of those students were previously Tucson Unified School District or currently reside in the Tucide Tucson Unified School District. And so that was one of the reasons that we were first approached to be this placement district. The other districts such as Sunnyside, Sarita and Bale also had some students who were attending the campus and so these other districts
119would have the option to choose Tucson Unified School District as a potential placement option. Again, these decisions are run through the IEP team process and it's up to those other districts where the students originated if they would like for Tucson to be an option as a placement district. Looking at the continuum of services, we have opportunities for students from LREA, which means they're in GED the majority of the day, ranging through LREC, which means the majority of the day they are in a classroom that's separate from GenEd students receiving their specially designed instruction services and that interaction with peers. And so in this agreement is an addendum to our cooperative contract. The Tucson Unified School District has had a cooperative contract with the Arizona School for the Deaf and Blind for many years. In previous
120years, it's been an all or nothing kind of a process. So either Tucson Unified School District provides services in house to students here with us or um we have a referral process where students would go to the Arizona School for the Deaf and Blind. So with this addendum, it gives us an opportunity to collaborate and to cooperate in a different way where students can get the services. They can get instruction. They can take part take part in programs that Tucson Unified School District has available. Whether it's an advanced program, whether it's an CTE program, whether it's an elective at a magnet school or STEM program, that is an opportunity for students to participate in those programs outside of the traditional cooperative sites. And so we're proud to have that opportunity um because we've reviewed some
121of the post-secary outcome data um and it doesn't look very promising for students. And so we really want to do better and prepare our students for life after high school. And so by having this model, by having more opportunities and the diversity of our instruction and our program, um we have an option to provide that for our students. So the services and the providers, again, this contract is really focused on students who are blind or have a visual impairment. And so when we look at the providers that would be available, ASDB would be providing the teacher of the visually impaired. So it will be a full-time teacher, one housed at Morgan Maxwell and one that would be housed at Joya at PBLO High School. And so that would be the full day that the teacher's
122housed there. Students would be getting services from this TVI for the amount of time that's allocated on their IEP. The other times of the day, the teacher would be either the student teacher would be like in a resource room available and accessible for students who need additional support. And then students would spend time in a general education classroom, maybe in a resource classroom, maybe in a self-contained classroom and electives, and then also spend time with their peers. ASDB will also be providing an orientation and mobility specialist at each of our campuses as well as braille support, assist of technology and assist of technology instruction. We have information technology available through ASDB for both student devices and for staff. Um we have the deafb blind project services and support and that partnership that is available for
123us. And so again, we will continue to lean on the different partnerships that we have available. Um there are some teachers of the deaf and heart of hearing who are available at Arizona School for the Deaf and Blind if we need more support from those teachers. Um so that will be available for both students and also um for our staff members. And so in this agreement, Tucson Unified School District will be providing the exceptional education teacher. Um that's the special education teacher who will support the specially designed instruction. Um in the case of students being in resource services, some of them may be providing the initial instruction such as English language arts or math especially at the high school level. Tucson Unified School District will provide the general education teacher in support, the paraprofessional, the
124intervenor if that is something that's on the student's IEP, the speech and language pathologist, the occupational therapist, a counselor or a social worker, the school's psychologist, and transportation as a related to service if that is something that is included in the students IEP. a few site modifications um that will be done at the facility. There is some contrast paint um that will be put on, for example, in the cafeteria. There would be the contrast paint that would be on a pole that's there where students navigate through the lunch line. Um on some stairs at the bottom of the stairs, there will also be some contrast tape. We had a walkthrough of both of these campuses with our Tucson Unified School District facilities representative, an Arizona School for the Deaf and Blind facilities representative, orientation and
125mobility specialists, um, teacher of the visually impaired as well as administrators. Um there are some situations where some sidewalks are getting measured and some might need to be widened or some might need to be resurfaced because the sidewalks could be uneven. Um so those are all things that are in the works and by our facilities department to complete. Technology was another thing we wanted to make sure that our students and our staff would have access to the technology that is needed. And so our technology teams had a meeting and then also there was a visit to the Arizona School for the Deaf and Blind campus to see how technology works there as well as an opportunity to see devices that are available and any additional supports that would be needed. So our two tech teams
126have been talking and they have a plan to make our campuses accessible for all. And even in preparation for this board meeting tonight, Arizona School for the Deaf and Blind live stream technician came out um just to help us make sure that our technology um was set up to have accessibility for live streaming um communication and support to make that accessible to our community. So ongoing collaboration and communication. These are just a few of the partnerships that we have initiated. Again, I heard from call to the audience. Yes, we certainly have an opportunity to add to this list. Um, these are individuals and partners and community agencies that we've communicated with. So, Savvy Federation for the Blind has come out to both Maxwell and PBLO and have provided some initial training and information for the
127staff there. Next up, we will be meeting with students. We'll continue to have ongoing training and support. um deafb blind project professional development has been offered and that's something we're going to be taking advantage of at both of these campuses and we've had multiple meetings between Arizona school for the deaf and blind and Tucson unified school district in person as and virtually um we visited their campus they visited our campuses and so we also have an exceptional education parent bridge building group and we have quarterly meetings and so we definitely will be disseminating information inviting all of our incoming families um to make sure that they participate in that opportunity. So that concludes the presentation for this evening. Thank you. >> Thank you, Dr. Solomon. Um governing board. >> All right. Thank you, Dr. Salman.
128Uh it's time for governing board to ask some questions. Go ahead, Miss Luna Rose. >> Thank you. >> Sure there's a lot of questions tonight. Yeah, >> thank you Dr. Simon and Dr. Trillo also at the beginning. Um my first question is um and it maybe well I don't maybe Dr. Ho is more towards you. If the governing board tonight decides not to go through with this what would happen to the students at ASDB? >> Um well every student has choice right? So, but when students come the majority of the students and right now we're talking about 47 um that predominantly are are blind or low vision uh that will be coming in. I believe it was governing board member Sean and I actually had an opportunity to sit down with about 15 of them
129um when some of this stuff was going on. In the absence of this agreement, any students coming in uh we would be responsible for providing the resources meeting those requirements of FAPE free appropriate public education for students with disabilities. So if this is voted down, we will then have to do our own cost estimates to provide the highly qualified visually impaired teacher, all the braille technology, all the assisted technology. So it that cost could be more, it could be less. we're gonna be responsible for those those costs. >> And then um Dr. Sammon, so currently right now the students like what is an average for spending on a a student with a disability? >> We have different weighted ADM for students with disability. So it we spend about $7,000 a year on on many of
130our students and just depending on the disability um there's a multiplier. So it could be a little bit more students who have a learning disability, students with other health impairment or student with a developmental disability. That amount is just a little bit more for the multiplier. When we're thinking about a student like a student coming from Arizona School for the Deaf and Blind, um that multiplier is similar to like a student um who needs a more restrictive placement who might have autism or who might have an emotional disability. >> Okay. I'll let my colleagues ask more questions. I'll >> have a quick question here and I'll turn to my colleagues. How many total students are we are we anticipating will join us? You mentioned 47 or blind or visually impaired. How many total are we
131looking at? >> Right. Our number started at about 47 and I know they've been ongoing talks and communication meetings. So right now we're probably anticipating about 20 >> 20 students and that's um blind and visually impaired as well as deaf and hearing impaired. >> Blind and visually impaired. And we have one deaf blind student. Our students who are deaf and heart of hearing they are projected to go to Copper Creek in the Afat School District. So there's not a cooperative agreement with that population projected to come to Tucson Unified School District. >> Okay. So no hearing impaired students that are just hearing impaired. >> Not just in hearing impaired in this agreement. No. >> Okay. >> Dr. Shaw. >> Go ahead. Miss Shaw. Thank you. Um, you know, I think there's a lot of lingering
132questions and so I I don't want our our board to rush into making a decision tonight. I I'm grateful for the um deaf and heart of hearing community for speaking tonight and voicing their concerns. Um although it's been said that we are going to have the majority of um blind and visually impaired students. Um when Dr. Trillo and I and and Dr. Sammon spoke to those family members, they were voicing uh very similar concerns uh as were spoken tonight um at our call to the audience. Um as you know, I did request You're welcome. I did request a future agenda item where we would look into the possibility of having our host site be at ASDB um as requested by some members of the audience today. Um I I think it could be a possibility.
133Um that I'd like us to explore. Um if you read the uh addendum in the item 9.1, it says that the host district shall establish a cooperative site in accordance with section IVA2B at a site mutually agreed upon by the host district and ASDB. Um and so I wonder if we can just move all of our services and have ASDB be a satellite site. I don't know if there's any ASDB representatives here tonight. Okay. Um I do have a couple questions. Um if you or or someone else would like to speak to it. Um so is is the governing board of ASDB still meeting? >> Yes. >> Okay. And so are you maintaining administrative staff? >> Can you state your name, please? >> Sure, I'm happy to. I'm Greer Martin Parish and I am the
134current um director for region one for itinerate services for services in school districts and charter schools and then I will be the director of blind low vision programming for next year for ASDB. >> Okay. And so um you are meeting the governing board of ASDB is still currently meeting. Correct. >> Well the meeting for May was cancelled um which was this Thursday I believe and so they have postponed that until July. >> Okay. is the next one. >> And so, um, do you know how many administrative staff they are maintaining? >> I do not. I'm sorry. Can I >> Do you know how many staff they're maintaining in general? >> I I don't have those numbers in front of me. >> Okay. I'm I'm asking this because if you all are still going to be
135operating, but you're basically contracting out services to host districts like TUSD. Um I wonder if you know it seems like the community is very much interested in maintaining their community um educational environment at the ASDB campus. So if we can do that I would love for us to uh proceed in that manner. Do you have any um% >> Thank you. Um do you have um any uh plans at this moment for the ASDB campus? Um, I cannot speak to that. Uh, I know that the plan right now as it is is that the programming for students who are blind or low vision is no longer being offered and that's why we are um grateful for the partnership with TUSD to be able to provide those services to students. >> And for the deaf and heart
136of hearing, >> they are moving to Copper Creek. >> Right. So you So is anyone um either you or Dr. Dr. Ho aware if um ASDB has plans to sell their campus anytime soon? >> B has not announced or made any information publicly available yet about what its plans are for the campus. >> Great. Thank you. Um let's see what else. >> Well, I'll I'll let uh other members of the governing board ask questions. Go ahead, Miss Extra, followed by Mr. Romero. >> Thank you, Dr. Shaw. Thank you, Dr. Sammon. Um, how long would it take to do an IEP for each student coming in? >> That really depends on how many people are on the IEP team and the students needs. Typical IEP meetings range from an hour to maybe two hours, >> right?
