001A couple more It's kind of like I've Hi, Miguel. I'm doing it again. Testing. One, two, three. Testing. And once more, Miguel. Testing. One, two. Testing. Testing. It You Hi Diego, this is Jean. checking in from the governing board meeting. The governing board is running a little late. Can you hold on just for a few moments? Maybe a few minutes. >> Thank you. >> [music] >> Shut up. Hey, you know what? I mean, I even We are It gives you advantages. I don't know. But but I think See, I don't Thank you. And then or if you think of something interesting terrified. It's one of those people like What did you say? That's great. as well. Yeah. >> Hold it first. This is a child. All right. Good evening everyone. We're going to get our
002meeting started. Uh, today is Tuesday, January 27. On this day in 1880, Thomas Edison filed a patent for his electric light bulb. So, thank you, Thomas Edison, and thank you for all the lights we have tonight. Just 8 years later, the National Geographic Society was founded. And on this day in 1926, the first television broadcast was demonstrated. And if today is your birthday, you're in good company. Uh, with January 27 shared with Wolf Gang Amadeas Mosart among others. And finally, this is near and true to my insatiable sweet tooth. Today is National Chocolate Cake Day. So, I hope you have a family doctor approved moderate slice to celebrate today. Uh, Miss uh Baro, can we leave a roll call? >> Miss Extra >> here. Mr. >> here, >> Mr. Rometo >> here, >> Dr. Rob
003>> here, >> Miss Shaw >> here. >> All right. And for our land acknowledgements uh statement and our pledge of allegiance, we have Diego Jimenez. It looks like you're on Zoom. Hi, Diego. Bye. So, Diego is a fifth grader at White Elementary School. Diego is a two-way dual language student and a member of the White Elementary student council. He is currently one of the representatives that reads the daily announcements. Diego is in White's advanced mariachi group and has been for the past three years. He is a leader in his classroom and with younger mariachi students. He is a tang talented guitaron player and also sings during performances. uh White truly appreciates his leadership at their elementary school. And Diego, thanks for joining us today to lead us in the land acknowledgement and a pledge of
004allegiance. We can pull up the land acknowledgement and start with that. On behalf of the governing board of the Tucson Unified School District, I gloves acknowledge that the schools, buildings, and facilities of the Tucson P school district reside on the ancestral home of the o or nation of fedally recognized tribal tribe. >> Great job, Diego. Thank you. Can everyone please stand for the pledge of allegiance? I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Great. Thank you, JGO. Have a great rest of your evening. Thank you for joining us today. >> You're welcome. >> Dr. Trio, uh, what agenda adjustments do we have this evening? Yes. >> Uh, President Shaw, members of
005the governing board, uh, we do have an agenda adjustment. We're recommending that item 9.1 move directly to follow the call to the audience uh, for our guests from the auditor general uh, come this evening. >> All right. Any objection? I'll take us with consent to make that agenda adjustment. And we'll turn it back to Dr. Trillo for our awards and recognitions. >> Yes. Uh, President Sha, members of the governing board, uh, as always, uh, we are very very u excited to present uh, our opportunity here to highlight student [music] and staff excellence. And I couldn't think of a better way to get it started than beginning our recognitions by highlighting the outstanding artistic accomplishments uh, coming out of the Sabino visual arts community. I want to thank uh Sabino visual arts teacher Michael Spire for
006his wonderful work out there at Sabino High School. Michael's reputation for nurturing exceptionally talented visual arts students is recognized throughout the state at Sabino High School. He teaches both 2D and 3D art, incorporates mural projects, exposes students to professional artists, and teaches gallery display. all while instilling in students a lifelong creative process. His students works are consistently featured in the annual uh University of Arizona Art Museum's Our Stories exhibit. Tonight, Mr. Spy will introduce Sabino graduate Savannah Aramos Smart, who has earned the prestigious Arizona Seal of Arts Proficiency for her in-depth visual arts project centered on fashion design. Mr. The stage is yours. Thank you, Dr. Trillo. Thanks to the school board for this opportunity to spotlight the work of a talented student. And thank you, Dr. Ashcraft, Leon Miller, and Tom Lewis for assisting
007Savannah with this special presentation. For three years, I have had the privilege of being Savannah Ramos Smarts visual arts teacher at Sabino High School. In a moment, Savannah will be sharing some highlights from her Arizona Arts Proficiency Seal Project. The body of work, born from her own personal interest in fashion design and global cultures, celebrates the art, architecture, traditions, and other intriguing details of the world's people through her vibrant fashion designs. While Savannah's paintings are pleasing to the eye, you will see there is much more to them than mere decoration. Her layered process includes research, experimentation, practice, and revision. Most importantly, Savannah's work exemplifies the kind of effort students across Tucson Unified undergo when earning the Arizona Arts Proficiency Seal. [applause] Thank you, Mr. Spear. And I want to thank the board and Leanne Miller,