137So, if we have four or about 20 students, you say they'll have their IEPs done before this beginning of the school year? >> Yes, that is the goal in the plan to have them all done before the beginning of the school year. >> Okay. And then can you address the concerns in funding and continuing to provide services through to USD? So, of course, like the exceptional education department just had a 3% budget decrease. And so, in our budget decrease, the areas that were cut, have to do with contract staffing. And so, there were some limitations in contract staffing, if that is what we need, the other areas had to do with professional development. And so, what we're doing to mitigate that is we're recruiting. So any ASDB member who is looking for a position, we
138certainly have positions posted and we are ready, willing and able to invite them to apply um to a position. So by hiring internally, that certainly helps with our budget professional development. One of the things that we're doing is reaching out to community partners. So any partnerships that have PDs that are available, um we're on board to provide those um to our staff members. And so those are some areas um that we could use some additional support in. Um so we have increased the number of paraprofessional position, speech and language therapy positions um that we do have available to support um any students that we currently have and any incoming students. >> Okay. So there's about 20 students. How many are elementary and how many are high school? Do you know? Um, do you know >>
139about nine elementary and 11 high school? >> Okay. Um so okay I understand what Miss Shaw is saying about trying to keep um students on campus but am I correct in saying that belongs to the state that campus and how would we even begin discussions right >> would it be ready for >> that that belongs to the school year >> that belongs to the state. We would not be able to impose our will on the state to say let us go there. If they did, we would have to add on the additional cost of maintaining another campus uh or a lease cost or whatever it is that those costs would go. Um so yeah, it would be um we'd have to engage the state on that. Yeah, I think it's really unfortunate that ASDB has
140put individuals in this position and now TUSD is, you know, having to scramble and um we're not able to provide the support that ASDB has been giving the students. So, I agree. I'm not I don't think I'm ready to vote on this today. Um I I think we need more time. because if it's I mean if they're stating that there's more students that we don't know about I I I mean I'm really concerned that we don't have the professionals to provide um what our student what the students need Dr. Sha >> go ahead Michelle >> um Dr. Dr. Hill, you mentioned that, you know, it's the state who owns the ASDB campus. And be that as it may, we have often lobbyed uh the state legislature, others board members and former board members who um
141speak to the governor and other higherups in office. And I don't know why we're not pursuing uh this uh partnership with ASDB. you know, we've made we've made other uh questionable purchases of properties and if you know, if we can pursue a purchase of ASDB, if that's what it has to take, if we are going to be um housing some of these students in perpetuity, um then I don't see why it's something that we're going to not even look into. I really question whether or not we're going to be able to pro provide um the right environment for these students. Um especially considering um >> I'm going to ask the audience to please keep comments uh to yourself right now. We're this is the governing board's opportunity to ask questions and to address the issues.
142So I'm going to ask the audience to please no more comments. Sorry, Mr. especially considering um you know some of our history in um dealing with uh populations that need more support. >> Go ahead, Mr. Romero and then Miss Lunar Rose. So during the call to the audience, someone had mentioned um currently at ASDB um they have all the services that they need all within the well all within the school. What are these specialty services that they're referring to? >> Do we? >> Right. So, there's did the teacher for the visually impairement. Um, there's the orientation and mobility specialists, their pair professionals, their brailleists, their interveners, their social workers. So, a variety of services. Um, there's educational interpreters. And then also with that, and I know because I've been on that campus many times, um
143it is a very large campus for if if there's only 47 students on there. I and I know there's also a private school that rents part of that over there. There's also a theater over there. What other uses are is that facility being used for? Do we know? To my knowledge, those are the only uses and my understanding is there are about 125 students total that are currently there and I think it the capacity is over 400 students. >> Okay. So, 125 that are currently there and then I heard some are going to go to Copper Creek. There's some in the AI district, but we're only getting a small amount of 20. Again, I don't understand, you know, where a lot of these other students would be going on here. And I'm guessing not, you
144know, again, I'm I'm I don't know. Uh their enrollment, you'd mentioned can house up to 400. They're down at 125. Are they having the same problem with, you know, uh people coming to that school? I know it's a specialty school for their their their situation, but are there other schools that they have options to go to that are better than ASDB currently? >> That is a good question. So ASDB is the only school that can provide that level of services and support that type of services. So if a parent a student is looking for an LED setting asb. There are some other schools like private schools or charter schools that can provide services that look a little bit different. There's not another school that I'm aware of that would replicate the level and the type
145of services that are available at ESDB. >> Okay. And then for those that don't know a lot of the history of that, you know, without trying to take up time on that, there is quite a bit of history at how we got to where we are right now. Um, and I think one of the biggest things and then I again agree with Miss Shaw and Miss Xram as far as we need to take a step back and look at this because one of the biggest things that I, you know, am concerned at. We don't want to fail because we don't have the right tools in place and and at the expense of our students in an experiment. Um, that's not what we should be doing here. We need to make sure that we uh uh
146uh figure this on out. I know for me personally, I would love to visit the ASB campus before they close for this session and I'll make myself available in this next week or two. So, whoever I need to talk to, please let me know cuz I want to see what's going on cuz I want to really see boots on the ground what we're working with, what we're dealing with here. If we can commit that we can make the proper access for PBLO and Morgan Maxwell, I would be, you know, a lot more convinced if we had commitment and, you know, sign off from, you know, the people at ASDB saying, "Yes, we are doing everything that we need to to make sure that we're ready for these students so that they can excel." all the
147com comments that came from our call to the audience because they do love their students just as well as everybody else and parents do have a choice. We want to, if we're going to take this on, we want to be, again, like I said, not experiment, but we want to have the opportunity to prove to a community that we can do that same level kind of like we do at some of our like at the University High or Madiachi programs or all these specialy programs that we have within our district. How can we also serve that uh that group of of our of our of our student learners um also? So, that would be just one of my other concerns is can we guarantee that we're going to do that? Again, we can't tell the
148state to, hey, give us this, let us rent this, or whatever the case may be. If there's negotiations where we can figure something out out, that would have to be done in a quick type of fashion because if these kids need a place now, we can't hope and cross our fingers that the state's going to say, "Okay, yeah, we'll let you uh rent out a space here for ASDB." We need to be proactive. um and and be forthcoming of what our challenges are going to be. Someone had also mentioned in regards to budget, you know, so we have this certain budget. Are we being realistic? Um are the amounts of money that we're going to need to accommodate this and as we grow in this be able to maintain those things where we don't have
149to like in a lot of our districts have our budget cuts. Can we be budget, you know, correct uh on this and adjust? You know, are we talking about technology? I'm not sure if there's something where we can transfer the the technology that current ASDB has for us to help offset some costs or there's an agreement we can work on there. Of course, I know technology always needs to be upgraded and replaced as far as that goes for those so that they have the best uh uh tools uh to succeed as we need to give all our students. Um, but have we looked at those things also? So, I know there's a lot of things I think that we have to look at first. I just don't want to go into this um thing saying
150we're going to be able to do all this and at the end of the day, oh, we did not look at this. We didn't look at this. And it sounds like you're doing walkthroughs, you're talking, you're collaborating, all those things. But we've run into situations within our district that where we haven't looked at all those things and and that's just my one concern. I love to embrace our students in this community. I just want to make sure we're going to do it right and don't fail them. >> Thank you, Mr. Romero. So, I'm a little confused on the governing board what our position is on this right now because right now is May 12th. Our next school year is going to start in about two and a half months. So, whatever we do tonight, ASDB
151is closing. This campus is closing. You know, it takes years to purchase buildings. It takes, you know, as much time almost to get in contracts to rent a building, let alone the I'm just googling $15 million budget of ASDB that they've had in the past. So, that's not something we're going to be able to do tonight or probably do before the first week of August when school starts up again. So what I'm hearing and understanding is that these 20 students maybe 47 maybe 20 but these students are need a place to get their education in August and before us we have a proposal can you go to slide five or slide six excuse me Jean so before us we have a proposal to to amend our agreement that we already have with ASB not this
152one the one with services and providers to do this and lot of the positions that Miss Sammon mentioned Dr. Sammy mentioned are the positions that are here, all the things that make ASDB special, all the things that they need. So, we'll have approximately 20 students that are blind or visually impaired, and we need a place to educate them and provide services. And so, all we're doing tonight is approving an agreement with ASB that they'll provide these positions and we'll provide those other positions. And the more we wait on this, the harder it'll take to post positions, fill positions, and get things ready for an August, whatever, August 3rd, August, whatever the school day is starts for. Thank you. In just two and a half months. And so I know there's a lot of unanswered questions.
153I have questions about financial things on this front, but like we're at a position now where we have two and a half months to figure out what these how these 20 students are going to get educational services. We're not going to be able to buy campuses. We're not going to reopen ASDB. We're not going to reverse millions of dollars of state funding cuts for ASDB to to change things. All we have control over right now as a as a school district is what can we do with these 20 students that might be coming our way. And so for our purposes tonight, and if the governing board doesn't have a majority to approve this, all we're doing is approving these TUSD provider positions. Are these all new positions, Dr. Sammon? >> The intervenor is the only
154new one. The rest are existing positions, >> right? But they're not filled right now. These are positions that we'll have to hire into to >> some are vacant, some are filled. >> Okay. So, these are positions that we're going to fund to help provide services for these 20 students. >> Yes. >> More or less. And then ASDB finding all these other services. >> Yes. >> So, so what is so so I'll save my questions for Ricky later, but for tonight's purposes, you know, we can have this come back to us in two weeks. we can have it come back to us in four weeks, but then we're just delaying all this even further in terms of how we're going to manage and provide help educational services for these students. >> Dr. Shaw, you just said
155it yourself. You have questions on funding and all of these questions for Ricky. I I think we all have the same questions. If we're not able to fund this from here on out, how how do we maintain this? We don't have the answers to that. I don't think two weeks is an outrageous time to to get the our questions answered and to hear from other members in the community on how to better the school, what we actually need to provide to these students because from what I'm hearing, we don't have um providers in place to even be hired or to, you know, come over from ASDB. So, there's a lot of questions. I just don't think two weeks, holding off two weeks and getting these questions answered is uh is a long time to wait.
156>> Well, Rick is here to answer any financial questions we have. What other questions are we looking to get answered? >> Well, you said you had questions, so I guess I'm willing to hear those. >> Go ahead, Miss Ros. >> Thank you. >> Um, actually, Mr. Mr. Hernandez, I have I do I'm going to pull you up here, sir. And I will start with those questions. So, it's my understanding state legislature put out a bill which was SB1841 was in the Senate and that it was buried in the appropriations bill that Governor Hobbes had vetoed. >> Correct. >> Last week. >> Yes. So in that um she veed not necessarily because to save ASDB but because it was tied to some tax credits for corporations and stuff. So um just play my little game here.
157If we decided hypothetically because I I hear what all my colleagues are saying. I I agree with all of them. like I'm not sure if we're quite ready to take this on, but I'm also um really concerned for these students and where where they're going to be. I understand that their parents, you know, there they have their school choice, but I don't want a lot of them falling through the cracks because it's it's already hard enough to make sure that FAPE is is adhered for those students. So, um, if you can explain to the audience perhaps maybe why um it's not like you're Governor Hobbes, but why would Governor Hobbes veto this bill knowing that um like from a financial standpoint? So my understanding in the communication from the governor to the legislature, it had
158to do with the fact that the the budget bills proposed by the legislature included a lot of conformity requirements to the one big beautiful bill act, right? A lot of the tax cuts that came from the federal government. The legislature wanted to conform the state tax code to conform with the federal tax code, which meant that there were going to be a lot of tax cuts, elimination of tax credits. Um, obviously you've heard about department changes. among them is um like you mentioned in in the bill uh was were two requirements regarding the the ASDB campuses. One is before ASDB is allowed to spend whatever is appropriated by the legislature, they were required to provide the JBC with a report as to essentially what are they going to do with the money that's allocated to
159them. I believe it's the 12 million or 11 million that you mentioned. Um and so they before they're able to access their budget, the legislature has to approve essentially that whatever report they're being provided. The other part of the of the bill um requires the legislature is setting up essentially a school plant fund if you will. So essentially they're they're setting up stipulations for what ASDB has to do when it does have when it is ready to sell its campuses. Um, and it's very prescriptive, you know, in terms of they have to get appraisals and they have to do all of these different things. Um, and ultimately the sale has to be approved by the joint legislative capital committee, which is also made up of the legislature. Uh, and those dollars once they're received, there's
160a specific um requirement for how they're supposed to be used. So, there are requirements around ASDB in regards to their funding. Um, but as you mentioned, the the governor didn't veto the bill specifically because of ASDB. According to her communication, it had to do with the fact that she disagreed with the conformity of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. >> Okay. So, if if they do sell the property, um, what is the Do you know offhand? I What is the cost? >> I I I don't know. um because an appraisal hasn't been done because it's state property right there it it doesn't necessarily have a you know a published market value um it will definitely be in the tens of millions uh I would assume but that again that would be my assumption until an
161actual formal appraisal is completed of the property um however my understanding is that the building renewal costs would be substantial um because of unfortunately the dilapidated state of the campus itself um So, you know, in in during the negotiation process, that kind of language would, you know, if if TUSD were in a position to want to buy this or if the direction of the board were to go to down this path, that's obviously something we'd want to negotiate, right? Because essentially, you're not only just paying for property, but you're paying for the fact that the property is in is in a state of dis disrepair due to lack of investment from the state. >> Okay, I will. Ricky, can you talk about the funding mechanism? I know our our the current proposal here is using
162Medicaid funding. Um, these students currently are at ASB and so they're getting the state funding and if they came to Morgan Maxwell and PBLO, we'd get the state funding. So, is that $800,000 the balance to provide all these positions and other services and other things or is that the total amount that we're proposing it would take to help support these students and their educational achievement? >> Yeah, based on the proposal that that Dr. salmon is put together. Um the the 500 plus thousand is is based on the services of the positions that that are provided here at Morgan Maxwell and at PBLO. Um so those are the estimates based on the costs for those positions. The $300,000 is an estimate based on those essentially the the assisted technology and the building renovation expenses to make
163sure that those classrooms are put in a way that that we can service the students. Um it for all intents and purposes it's seed money. Um because um visually impaired students under state formula generate about $25,000 for a full-time uh position, you know, for a full-time student. Okay. >> And uh hearing impaired students generate about $24,000. So they would because they essentially would become TUSD students, they would generate ADM um at a higher rate uh because of the the added weight that the state form funding formula provides. So in the long run, I mean, there is this potential that the cost of this $500,000 because the 300 is one time um the $500,000 would essentially be then offset by M funding coming in um from those 20 students coming onto our campuses, >> right? 20
164times 25,000 is 500,000. Yeah. So yeah, the proposal is using Medicaid funding, but that's only needed for the onetime 300,000 >> just to the startup >> for the startup costs, technology, >> updates city campuses, and the plan then ongoing costs would be from maintenance operations from the money coming in from the state to support those students. >> That's correct. >> Okay. >> Go ahead, Dr. Trio. >> Dr. salmon. We're talking um exclusive of any Medicaid funding that might be generated because of clinical services that are provided on the campus. Is there any way to gauge like how much Medicaid revenue that would be recurring for those ser Medicaid eligible services provided to the 20 students? >> Yes. So any student um who's Medicaid eligible if they're getting speech and language services. So that is something
165that's billable at a per service rate. Um counseling is one of those items that would be billable at a per service rate. Um any activities of daily living that a student may need support with such as mobility, feeding, grooming, those are things that we also can build to get Medicaid reimbursement for those services. Transportation is also another one that's pretty big um that we can build through Medicaid to get reimbursed for. >> So through Medicaid services, it might be reimbursement eligible. We might be able to be on the road to recouping the onetime $300,000 and get that back into our Medicaid fund. Okay. >> And then so how is so ASDB is now losing those 20 students and the the revenue coming from the state to support them. How are this is a one-year agreement?