008Joan Ashcraft, and Tom Lewis for allowing me to speak tonight. Um, it is an honor to be standing here. Um, I will be presenting one of the pieces out of eight from my capstone project. This is the one based upon Egypt. So for my capstone project, my artist statement was driven by my passion for fashion and fashion design and my curiosity about its connection to people around the globe. Uh since I was young, I was always inspired by fashion and designing outfits and even hosting runway shows for my parents. And through this investigation, I found that fashion is a powerful tool for identity and how it reflects cultural diversity. I aimed to understand how global fra fashion trends throughout history influence both individual and collective identities within a multitude of cultures and traditional ideas. So
009this piece I have displayed here is called stone and silk which is based upon Egypt as I said and here we have it's based upon classic Egyptian ideals architecture mostly and mythology. This piece was the one that was exhibited at the University of Arizona Art Museum as you can see my label right here. Um, yeah. So, here we have some of the process photos. I started off with a base layer of white paint and then I went ahead with a golden yellow base of acrylic and then really just laid out the background and created the figure out of charcoal from that. I had some inspiration for this piece uh again mostly on architecture. So, at the bottom of the dress, it's supposed to represent like Egyptian columns and the sandy look of the Sahara Desert.
010Um, on the main picture, we have more of a storytelling here, but for this representation, we just put some designs. It's a little bit different. On the back, we have a scarab. It still has the scarab, but it has a silk golden fabric. And then finally, I have all eight images from my portfolio uh that shows the diversity in my project and the different places I chose to do my pieces from. So we have Germany, New York, Louisiana, Greece, Thailand, Russia, and from my own culture, Puerto Rico. And that's all. Thank you. [applause] We didn't know if you'd like to see the back of the dress. We can just turn it so you can see it. >> So, this was a piece that she did after her capstone. We display [applause] and uh Lisa Ramos
011Smart, if you would do us the honor of posing for a picture with us, we would really appreciate that. Congratulations on your achievement. >> [applause] >> moving on to more student excellence. We have a couple of champions in the house uh from RingCon UHS. We'll start first uh with our University High School uh chess champion. And tonight uh we are congratulating uh Evan Yin who captured the individual state championship in chess. Evan improved on his stellar performance from last year when he placed second and defeated Arizona College Preparatory Academyy's Jaden Lee who is attempting a historic third consecutive title. We also extend heartfelt thanks to coach Daniel Vulman who guided the RUHS chess team to a second place team finish in the state and devoted countless hours to coaching, mentoring, and transporting our student athletes
012to competitions throughout the state. Congratulations to the champ, Evan Yen, for bringing excellence to the game of chess and bringing UHS or its latest champion. So, let's give Evan a round of applause. [applause] And the Penguins yield yet another champion on the tennis court. So, congratulations to UHS senior Vic Narendrren who defeated his who defended his boys singles tennis state championship with a historic repeat and a commanding victory over Hamilton's Max Shang at Scottsdale's PO Racket Center. Victor becomes the first UHS back-toback state champion in boys tennis history and boys single singles competition. It is a phenomenal achievement. I remember being here a year ago and celebrating his first state championship. I am very proud of this athlete uh coming back and defending his title. A special congratulations to coach Greg Arnold for leading Vicram
013to continued excellence. Evan and Vicram, let's welcome these champions up at front for a photo. Give him a round of applause. [applause] Our [applause] Next, our next acknowledgement and celebration of excellence. This is another great example of how our Tucson Unified Schools root themselves in the community and go so far and so far above and beyond just educating our students, but actually caring for our students, families, and the surrounding community and neighborhoods they serve. you. For more than a decade, Ken Blanchard of Edward Jones has led an annual food drive to benefit Interfaith Community Services Food Bank. now in its second year partnering with the Tucson Unified School District. A friendly competition between two uh principles, Bonius Elementary and Kelland Elementary, sibling principles, Angela and Frankie Shiron, has actually now grown into a really meaningful