166>> It's an ongoing agreement. >> Ongoing agreement. How are they going to fund the ASDB providers and what like how are we going to make sure that they're committed to funding that long term? Like what is that where is that money coming from from ASDB? >> That is a great question. So ASDB would be submitting a voucher to the state for the excess costs. So for the orientation and mobility specialist services or for the teacher or the visual impairment or technology any of those additional costs that are in in addition to what the ADM would provide as be able to submit the voucher and so they would be seeking reimbursement from AD through a voucher system >> that's in state law right now to and that's like a set for next couple of like obviously
167has to be approved every year in appropriations right so we can't guarantee what's going to happen in 2728 But this is currently set for the 2627 school year. >> Correct. >> Go ahead, Mr. Romero. Then Miss Shaw. So going back to working on facilities, how long would it take us if we needed Well, how long would it take us to do these improvements at the schools? Do we have Damon around? What he know? We can go get him. >> He's around here. >> All right. Hold that question. We go to Miss Shaw's question then. Okay. Go ahead. M >> Yeah, we'll give Damon an opportunity to be here. >> All right. I see Mr. Lopez getting him. Okay. >> Yeah. I have a couple questions and a comment, too. um you know if we uh
168fix up uh Morgan Maxwell and PBLO to accommodate um these incoming students, there's still that um concern by uh parents um and other members of the community that uh students will only be receiving um a certified teacher for like one hour and then be integrated and have to have, you know, be taught by a teacher. that doesn't speak their language. That's a major concern. Um I think you mentioned that there's one teacher at Morgan Maxwell and one at PBLO. Is that correct? That will be uh fluent. Right. And so what we're speaking about is our students who are blind or have low vision. So we only have one student who would go to PBLO who's deaf blind. That student doesn't communicate using ASL. So right now we're focusing on students with visual impairments and we
169will have one dedicated teacher at Maxwell and one at PBLO full-time all day um to support any visual needs that the students would have. Um the initial plan would be at least half of the day that students are with the teacher and the orientation and mobility specialist and then based on the IP and the students needs then the students would be with other adults or other providers >> um in uh general education classrooms >> maybe general education classroom maybe like a resource classroom with the special education teacher. Um there are a couple of students that may need a separate classroom all day with a special education teacher and para educators in that setting. >> And so at each of these school sites, it'll be one teacher um one certified teacher dedicated for those students for
170all the grades in K8 and and high school. Is that correct? >> Yes. to service the visual impairment needs exclusively. There'll be multiple special education teachers supporting academics and other areas as well as other related service providers supporting other areas of need. Okay. Thank you. >> We have Mr. Damon, I've got questions for you. So, I've just wanted to find out as far as like a timeline, if we were to move forward on this and say we needed to take a step back, take two weeks before, you know, do some more information on this, how long would it take to do these improvements both at PBLO and Morgan Maxwell. Realistically, give me a high, give the give us a high, give us a low. You know, I understand with construction. >> Exactly. Um, so I
171think we would need to do again a full comprehensive analysis. When we did the initial walk, we took a look at the accessibility issues and the areas that needed to make you where we needed to make improvements. I think we need to take a look at it comprehensively as far as classrooms and needs and requirements. uh low end uh probably five to six months um if not longer because again the biggest components are you know we need to take a look at accessibility and the slope requirements and at Maxwell there are different slope you know it is on a hill so there are different grade levels so we need to take a look at what those slope requirements are what the transitions are so that we meet the requirements for ad or a um ADA
172accessibility which is that 5-ft transition where we need to make uh turns and whatnot uh to meet the slope requirements. So it it's going to be more involved than you know what we initially walked and talked conceptually. Uh now it's going to be more going into it, taking a look at it comprehensively, seeing what those grade differences are, what the slope requirements, how we can transition, you know, and really make it happen. >> And then additional not just to, you know, the the physical aspects of it and I see Mr. Hammadi there in the back also technology are how are we equipping these these classrooms differently? What do we need? Are there extra special technology things that we need to take in consideration? Um, you know, is that's included in that time frame of five
173to six months? >> Yeah. So, when we walk the areas at PBLO and Maxwell, we did take a look at the classrooms, took a look at technology, and took a look at power locations where the data ports were to really provide that opportunity when we did make the improvements, they would be ready uh to use. Now again similar to the on-site you know inside the classroom now it's going to be more comprehensive analysis to see what types of requirements are needed you know specific uh specialty equipment that we need to install in these classrooms. But as far as power uh data ports, you know, we had that uh you know, already identified as well as um markers on the doors uh for to let them know, you know, where they're coming into a classroom. >>
174And then I know we talked about the $300,000 coming on in to prep these, you know, areas for this stuff. That seems again a little on the low end to me, but you know, if we're talking about the the classroom and also technology or is technology a separate thing that we're bringing on in for their the needs of of these students? >> Great question. Technology would be an independent piece. These are strictly improvements to the site to meet the requirements, you know, for ADA, uh, slope requirements and how to get into the classroom. >> All right. And I guess Mr. Mahadi is there. you speak on the technology aspect please. >> Yeah, thank you for the question. The technology at Pueba and Maxwell or any school will be able to absorb any students or any
175devices. The main thing with those devices specifically the laptops or devices they have special software so we can absorb the software and the hardware. it will fit into our infrastructure whether it's wireless or wired or access to the internet or special access and then we'll do an assessment of those devices to see how old they are, how new they are and they will be replaced. So the absorption of technology should not be a problem at the beginning but we'll do an assessment to see moving forward how will be. And then I know they're talking about you know the you know we've had in our schools deferred maintenance on some of our schools and and you know facilities. I'm not sure what the facilities are like at ASDB. Could this potentially be an upgrade for their
176facilities if we were to make these improvements here in these TUSD campuses? >> You are you aware >> when at at TUSD? Will that be an upgrade of ASDB? >> Yeah. As if with our upgrades that we do at Morgan Maxwell and at PBLO? >> It could, but we have to look at the network at ASB right now to see the infrastructure. At TUSD, we have pretty new infrastructure. So, it'll be a solid absorption of the devices. The main issue are the devices themselves, the hardware, software, because you need some special software uh there. But the infrastructure at TSD is pretty is pretty new. But we have to look at the current infrastructure at ASDB to to to do a true assessment, >> right? I know there's a lot of moving uh parts with that
177whether it be the facilities, technology, you know, teachers and and and uh you know, interpreters that we need as far as they go back and this might now switch back to Dr. Sammon on this one. You had mentioned uh uh one teacher for those people uh or for each classrooms. Um what if we run into subs? Do we have substitutes systems on this? Do we hire that out to a separate entity? What does that look like? >> Right. And so we have the ability to have a second teacher for Morgan Maxwell. And so the thought was if we need sub coverage so we can have that teacher available. Um we would also have access to some itinerate staff members who could provide sub coverage especially if we know in advance if it's a daily sub.
178Um, so then we would be really looking at who's available for that day. If we know that it's going to be a long-term absence, we can put in the request for another sub teacher to cover who has that level of experience and certification. >> Okay. So, we have thought this on out. And again, I'm not sure because I know we talk about ratios on so many different things. So many students per teachers and you know talk about nine students in elementary or K8 11 in in high school say this does we do gain more students. What is the proper ratio for a teacher for a classroom with with this special need? >> Right. So, our classrooms that are just exceptional ed or special education students only, they typically have about 12 students in one classroom
179with the teacher and we typically have two pair professionals in those classrooms. >> Okay. And something you had also mentioned earlier was like in high school being able to offer Cte programs to um of these special students. What how would that look if we already have somebody that's you know focusing on the class they want to take the CTE class they need somebody to be there to help again so that the language barrier with the teacher teaching you know well-being or air conditioner whatever that's not what they're prepared to do they're prepared for the trade how does that look >> excellent because the exceptional education department and the CTE department work very collaboratively now we typically provide profession professional development on how to make accommodations. And so that's something that's provided to the teacher. There's
180also consultation with the special education teacher who can help modify lessons, help build in accommodations. If a student needs another adult to make that environment accessible so we can add that to the schedule, they have the adult there at the time of the course if that's needed. >> Okay. I again like I said I want to make sure that everybody has the tools that they need you know not just make this an experiment but make this a successful uh you know uh voyage for the education of of students that without with no you know choice of their own are in this situation and I think being TUSD being proactive on here embracing this as an opportunity to step up our game and be a specialty for our students with the best technology and taking care
181of our facilities um and embracing that that community. Thank you. >> Uh so we've had a chance to ask a lot of questions. What are still any unanswered questions about this project, about the collaboration with ASV to provide these services for the blind and visually impaired students that might be coming to us in a few months? >> Oh, Dr. Sha, >> go to Miss Shaw, then Mr. Extram. My biggest question is if it is a possibility for us to serve these students at the ASDB campus, whether it's via a lease agreement um or otherwise. And I do want to be clear, I I want to be able to serve these students, but I want to do it in the best way possible, whether that's at TUSD um or at the ASDB campus. Miss Extra, >>
182I I'm concerned with um the amount of time it's going to take to do upgrades to Morgan Maxwell. Um we're looking at over five months. I think that's an issue. Um and have we talked to the parents of these students? Are they comfortable with what TOSD is providing for them in terms of curriculum and that kind of thing? I think we need to do more outreach and um and and talk to parents and see how they feel about it. I this is something new that we're doing. Again, I think we need to be transparent. >> Can you talk about what outreach has been done and where we're at with um working with the parents? I know you mentioned some of the >> collaborative things so far as Dr. Trio. >> We sat down with them
183and we made promises. We did and uh doc board member Shaw was there, Sabrina Sammon was there. We promised these upgrades. We spoke about braille and assisted technology. We spoke about braille signage. We talked about meeting their number one need. Their number one request is that their students stay together. They didn't want 10 hub sites. They wanted it just to be two. They wanted their kids to be able to travel together. Okay. So, we have guaranteed them at that meeting that they would get a building walk, okay, before school started, at least 6 to 8 weeks before they would get a building walk to see all of the different enhancements. These are commitments that we made, okay, back when ASDB shut down. Here's where it's at. Whether or not you approve the agreement, the students
184are going to come. That's just that's what it's going to be. It's whether or not we go and do all the hiring for all of the positions noted at the top of the slide and they become TUSD employees and we absorb the er costs employee related expenses or the students get here and we're not ready and we haven't done the hi we commit to doing all this hiring because we don't want this agreement we don't get the hiring done we don't get the structural upgrades done then we have a needs cannot be met situation and we're responsible for private placement. Now you're looking at places like Savvi that's $ 35 $40,000 a year because the needs can't be met. So we have structural upgrades that need to happen. We have staffing needs that need to
185be met with with this agreement or not. We have to go get those positions staffed. Um the advantage with this agreement is it does allow for revenue growing and Medicaid reimburseable expenses. I think all of that is preferable to writing a check to a private sector private placement educational service provider which the best private placement partner we've had we've all agreed is closed asb was wonderful as a private placement provider it's not available so we have now got a decision to make >> right thank you Dr. trio. So, I will um move the item as presented with um the addition that we direct staff to also look into potential options for um purchase or lease of this in terms of a long-term solution. >> I'll second. >> All right. I had a move by myself
186and seconded by Miss Luna Rose. Any other questions or discussion before we wrote? >> Dr. Shaw, >> go ahead, Miss Sha. So, your um uh motion um made it clear that we're going to look into the possibility of um using ASDB campus. >> Yeah, I don't think it'll happen by August, but I think a long-term solution um to see what our options are available. How can we use that campus? Something that the state is even willing to sell to us or lease to us. I think that's something that staff can look into and come back during negotiations during um you know real estate section of our executive committee uh executive session with more information on what what options are. >> Okay. I'm I am comfortable with that, but I I hope we can move immediately
187on finding out the answer to that question because if these construction needs are going to take up to 5 months, then it makes sense just to do one year at ASDB campus >> or if we can lease a building on that campus next school year, then that might be an option that you can get back to it. So, can we report back to the governing board in the next exact session >> with what the options are? And then real quick, I do want to voice some of the things that I learned with the uh visually impaired parents um and their requests. They are concerned that at ASDB they are their students are getting like 5,000 minutes a month uh which is basically all day services compared to in TUSDB like 40% of the time. They
188want a least uh the least restrictive environment according to their needs. They're concerned about the proximity of the two different sites. Um, and they want to make sure that we are replicating the services um, as they are now at ASDB. So, if we can try and do that, um, I think we would all feel a lot more comfortable. >> Thank you, Miss Sean. I'm hoping these positions coming in from ASB, these are full positions there. So, they'll be coming in directly from that campus to Morgan, Maxwell, one PBLO to hopefully provide some of that continuity. They know the kids already and hopefully provide some of that continuity. Uh, Miss uh Hind, can we have a roll call on this one, please? >> Miss Luna Rose, >> yes. Mr. Romero, >> yes. >> Miss Shaw, >>
189yes. >> Miss Extramm, >> I'm going to vote no because we don't have all of the answers. We don't know what teachers are going to be providing throughout the day. We haven't talked to parents. It's going to take five months for Morgan Maxwell to even be up to code. So, I'm voting no. >> Dr. Robbie. >> Yes. Item passes 41. And again, I appreciate all the work. I appreciate all the advocacy. I wish I wish ASD was still around next year, but I think this gives us an opportunity to start working on finding a solution for the students that will be coming to us. But thank you for all the work that you've done over the last couple of months. you and your team, Dr. Sammon, to help find a solution um for August. All
190right. Okay. Okay. So, we're going to move back to item 5.1. We're going to combine 5.1 and uh 810 together. This is um our audit committee annual reports and approval of revisions to the audit committee charter. And we have our illustrious chair of the audit committee, outgoing chair of the audit committee, Miss Derk Alo here to and her son late night here. Thank you for staying so late to uh give the report and talk about the changes to the charter that were recommended by the audit committee. >> Hello. Sorry, just took a nap. Um, thank you for having me. I'm uh very excited to report on our year. Um my name is Derek Ala. I um was voted in as chair in July 2025. So I'm here to report um we've uh um sorry actually
191I had to print out. Thank you. Not as tall. >> Oh yeah, you can hear me better. Um so good evening. Uh so I've had Uh um you know a good year of learning um I my experience is mostly in um government and school finance um over the past like 15 years and so coming into the audit committee a lot of my experience has been with external audits um not so much on the internal audit side. So, um, a lot of opportunities to, um, you know, grow in this position and learn more about the ins and outs of how, um, TOSD works and the, um, in in school finance side. Um, currently, as far as our, um, member count, uh, we are currently at six. Um, the position uh, one additional position open and we
192just added a new member um, last month. and um uh with one member terming out. Um so we were happy to have him for a service. Sad to see him um term out, but it's good to see that he um you know left on a good note. Um uh we do meet on a quarterly basis. Uh but we did hold nine meetings uh this year. Uh we did receive three confidential concerns um over the course of the year. um one related to a concern on violation of the non-discrimination policy um and then two related to a workers's compensation concern. Um regarding our uh internal and external auditors um yes the internal auditor um has been hired still employed um as of I received an email earlier today. Uh so um and that was completed after
193two rounds of interviews um over the past year. Um so we do have our internal auditor as of March of this this year. Um and I'm want to say I'm grateful for the TUSD staff that helped us through that process. Um you know kudos to John and his team on pushing that forward. Um the last time that the internal auditor position had to be hired for was 2019. So kind of bringing up u reviewing the process that was um completed last time we had to hire for an internal auditor. Um another item was uh reviewing with the external auditors the engagement letter um which the board approved for this upcoming year already. Um that's with our auditor external auditors and mech um also we completed the charter agenda. or I'm sorry um charter amendment um
194for the audit committee. Um the internal auditor is also in the process of um updating his charter as well. But before you today is the um audit committee's charter. um last amended in 2022. Um and um the this update um aligns with the findings from that um external assessment of the internal audit um that was completed um some months ago um mostly to get that charter in alignment with the 2025 ex um uh IIA standards. Um so and that's um primarily to kind of we we updated the verbiage. Um so not not just solely focuses on um on uh financial oversight but also um risk assessments and and governance. Um and cleaning up some of the language so that we do um kind of clarify the roles of the the chair. um you know incorporating
195a um onboarding process um how to how members are um required to um ask for items to be added to the agenda um so that we can kind of progress forward and as new members come on it's easier to on board and um they can learn processes a lot sooner um and then mainly bringing it into compliance um ongoing um as I mentioned The internal auditor is um working on updating uh the internal audit charter um also on board policy re revisions related to the internal audit position. Um you know and uh he is working on his um initial 90-day plan. Um again going back to that external assessment um that it was completed um and then updating the internal audit site um so that there is uh um more opportunity for the community to
196reach out and express their concerns um through the to the internal auditor. Um and I just kind of want to speak to the emerging emerging risks affecting public schools. Um and again developing that risk assessment. Um you know public schools is you know impacted by declining enrollments. Um and uh you know competition with voucher programs but you know there's also local concerns with uh even just at the county level where um you know the our treasurers uh uh correcting pulled interest allocations. And so that um with those corrections, it's less being allocated to the schools. Um assessor's office increasing the tax role corrections on their end. Um and um also with the um tonight the county board reported on their audit finding and um just the the lack of internal controls. seems to be at
197the the superintendent's office, the county school superintendent's office. Um so it's even more important that on our level here at the school district that um the internal auditor, you know, ensures that ensures that those funds are being spent um responsibly and also ensures that um we're supporting the finance department with when they have their external um audits and their recommendations. um uh so that we can collaborate and communicate more efficiently. And that's it. And that's our year. >> Thank you. So this is item 5.1, just an information item so the board can ask any questions about the work of the audit committee this last uh year. We'll be turning after this to item 8 uh10 to talk about the charter uh recommended updates. We'll get to that in just a moment. And Derek, I want
198to thank you for your service on the audit committee generally, but as your leadership as a chair of the audit committee this past year, as you mentioned, we went from four meetings to nine because of all the hiring meetings for the internal auditor, uh, two rounds of trying to get someone into the role. And so, we found Mr. Houston uh, for that role and also meeting with him separately as a special meeting to help orient him and get him uh, going with his work. So, thank you for all the work to UD, Derkica, and uh, the rest of our audit committee this year. Uh governing board members, any questions uh about the year and review of our audit committee? All right. Seeing none, Dererica, we'll turn to item stay on the DAS here. We'll go
199to item 8.10, which is the approval for revisions to the audit committee charter and we can get those redlinined. Now you you kind of mentioned some of the changes and why changes were made already. Uh, were there any questions uh from the governing board as to any of the changes to the charter? >> Dr. Shaw, >> go ahead, Michelle. >> Um, I'm a little concerned with the elimination of the superintendent from uh discussions. Um, I'm seeing in several places the last page e uh inquires of the superintendent and other management personnel about significant financial and enterprise risks or exposure facing TUSD. seems like a conflict of interest to uh eliminate the board's only technical employee that um um you know uh gives us information. Um there's several places in the revisions that eliminates the superintendent.