014tradition. Rallying students, families, and staff around the shared goal of helping to feed our community and to combat uh food insecurity in our community. This year's results were nothing short of inspiring. The team from Bonas, Bonius Elementary collected 1,455 lbs of food, providing 1,213 meals. Kelland Elementary collected 1,86 lbs, equating to 1,5 meals. Together, the schools donated 3,261 pounds of food, helping to provide 2,718 meals to families in need. Interfaith Community Services expresses deep gratitude for the generosity, energy, and the heart shown by our TUSD schools, both Bonius and Kellen, especially for the way that this effort instills compassion and service in all of our students. We also want to recognize Ken Blanchard for his long-standing commitment to this cause. Although he couldn't be with us this evening, we do look forward to recognizing him
015at a future uh governing board meeting. Congratulations to both schools, their families, uh and staff. Generosity is making a huge difference for our community. So, let's go ahead and have Angela and Frankie, our principles, Mr. Shani, Michon, if you're here, come on up for a picture. >> [applause] >> to conclude this evening. Uh this month or actually the last couple of weeks uh saw the kickoff of the annual TECAP program, the Tucson Korea academic exchange program. Uh it is a program that truly embodies the spirit of uh global cit citizenship and cross-cultural learning. Uh for more than a decade, the Tucson Korean Ambassador Program or TCAP as we call it here in TUSD has really connected Tucson Unified Students with students from Ulong and Yangyong Gun to beautiful communities in South Korea, fostering meaningful relationships
016rooted in cultural exchange, language learning, and mutual understanding. Each year, students from South Korea travel to Tucson, where they stay with TUSD host families and attend school alongside our TUSD student ambassadors. They share experiences. These shared experiences, they extend beyond the walls of the classroom through daily routines, cultural traditions, and most importantly, lasting friendships and relationships. This exchange is truly phenomenal. Uh RTUSD students travel to South Korea where they are hosted by Korean families and immersed in Korean schools, communities, and culture. For many of our students, this experience is transformational, building confidence, global awareness, and a deeper appreciation for diverse perspectives. The impact of TCAP reaches far beyond travel. It does enrich our schools, strengthens international partnerships, and leaves a lasting impression on students, staff, and the host families across our district. Uh I can
017uh share with you my experience uh participating in TCAP a few years ago and actually serving as a sponsor. Uh at this point, uh my site administrative days and my teaching days are well behind me. So I had to get used to being responsible for um supervising a small group of students and actually serving as a chaperon. So that took some getting used to. But it was so much fun to be uh in South Korea and to enjoy the beautiful hospitality of the delegation from uh South Korea from the two communities. Uh always very very supportive, wonderful experience, wonderful uh experience of South Korean culture, food and friendship. And I really just to put it in perspective, remember the first question I got from one of the students that was in my group that I
018was chaperoning when we landed in Seoul. The first thing she said is, "Can we get dominoes?" And I said, "Well, there's there's no dominoes here." So that kind of gives you a perspective of just how new of an experience it is for our young people to go overseas and to experience life in another country. So here to here to introduce our TCAP officials from South Korea. I think is one of the hardest working people we have in the district. She's very passionate about this program and also very passionate about her work in the Asian-Pacific Refugee Student Services Department. Uh I'd like to welcome Miss Jun Lee who will recognize uh members of our Korean delegation here uh this evening. Miss Lee. [applause] Sure. >> Okay. I will. Oh, actually they left already for high school
019people. So, um we have about uh three people. >> Okay. So I would like to introduce um our officers um Miss Sun. Would you please come up please? [applause] She is a teacher from Yongyang County. >> And I want to introduce Miss Kim. Oh, actually she is not feeling good today. So I want to have Mr. at Miss Kim Yong a she is a team leader from county [applause] and I want to introduce Mr. Lee Chu, he is an official from Yongyang County. [applause] I want to say sorry uh Mr. Park Cha um he is not feeling very good so he cannot make it tonight but we had the other um regions um actually be with us la till last week Mr. Kun, Mr. Yu Chang, Miss Kim Chang, and Miss Chong Nam for your
020information. Thank you. [applause] As we conclude the call to the audience and before we leave uh um awards and celebrations, a note on a little bit more of a serious tone. Uh we'll hear a little bit more uh at our next meeting on what our Tucson Unified School District administration is doing to ensure the safety of the students that we serve uh in the face of the current federal immigration enforcement actions. I think all of you in the community will remember about a year ago uh we were very very public in our stance that any law enforcement official number one must identify themselves uh at the gate of any of our schools and then number two they must provide a judicial warrant that still stands. Uh we have not changed that stance. Uh that is
021standard operating procedures the guidance we've given all of our principles. Uh before any law enforcement official does enter our campus, we do need a judicial warrant and we need them to identify themselves. That has always been our experience when working with law enforcement partners, TPD or Puma County Sheriff's Department or any law enforcement officials we've ever um interfaced with. We require a badge, we require identification, we need to see your face, and we need to see a judicial warrant. That has not changed. Uh with that being said, we also recognize that beyond our school walls and beyond our campuses, our ability to keep our families and our students safe pretty much ends. And so we hope that all of our uh parents and all of our families and all of our community members really work
022together to understand uh what our families need in terms of information, services, and resources as they potentially have to navigate difficult situations. Uh we will also be talking uh in the coming weeks about what we would do uh in the event that we would have some kind of a large-scale disruption uh near our schools. Uh we'll be working with our team on some emergency planning to make sure that we have a proactive plan uh in the event that there are disruptive incidents in our communities that impact the daily operation of schools and how that emergency plan would keep our families and our employees safe. So though we're here to celebrate student and staff excellence, I do recognize the challenge of these times uh and we will be working with our association leaders and our administrative
023teams and our campus principles to put together some proactive planning in the coming weeks. So certainly want you to look forward for more information at upcoming board meetings. But with that, I'll turn it back to you, Dr. Shaw, as we conclude awards and recognitions. >> Thank you, Dr. Jill. And um I think we all appreciate all of the communication that will be coming out from our district office to make sure people feel heard and safe during this these times. Uh I want to thank all of the award winners uh that were recognized tonight. I think you all remind us on why we are proud to be TUSD. Uh I want to big shout out to our chess champion because I still have my chess trophy from my youth. So you are in good company. Something
024I am still proud of and still show my kids when I'm being an annoying parent. So, thank you very much for everyone for your awards and recognitions tonight. Uh, I'll turn it over to my uh fellow board members for our monthly board member activity report. >> Want to go first? >> Wait, Miss uh Luna Rose, go ahead. >> Okay. Good evening, everyone. Thank you. Oh, this is kind of loud. Okay. Echo, echo, echo. My apologies. I will stand sit back. Uh, so good evening. Thank you for joining us. Um, we haven't had board activity reports since December, so this is going to be a little lengthy, but I'll go as fast as I can. Um, I would like to, um, I took a tour of Tuva, um, which is located on the Catal Catalina campus,
025um, and see what they're doing and got to sit in in some classrooms, virtual classrooms, um, and, um, see the exciting things that, um, TUA, which I think is a program that came out of, uh, a challenging time that has really been able to serve our community well. So, uh, thank you to teacher Sarah Dinley and principal, uh, Michelle Sigipus for the invite. Um, I also attended attended winter gr winter graduation, which actually happened to be at RCON this year. Um, and thank you to Mr. Orena whose team always puts on a wonderful um, celebration um, of uh, both the winter and summer graduations. I've uh as the board liaison to the budget uh advisory committee, we've had several meetings. Um and we do have an item on the agenda tonight. Um also I took
026a tour of Safford Middle School. Thank you to Dr. Katherine for uh taking uh busy time out of her day. She also invited me to give out awards to the students of the quarter and um the honor role. So, uh, that was fun. Um, I also met with, uh, student relations, um, to kind of go over what they're working on and what they plan to be doing for the rest of the year and into the summer. Uh, so, thank you, Anna Warbrand, uh, the director, and again, Mr. Orna overseas, uh, for, uh, taking time out of their day. Um, I finally did um the um I did a school bus ride and I took a tour. I got up super early, got to um the central location, which is off of Plumber and Broadway, and
027uh rode the bus with the kids uh to it was the Wheeler Elementary line. And um it was it was early, but those kids were very energetic and all they like to still talk about is 67 the whole bus ride. >> Oh. >> So it hasn't gone away on the elementary level. Just letting you know it was a the whole ride too by the way. Um but thank you to uh the transportation director Martha Zamora, her staff, William and um bus drivers and the monitors. They're part of the heart of TUSD and we couldn't do and the district couldn't do without them. And so um and they're there early. um they're the start at 3:45 in the morning and then the second ship comes in and they probably don't close up till like 8:00 p.m.