200Um and I think it's important that he stays a part of this conversation. Um well the the intent wasn't to eliminate the only um employed uh person on the the charter. Um the intent was just to kind of broaden that scope to um you know we directly serve the governing board. Um I believe the verbiage is kind of brought into you know board administration um governing board and board administration but I'm open to >> discussion on that. >> Thank you. cuz I assume the management personnel that um will be um inquired through um you know they may be heads of departments that are under um review and so I just think we need to keep our superintendent part of the conversation >> conversations have been through our board liaison um so um I think in
201the emails that sent to Trillo have been responded to. Um I don't think that removing him negates that opportunity, but we do have a board leazison that we've primarily just communicated through. >> I think the intention for this is that you know my in my three years as a audit committee member before I was elected to the governing board as well as as on board service as a audit committee liaison and and Mr. Romero who was before me in that role can speak to it as well. I don't think the superintendent ever attended any of these meetings. Um, you know, we're the eyes and ears and this is for us as a governing board to do our role better and uh management personnel can include superintendent if needed of someone that reports to him. But
202our I think our intention with this is to keep management personnel involved in this process and making sure that the uh audit committee can do the work of the governing board or just the eyes and ears of the governing board on the ground with these issues. Go ahead, Miss Len Rose. >> Turn that on. Hi. Thank you. And I don't want to keep you any longer than I need to, but I I do have a question. Um, if I'm reading this, um, the audit committee in alignment with the governing board policy shall have unrestricted access to information, personnel, and records necessary to fill its responsibilities consistent with applicable laws and regulations. Has this um, and I was looking at, you know, I've been looking at the copies here, but um, I'm not sure if I
203still feel entirely comfortable with that to be honest. um just because these committee members are um are essentially our committee members. Uh we're the governing board and I and I think that's where it ends and I just don't feel comfortable them having some access of course to be able to do their voluntary duties but not unrestricted access. I'm having an issue with that. Well, it but the verbiage to align it with district policy and through governing board is in added in there. So, it's not a you know any charter or any committee member can request access directly through uh you know an employee. um those channels are still in place where it still has to abide by district policy and um it's a request that we're making through the governing board and in each uh
204audit committee agenda there is a section for audit committee members to request information and so that goes through the chair uh the board leaison's aware of it so if there's any issues of any member of the audit committee uh this is an audit committee has shown up at a school site requesting information uh but this is going through the channels that exist and that's the the the process that's in place currently for any member of the audit committee to request information. So I think the intention is to make sure that the staff understands that the audit committee as the as of the board's committee does have access to information. There is a process in place and the governing board if uh a audit committee member is going beyond what we expect an audit committee member
205to do in terms of getting information or accessing information then it's our responsibility to make sure that we are addressing that with the audit committee member and with the position either political positions that we have on the audit committee and make sure we're addressing that. >> Okay. >> That does that answer your question and yeah you feel comfortable with it? >> Not necessarily but appreciate the answer. Mr. Romero. >> So a couple things. First of all, actually when I was the board leazison, Dr. Trillo did visit us for a meeting. So thank you very much uh for for coming to one of those audit committee meetings. Um you know, I know when I was uh there on the audit committee, one of the things that or the liaison, one of the things we were talking
206about, you know, right now it still only meets quarterly. Um before I became the leaison when I first got uh involved with the audit committee from what I understood for the two years before there was maybe one or two meetings because they couldn't even meet quorum uh on that we were able to move that and with the assistance of being there for Martha Smith who was in that position for the internal auditor at that time where we're were able to revitalize that audit committee you know and I know most of the meetings that we were doing other than the beginning ones they went excessive. We ended up breaking it down into two 2 and 1/2 hours. Now just one of my issues is with the amount of work that the audit committee does to just
207do uh you know four meetings at 2 hours um you know unless we're doing it as long as it's going to take only an 8 hour commitment. I I think that's doing a disservice for the uh um committee that's volunteering their time. Um when I was there, most people wanted more meetings and we had actually pushed for a charter amendment to do, you know, 10 months during the school year and take the summer off. I believe it's something that we had talked about um because especially working with the internal auditor, there were a lot of things that were happening. And I know we had Ricky Hernandez speak at some of those meetings too and he was a lot more involved and the audit committee was able to ask more questions. I just don't think that
208only four quarterly meetings. I think we need to have at least double that. We need to have at least eight meetings however that figures on out should be. And then I'm always also just curious as far as for this um revision uh for the audit committee charter. How was the vote from the uh audit committee uh split on this or was it >> um >> unanimous? Yeah, it was unanimous. Um when during discussion there was only four um recommended changes um that was asked for and this version presented before you concludes those four changes. Um but regarding the number of um meetings that we have that did come up as a topic of discussion um actually uh at the beginning of this fiscal year and um it was voted that we would keep it at
209the four and add um add meetings as needed. Um just recognizing that you know it is a voluntary position. We want to encourage people to try to come in and attend these. Um requiring a monthly, it seems to be a big ask. Um so we add um just like this year I mentioned uh we've met nine times this year but um only required for four. So I I think the committee's you know committed to you know do those additionals but I think monthly requirement would be a little too much. Thank you. Great. Thank you. I'll move the item as presented. Second >> item moved by myself and seconded by Miss Extramm. All those in favor say I. I. >> I. Any opposed? >> No. >> Any abstensions? >> Did you vote? I I didn't hear
210you. Abstain. Abstain. Okay. Item passes 311. Thank you, >> Derkica, for all of your work and for being here so late to do present this. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Okay. Let me see where we are on the agenda here. So that was a D on here. We finish that. So this takes us back to the beginning for consent. Then we have um the expenditure budget revision number three. And then I believe Dr. T will be moving 9.2 and 10.1 to the next meeting. >> Yes. >> Would recommend those final two items move uh to the 26th. >> Any objections? All right. I'll take you on some consent for that. All right. Want to go to our consent agenda. We already did 6.3. So we have uh 6.2 uh 6.4 4 through 6.19. Dr.
211Trillo. >> Yes. Uh the administration does recommend uh governing board passage of the consent agenda as presented and arranged. >> Governing board members. >> I'd like to pull um 6.14. >> Okay. 6.14 is pulled. >> Mr. Romero. Uh pull 6.9 and 6.11, please. All right. 6.9 and 6.11. Are these pulled for separate votes or just for clarification questions? >> Uh, for nine, I need a an 11 of a separate vote, please. Right, Miss Lose? >> Um, just more of a comment on that one. >> Okay. Do we want a separate vote on 614 or we just pull it? >> Um, we can do a separate vote. >> Okay. Can we also have discussion on 6.14? >> 6.14. >> Yes. >> Okay. All right. So before us we have consent agenda 6.2, 6.4 through 6.8, 6.10,
2126.12, 6.13, and 615 through 619. I'll move that. >> I'll second. >> I moved by myself and seconded by Miss Rose. All those in favor say I. >> I. Any um opposed? All item passes 5-0. All right, we'll go to 6.9 approval to use request for qualifications. So this is Sabino High School building F fire sprinkler system. >> So the only reason I want to pull this is I have done business with this company and I want to abstain from that vote. >> Okay. I appreciate that. All right. There's no questions then. I'll make the motion for this item. >> I'll second. >> All right. Item moved by myself, seconded by Miss Luna Rose. All those in favor say I. >> I. Item passes four with one absention. >> Thank you. >> All right. And
213we have 6.11. >> Yeah. So my only thing is on that and I understand this is just for um devices you know going into some of our schools um with a donation from from Verizon. My always uh concern is a lot of times they're looking to renew their contracts with our schools and on their campuses. And it's always easier um when uh when a supplier gives nice donations and gifts for us to approve those towers. And it's not like I don't like uh those free gifts for our students. It's just um something that I still stand behind. um regarding the uh cell towers on on our school property. So, I just wanted to vote no on that one. So, I just wanted a separate vote. >> Okay. No questions or any comments or anything on
214that. >> Okay. I'll move the item. >> I'll second. >> All right. I'll move by myself and second by Miss Luna Rose. All those in favor say I. I. Any oppose? >> Opposed. All right. Item passes 41. Thank you. >> All right. We'll move on to item 6.14. Miss Luna Rose, you pull that item. >> I did. I just wanted to make um a comment on why I am uh I will be voting yes on removal of audit committee member Mr. Blackshshire. Um there's a a lot of reasons and and other board members including Dr. Shaw who is on the audit committee liaison as a committee as I can go into detail. But my reasoning are is the fact that um and I and I did request transcripts of this meeting um dated April 15th
215that um he uh alluded to the fact that the reason why we were losing students in this district was because they were uh undocumented. And so um and there's a quite a lengthy discussion between him and CFO Hernandez about it. Uh and I did not appreciate that. And within the same meeting and and these transcripts are available. So if anybody's interested in reading them, I'm not going to uh read everything. But the second thing he said which I find um also abhorrent is when he was um uh voted in as the co-chair um he well I will read this because the immigration part is is lengthy but this one I will read. Mr. Blackshshire I cannot be chair because I cannot read things out loud. Remember I'm the special needs kid. And so to also
216say that these people that are on the committees that we appoint, they represent this board, they represent me and I will not be associated with somebody who will um badmouth our students in any fashion. And so there's other reasons why um uh he is being uh we are considering his removal, but those are my uh two big ones. There's other things that he did concerning open meeting laws and sort of those sort of things um that are also um he should no committee member including governing board members should be doing but those were the two things Dr. Shaw that um they represent us and if there's somebody saying that in the community in these meetings um I just I cannot. So I will be approving his removal this evening. >> Dr. Shaw, >> go ahead.