028at night and that's not including the special games and stuff and the buses for events. So, um that's almost a 247 operation Monday through Friday. So, they they are um fantastic people. So, thank you for all your work. Um I also attended the um uh bond oversight tour at Davidson Elementary. Um met up with Dr. Carter there and we went over some projects. Uh so um they are also doing uh great work across the district. So it was interesting to sit sit in that meeting to talk about what projects will be coming to Davidson soon. Um, I am also now on the schoolboard alliance network through Save Our Schools Arizona. We had our first meeting over the weekend uh to connect with other like-minded schoolboard members um and what we can do to get more
029funding from the state legislature and um also what's going on um here at home uh with uh federal agents. So that was a very fruitful meeting. Um, and lastly this morning I met with the Latino student union uh at Ringcon High School and they are a fantastic um group of kids who are really dedicated to what they believe in. Um they are um I think as we become adults we some of some of us forget that um these students are they're the ones on the ground. They're the ones that are going to be living with the policies that and the votes that we take. And so without them I mean why are we here? Why are we here without acknowledging what they're going through? And it's not an indoctrination. They are smart. They're smarter than
030the rest of us, this generation. And I say this as a daughter, somebody has a senior at the same school. They are uh inquisitive. They ask questions. They're not afraid. Um and so uh I really appreciate them uh inviting me this morning. I did not get any of the pond dulce. So you owe me Dennis one. Um, so, uh, they I'm I'm hoping I would like to see whether it's Latino, African-American, um, what have you, kind of replicate at some point across the districts like like-minded students, uh, they care and they care about their the beautiful thing is that they care about each other and they care about what's happening at their school and about what's going to make them safe, but also, you know, um they want to bring to adults what's happening through
031their eyes. So, I really appreciate their advocacy and um that's all I have this evening. >> Thank you, Miss Lar Rose. We want to go next. >> I'll go next. >> All right. Go ahead, Miss Xram. >> Thank you. It's been a busy couple of months, so I will try not to take too much time. Uh my family and I attended the TUSD magnet showcase at the children's museum. It was wonderful to see so many schools, magnet schools out there, showing the community what they have to offer. I also attended a Booth Fit K8 tour. Thank you to Principal Vienna for um the tour and explaining everything that goes on at Booth Fit. I was also able to visit um RUHS, Ringcon and University high schools. Thank you to principal Ron Hill and principal Welch
032for giving me the tour and for the discussion. Uh we were there for quite some time and I really appreciate that. I also attended the Ruby Bridges Walk to School at Linew Weaver. Uh I was also um at the renaming ceremony at the Davis Romero Bilingual Magnet School. Um that was a great event. They had mariachi's come back from as long as I can remember to perform. So they had a lot of mariachi alumni there which was really great to see and they had um Dr. Rometo's family there. So it was a wonderful event. I got to tour Bloom Elementary. Thank you to Principal Bruning. I toured Dulan Middle School. Thank thank you to Principal Santine. Paulavery High School. Thank you to Principal Brock. I also went to Miller Elementary. Thank you to Principal Sable.
033I attended the bond advisory committee meetings and I had my first health benefits committee meeting yesterday. I also completed the save our schools schoolboard fellowship program the first cohort um and that was months of um meeting with fellow uh governing board members from throughout the state. Um I also attended the TUSD food services tour of their new uh newly renovated facilities. My daughter and I were able to take a tour of the facilities and try out some new food. I was also a judge at the Monzo Elementary great cooking show. That was wonderful. Fifth graders were able to um come together as groups and they cooked different foods for us. We had Garnetta tacos, burritos, chocolate chip pumpkin cookies, um a chocolate chip pancake with a strawberry sauce that was really amazing. Um the salsas
034that they made were out of this world and they all they all had to choose an ingredient from their garden from the Monzo garden to put into their cooking. So it was just a really fun event. Um I toured Catalina High School. Thank you to Principal Dr. Gonzalez. I went to Tuva right after. Thank you to Principal Sigus for showing me around Tuva. I went to Sabino High School. Thank you to Principal Amadan. I got to see their wonderful new um football turf turf. I also went to Vessie K6. Thank you to Principal Ure. And I was also a judge for the district spelling bee. Um I was a recording judge which was really a great experience. And I also attended elementary school basketball games and the MLK basketball classic. And that concludes my report.