217Miss Cha. >> Um Mr. Aronoff, can you speak to the other issues with this member? >> I can speak to those if >> Okay. >> you want them. Okay. Okay. So in terms of the immigration issue, I'll I'll defend that because all he was mentioning was that his concern about enrollment loss in the district related to uh us having undocumented students and all the immigration crackdowns and what that means. So I I will defend that. But there are other issues that um that brought this to the governing board. Uh one of them there's four specific issues. One of them was open meeting law violations which I think is the most uh pressing issue. uh we know that we don't we can't have a quorum of board members to discuss any item and that includes over
218email discussion and there are multiple instances I have just 10 that I have saved of uh email communication sent by uh the committee member uh to a majority uh a quorum of the audit committee discussing issues like enrollment and other things over the course of uh over a year and that was the main a significant uh issue uh of of concern of open meeting law viol viations. The other one was attorney client privilege violation. Uh Mr. Blackshshire forwarded something that was designated as attorney client privilege from our lead attorney uh to community members and that was a concern as well. Uh number three was uh communication with external auditor. Uh he sent an email communication to I believe a dozen or 20 members of our external auditor, people that not even working on our case
219at all and tod asking questions. uh that was forwarded on to us from uh one of the lead uh individuals at our external auditor firm uh with concerns because they she had never experienced that before. Uh and then four was also outside communication including uh to media um on behalf of his role as an audit committee member um not sanctioned by the governing board. Uh so on May 5th, excuse me, March 5th, uh myself and the chair of the audit committee met with uh Mr. Blackshshire to discuss these issues uh set expectations uh about those issues and uh since then uh there's further examples of again opening viol violations in April of sending a majority quorum of the audit of committee uh information via email as well as external communication to multiple members of our
220external auditors. So even after discussions with him in March about these issues, uh there's further examples of him uh continuing to do the behavior that we asked him not to and that's the reason why I brought this to the governing board for dismissal. Go ahead, Mr. Romero. So I I wrote a email asking Mr. Areronoff be uh if we had a policy in regards to removal of members of the board advisory committee and uh basically what he said the closest thing was um something BDFA which is describes the board's authority to create such committees um but we don't have a policy in place to remove board members um to describe discuss also disciplinary actions or um like when we do with um for like principles or teachers, we have a corrective action or some process
221that we go on through. And Mr. Aronov, I don't know if you can speak to that as you know, this, you know, isn't a a norm that we have in this situation, but we don't have a policy. Should we have a policy with these types of things where we have the documentation? We had this meeting. We had, you know, corrective action. This was was put in place. This was your warning. Um, and then that way we have documentation of this, not just for this certain situation, but all situations. So, if you can speak anything to that. So you have as a board the inherent authority both to appoint and remove members of your advisory committees that that I think in here is just in your statutory authority. Um it's correct that at this moment you
222don't have it you don't have a policy that lays out uh a detailed process for that. You certainly could. Uh you could also have it included in the committee charters um or bylaws. Those are also um we don't really have bylaws for our committees, but you could have it in the uh in the committee charters as well. And I've seen charters that include those sorts of removal provisions. Um that's up for you as up to you as a board to decide whether you want to lay that out in more detail. Um, but you do have that inherent authority and it's just a matter of making a decision on when it's appropriate as a board, >> right? And then again, we have a bunch of examples and situations here. I guess my also biggest thing is
223anybody else not just sitting on the audit committee or but any of our other committees if they again speak out in a certain way are they going to be up for removal because of something that they said that maybe someone disagreed with? I understand the open meeting law thing. What is like currently if if a board member does you know violates an open meeting law what's our first penalty? What's our second penalty? you know, from what I understand, uh, you know, you can start getting a fine, I think, after the second time around, like a $500 fine if I'm not mistaken, as far as on that goes. Um, so there are rules already in place for when you're doing those types of things, but we didn't go through that proper criteria, you know, disciplinary. I
224guess that's my concern. Anybody that's volunteering for these positions, including us over here in our committees, how can they be removed? How easily is it for them to be removed and can they speak out on certain things? And again, we understand we put them there to do a job for us to speak on our behalf or to bring things up to maybe our attention that we don't know about. Um, again, I think just having that clear clear line and having a policy that writes these things out so it's not like, well, you said something that's not right. Well, here's our policy. You know, we you're getting written up and here's a corrective action. You know, you've you're on a 30-day probation. After that, we have a discussion. You know, and if it's a second violation,
225you know, you're automatically out. So I just think to keep it clean and not on a a individual basis type of thing moving forward. I think it would be advantageous for us to at least have a discussion regarding a policy for removal for for um committee members. Thank you Mr. Moro. I'll move the item. >> Second item moved by myself and second by Miss Lar Rose. >> Go ahead, Miss Sha. >> Yeah, in line with Mr. Rome's questioning um Correct me if I'm wrong, Mr. Aronoff, but a committee member, whatever he said, is he protected by the First Amendment. And so are like that's not something we should even consider, right, for this item, what he may or may not have said during a meeting. >> I think if we want to get into conversations
226around First Amendment protections and board impact, that probably should be at an executive session. >> Understood. So, it's been documented that this member has violated open meeting law. Did we reach out to the Arizona budsman and um submit a complaint which I believe is the proper uh you know jurisdiction to handle open meeting law violations. >> I'm not aware. I don't know the answer to that. Okay. I mean, you know, violations of open meeting law are serious. It's something we're all subjected to, and I know we did meet with this member and let him know that he's in violation. I'm not sure why he continued to do um or to communicate in that fashion. Um it is concerning, especially the fact that he shared privileged information um with community members and who knows who else.
227Um and so I mean I do think we need to have a policy about this like proper procedures if um the board or um our appointed committee members do continually violate um you know the laws that they are subject to when serving on a open meeting. So, um yeah, I'm that's why I am going to uh vote to remove this member. Though I know they did good work, I just seems like they're at this point um working against us and not even willing to um follow what we're all subjected to, open meeting law. So that's like rule number one. >> Go ahead, Mr. uh Dr. Trio. >> Just procedural note, we have our interpreters on contract till 10. Okay. So we're going to lose them at 10. So we don't want to cut off accessibility
228for our guests. >> Thank you. >> All right. Item moved by myself and seconded by Miss Extramm. Right. Okay. Okay. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? >> Abstain. >> Uh item passes four with one abstension. I will say um final on this one that this is not an employed position. He's not an employee. He's a political appointee by our school board for a committee of the school board. And so it's it's up to us to to regulate this and manage this as we seem fit. And if anybody wants to come up with a policy and write a policy and bring it to the governing board, I think that'll be a great idea. All right. Our last item tonight is going to be our um budget revision. Uh Dr. Trillo, we
229have item 7.1 public hearing. I don't believe we have anybody in the public hearing. Miss Hine. >> Yes. I'd like to welcome our chief >> financial officer with our budget revision. >> One of the uh few times that we do have >> I do remember us adjusting the budget up. So would we do the public comment before Ricky's presentation or after President Shaw >> is agenda is before so we can do it. >> You want to do the public comment before the presentation or after? >> Let's do it now. >> Okay. So uh public participation during public hearing for the fiscal year 2526 annual expenditure budget revision number three. Members of the public may speak during the FY, excuse me, 2526 annual expenditure budget revision number three, public hearing portion of the agenda. The board
230president or 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 FY226 annual expenditure budget revision number two. Speakers are encouraged to be brief with a maximum speaking time of 3 minutes. Individuals speaking before the board shall observe rules of propriety and good conduct and refrain from impertinent or slanderous remarks. Reminder, uh, contents of each card are public information. We have one speaker tonight, Miss Liian Fox. Excuse me, Miss Lillian Fox. I'm not Miss I am Ms. But you don't have to use the address. Okay. Superintendent Trillo, President of the board, Ravi Shaw, board. Um, I think you're in desperate need of a forensic audit. There have just been too many
231mistakes in the budget. I've never seen anything like this before. I've disagreed in the past with the way TUSD spends its money, but I've never found mistakes in the budget. You've had so many mistakes, it's unbelievable. Uh little things like the budget for last year didn't come out until September. They were still working on it well after the year started. And then it turned out that there were no budgets for the elementary schools in the budget and the budgets for the departments had no FTEES. So the real budget didn't come out until December. Now, your CFO has tried to persuade you that he doesn't have to show you the budget book. That is just something that some cranky board member required a long time ago. No, the board budget the budget book is your budget.
232It says budget on the front and it always has your names on it. So, your names were put on the 225 one when you never saw it. It was never presented to you. The budget this year had a $30 million mistake on the budget on the budgets for the elementary schools. So, it made it look like they were being cut by like $35 million, which was wrong. And then he told the CFO told you that once you adjusted for the K6s and the K5s, everything was okay. No, the K5 still got a budget cut. Um, furthermore, this year's budget, the there there two budgets. There's the expense budget that goes to the state. It's really just a report. The FTEs in that are different than the FTEEs in the budget book. And furthermore, the FTEs
233in the budget book are not the same number as the FTEEs in the appendix. That is impossible. you were told, "Oh, it's because we didn't have the we the the appendix was just for the the filled positions or the unfilled positions. Who knows?" And uh it's because the coaches weren't there in there because they haven't been hired yet. And we just let go a bunch of subs. Subs and coaches are not FTEEs. They're stipens. They're never counted in the FDE. So, you were told a bunch of garbage. Um, furthermore, you've got that unexplained million-doll thingy over here. That's a huge percentage of budget that's they're claiming or he's claiming is uh furniture and equipment, which is impossible. It can't be true. Um, you really need somebody you can trust to go through the budgets and
234figure out what's really going on. Can you really trust somebody to make decisions about how to deal with a deficit you have when they can't even produce a budget that's accurate? >> Time. Thank you. >> Am I done? Thanks. >> All right. And that concludes our public hearing. Uh turn it over to Mr. Anandisen to go over the budget presentation tonight. >> Okay. I will do my best to do this in six minutes but no promises. Uh so this is budget revision number three. Uh this is the last revision uh of the fiscal year. Um there is no budget book for this because we do I do not produce a a budget book for revisions. Uh but you will have one for the 27 adopted budget. Uh so just a quick overview. Um there is
235not a significant change in a 100th day average daily membership from the last time I was before you uh back in December. Overall the decline from 25 to 26 is still 3.6%. Um when you include preschool students which are not you know we don't receive funding for preschoolers uh unless they have uh a disability. The decline is actually more like 4%. Now weighted student counts which I'll talk about in in a little bit more detail are you declined less sharply than the overall student counts because uh we have an increase significant increase in students with high needs and and I'll talk about that a little bit more. Um budget revision number three as Dr. Trujillo mentioned does include an increase in budget capacity of just over $4 million due to an error from the department
236of education on what's called nonfundable intervals. So during uh the first semester of the fiscal year, there was a duplication and this was a statewide era. There was a duplication of non-funding for students who exceeded the 10% of attendance in the first 100 days and students who had an absence block of 10 or more consecutive absences. Those things should not have been happening at the same time. So because of that correction in the error, this increased the weighted the waiting of those students and the ADM that we were receiving. Um so there is a a significant change due to an error from the the department of ed that my understanding will be addressed in the future by the department. Uh a quick update on student counts. Um so overall enrollment trend analysis uh we have
237a decline of just under 1500 ADM with the largest concentration um is in the 11th grade. uh juniors were the largest cohort of students that we lo we we lost followed by first graders and eighth graders. As we've talked about in the past, transition years continue to represent the largest areas of student loss. So when you take a look at sixth graders from last school year to this school year, we lost 3.7% um of sixth graders. Those sixth graders in the new K6 are now seventh graders. So there was not an increase in enrollment in sixth graders year-over-year. Freshman students or ninth graders also had a decline of 2.3%. Um this is you know the transition from middle school to high school. So even though the enrollment declines are not evenly distributing distributed there are
238some schools that have shown some level of stability um when we we kind of look at the different cohorts. Um I won't read through all of this detail but I I'll cover the main topics. There are instability in the early grades. So we continue to have declines uh particularly in in the first grade. So that we're seeing melt happening from kindergarten to first grade at a decline of 8%. Um and I mentioned the three schools that were impacted the most. We have what you know what I've kind of termed leakage uh from middle to high school. So eighth graders, we continue to have a decline of eighth graders and freshman uh nth graders at the high schools. There's high school upperassman attrition. So 11th grade had the largest decline of students. This is generally when
239students will leave TUSD schools due to credit deficiencies and we'll look at alternative options for credit recovery generally outside of TUSD. And so this reinforces the concerns around trying to strengthen our credit recovery and our dropout prevention efforts particularly with upper classmen um as they are tending to leave in the 11th grade to try to make up some of those graduation recovery uh credit recovery. Um now we do have definitely you know some stability and some risk levels around two cohorts right we've got some stable growing schools which show that they have multiple grade level increases positive uh overall enrollment trends and potentially stable feeder patterns. There are six of those that you can see right there. Um at the top of the list is Wakefield Middle School um has had a year-over-year increase in
240its enrollment. this you every single one of those grades has seen a significant increase to the point that we have had to open up additional physical classrooms. Now on the flip side, we have high concern in critical decline schools. These have experienced multiple grade losses, overall enrollment decreases and and and it certainly creates some pressures around staffing. Um top of the list right there uh are SU Booth Vickett and Dulan. um Tucson High and Catalina are two high schools that have seen that as well. So th this is definitely something that we need to focus on as to why some of these grades are losing some of those students. But again, if we look at the cohorts of eighth graders, of sixth graders, and of juniors, that is why you're seeing some of those middle
241K8 and high schools as part of that critical decline in schools. Overall, the decline, like I said, is just under 1500 ADM, which is a difference of $7.8 million loss. um year-over-year. And so, as part of our planning process, at the beginning of this fiscal year, we had already incorporated about a 2% loss in in our budget. And so, really, we were only having to absorb another 2%. Um, but now we are definitely well under 40,000 ADM. Um, definitely under 40,000 students in in terms of headcount. Now, weighted student counts. This has kind of been a debate that that I had um with our audit committee uh in regards to the fact that even though we're losing headcount, the weighted student count is really what we're paid on. And the weighted student count is ultimately
242it it it addresses specific weights for different needs of students for different grade levels, program participations. And so when you take a look at the weighted student count, there really is a 2% decline. Weighted student count is not the same as student enrollment or average daily membership. Those contribute to weighted student count, but they're not the same thing. Graphically, you can see this that you know from FY22 to 26, there was an overall decline of 2.8%. Um, now the largest decline came from last school year to this school year, but when you take a look at FY22 to FY25, the decline is less than 1% between those three years. the greatest declines continue to be in the K8s um versus the high school grades. Uh we continue to see some level of stability in high
243school compared to the to the lower grades uh across the district. Now, even though we're seeing declines in what what I term as regular ed, the overall which is driving our overall reduction, the high need student populations continue to increase. We had a 94% increase in the cohort of of students who are identified with with a with a disability or special education. The largest increase are students in preschool with severe delays. That had a 69% increase in those students. So even though you know and and there are multiple ones, another one that's outside of special ed is is English language learners. So we saw an over 30% increase in students who are English uh who need English language development in TUSD. So even though we're seeing declines in students, we see the fact that we
244have more resource intensive student increases in the district. So we're finding ourselves having to focus more resources on students who need them uh because they have higher needs and higher demands on our budget from a financial update. So what's changing uh as you know I if I can talk you know answer any questions in regards to all of those but this is kind of what contributes to that 4.1 million dollar increase. So again although the overall ADM decline the student weight accounts and the student need categories increase the budget capacity in revision number three. Uh so as as you can see these are different categories of students that have now contributed to an additional $4 million to our budget capacity as we close out fiscal year 26 which is definitely you know it bodess uh
245good news because what is changing so one of the things that that we are that I am uh changing to the budget is I am reversing uh $4 million in that capital to M transfer. So, because M is increasing, the need for a full $10 million from capital to M is unnecessary. That will allow us to move money back into capital. Um, which is kind of a a start of a trend because for next year that that transfer will actually grow even more. Um, where we're going to leave $7 million in capital versus transferring it to M. Uh so this definitely bodess you know moves in the right direction especially as this is one of the items that the auditor general uh looked at as part of our high risk uh the fact that we're
246decreasing our dependence on some of this capital in our operations. Overall though there there isn't much of a change outside of those two ships. Um much of the other the dollars remain stable. there was a transfer between capital DG and capital M and that's just the fact that departments are spending more on capital than they are on the M side of DEG. Um overall it's 60 still $63.7 million as it currently stands. Now overall the entire budget uh will move towards uh almost the $800 million figure across all funds. The most significant increase is in bond building. Um so we closed our latest bond sale uh in late April. um we issued $150 million in bonds to start our next wave of projects. And so as we close out the last fiscal year, this will
247kick off some of those projects that will happen over the course of the summer. Um that is $23 million. Um as we move towards the annual financial report, you will see and obviously I will come back to you that even though this is this may be budgeted in furniture and equipment, that is not where it's being spent. and you will see essentially what those categories are. Um the budget is a plan. Obviously, the annual financial report will actually provide you with those expenditures once the time comes. But overall, we're moving $37.6 million in uh in an upward trajectory from the December revision to May. Any questions? >> Dr. Michelle, >> thank you for your presentation. Could you speak to the um question about the furniture and equipment? Uh according to a staff member at the
248um auditor general, um we need to appropriately code transactions in accordance with the uniform system of financial records for Arizona school districts. Um, and he goes on to say, um, he's not aware of a state statute or Arizona administrative code that would require district to code bond purchases to the account codes for furniture and equipment. >> Right? It is not a requirement to code it specifically to furniture and equipment. The reason we do that is because we in the finance department, we don't know what projects ultimately the bond oversight committee is going to approve as we move along. Some of those may be in equipment. Some of those may be in technology. Some of those may be in construction. As those projects move, we con we post budget adjustments. This is a normal ordinary course
249of business that we conduct which is why we have budget revisions three times a year. So as we even though we budgeted those you know millions of dollars in in bond building ultimately the expenses are coded exactly where they happen. So when technology is purchased, they will be coded to technology. When we buy non-instructional software, that's exactly where they'll be coded. When we conduct the uh for example, we're going to put out new uh turf out at Sawara High School and Choy High School this summer. They will be coded to construction services. So I'm completely aware, obviously being a certified financial officer, that I know that those have to be coded to the right codes. That's exactly what happens. The budget itself can be coded anywhere within within the allowable coding structure for that specific
250fund. Right? So yes, we code them there because we don't know what projects are going to be approved in the month of May when we developed the budget in July. So we will we adjust those budget numbers as they happen, but they are ultimately expensed exactly where they need to take place. And I'm happy to share that ledger with the board at any time. So, the furniture and equipment code, it looks smaller than it was at the beginning of the year >> because we're buying things that are not furniture and equipment. Ultimately, the b the bottom line budget is staying the same, but they're being moved to the categories where they're actually being expensed. Um, and that is, like I said, that is a normal practice of this of of this district and every district
251is to perform budget adjustments as those things are needed. For example, as I mentioned, DEG capital. When departments who have DEG need to spend more in capital than M, we will perform a budget adjustment that moves budget capacity from their M budget in DEG to their capital budget in DC. >> Is there not a more appropriate code to code these funds in the meantime? >> I I mean, if if you all feel more comfortable that you want them, for example, in construction services, we can put them in all in construction services. Um, if that the the one thing I want you to be aware is that when somebody comes here 12 months from now and tells you, well, now you've got a, you know, $87 million in construction services, I mean, it like ultimately year-over-year,
252it it's going to be a difference of something. So, the consistency in sticking to a number or to a specific object code is better in order to have comparative purposes from one year to the next. But if you feel that you want this to have to live somewhere else, I'd be more than happy to take suggestions on object codes. I just want to make sure that 12 months from now, I I can remind you of that change. >> So AI and Flowing Wells and other school districts are using this specific code for their bond. >> They may use that code among other ones. We use this one specifically. Other school districts, they may code it any which way they want. We're given a specific coding structure for bonds, right? So, we can only code certain
253things to the bond building fund. Where we allocate those dollars is entirely up to us. They're correct. The the person who came up to come up before me is correct. There isn't an administrative code, which there isn't an administrative code on school finance. Um there isn't a state statute, and there is the USFR that mentions how we're supposed to be expensing. What the auditor general staff mentioned is we are supposed to code exactly where those things are being expensed though we're coding exactly where they're being expensed. So for example, we'll move $23 million out of that furniture and equipment line item to you know domestic waterline improvements which are construction services projects for example. >> Okay. Don't we have an estimate a rough estimate of where this bond monies are going? We have a we
254can develop a rough estimate, but it's not broken down by year. So, what I receive from the bond department does not tell me this is how much they're going to spend. So, it's always going to be a fluctuating number. I can certainly go back and say, break it down for me on what you think it may be. >> Okay. Thank you. >> I'll move the item. >> Second. >> Item moved by myself and seconded by Miss Extramm. All those in favor for the approval of the revised uh number three budget say I. >> I. Any opposed? Item passes 5-0. Thank you. >> And then governing board we'll move item 8 uh9 as well to the next meeting uh because of the hour and thank you for staying late interpreting services uh tonight. >> All right.
255And Dr. Tio, last item is the future meeting agenda items. Yes. Um, President Shaw, governing board members will be back on May 26th with the items that we moved off of tonight's agenda and then we'll also be um presenting to the board our uh strategy for absenteeism and truency interruption on May 26th. >> Great. Thank you. That will conclude our meeting tonight. Thank you everyone for staying late. I'll talk to you later.