035Thank you, President Extramm or Board Member Extramm. Oh, here I forgot. Mr. Romeary, you want to lead the way or Miss Shaw? I'll go next. Good evening, everyone. Um, I attended the winter graduation along with Miss Luna Rose, uh, where the keynote speaker was Miss Ramos Smart who, uh, presented on her capstone project today. She was, uh, just as brilliant, uh, at the graduation as she was today. So, it was great to see her and all of her artistic work. Um, I also attended the alternative education advisory committee, uh, where I sit as the board liaison. I want to congratulate our new chair, uh, Miss Felicia Chu. Um, and I look forward to all the things that she will bring as chairwoman of that committee. Um, just another plug, we do have a lot of
036vacancies on that committee and other board committees. So, if you're interested in serving, uh, please check out all of the vacancies by searching TUSD board committees. Um, I had a conversation with the TEA president about an item that came to us, uh, at our last meeting. Uh, so, thank you, uh, Mr. Burn for your advocacy. Um, I also spoke with a parent from Davis Romero uh concerning an issue that um her and other parents are having over there. Um, and so I appreciate the heads up about that. Um, let's see. I attended the MLK celebration at Reed Park. Thank you to the organizers for that. It was great to see so many familiar faces. Um, and unfortunately with my work schedule, I was only able to uh visit one school this time around. Uh, but
037I stopped in at Craig Elementary. I really wanted to check in on their leaking roof. Uh, which was an issue I saw last year when I went to campus and it is still an issue now. And so I do encourage our our bond oversight to committee to uh check out that problem and uh please address it if we can. um and facilities to also um take care of that issue because you know it's it's been a long time coming. Um and that's it for me. Thank you all. >> Thank you Miss Sha Mr. Romero. >> All right. So again finishing off last year starting into this year um with Miss Extra and actually Dr. Heal the great Monzo cooking show going to go every year. It was phenomenal. Those kids did a phenomenal job. Also
038met with Dr. Carter and bond oversight members at Safford K8 with principal Kathern Uh went out with GAP ministries and coaches for charity. Delivered over 100 Thanksgiving meals for families at a few of our QSD schools utter Mission View and OOA. We also stopped by Apo Apollo in the Sunnyside District and Santa Cruz Catholic School. attended the food services open house. Uh met with Dr. Carter and bond oversight members at Wright Elementary. Met with principal Jaketta at Howland Elementary. Met with principal Chris Jackson at Hollinger K8. Met with Dr. Sammon, senior director of exceptional ed. Met with a two T Westd hero and principal at Henry Elementary, Tom Heminger. Met with assistant principal Alonzo Bailey and teacher Sarah Arnold at Tua. Met with assistant principal Brooks Son at Lime Weaver. Christina was out sick that
039day. met with principal Eileen Gallow Soul, uh, principal Carla Martinez at Manfield, and thank you very much for the, um, board appreciation cupcakes to sweeten my visit. I also did some market research and traveled out of district to Morirana, met up with a Morirana superintendent and visited one of the Morirana middle schools. >> Great. Thank you, Mr. Romero. I'll conclude our uh, board member activity reports. Uh back in December I had a chance to visit five schools including four elementary schools. Su thank you principal GA for the tour introduction and then um Howell Elementary School. Thank you principal Alexander. Uh I got to tour Whitmore. Thank you uh Principal Figureroa and Craig uh Principal Gutierrez for uh the introduction to those campus. And finally in December I had a chance to visit Palo Verde. I've
040been there so many times. That's my first time uh during the actual school day. Uh and thank you Principal Brock and the student ambassadors for the tour. had a chance to speak to a number of staff members as well. And with that tour of Palo Verde, I was able to took me five years, but finally visited all of our physical campuses as a schoolboard member during the school day. Uh, and I'm really glad I got to do that um over the course of my my first five years on the governing board. Uh, in the month of January, I had a chance to visit Tuva. Uh, thank you to testing and ELD coordinator Denlay and principal Sigus for uh the invitation and the tour. uh and had a chance to uh be a judge for the
041Anna Henry Science Fair uh which was cool seeing the projects uh and giving some feedback to the amazing work over there and thank you CSP Moans for the um for the invitation to do that. Uh and then finally uh as a board leazison to the audit committee we had our meeting last week where we reviewed a lot of the information some of which will be presented tonight uh by Mr. Hernandez and also uh talk more about our internal auditor position and applicants. So excited to hopefully come to the governing board with them with the finalists in the next couple of uh board meetings. All right, and that will conclude our board member activity reports tonight. Uh and then Miss Luna Rose, I'm going to turn off to you for our call to the audience. [clears
042throat] All right. Good. Good evening. Again, members of the public may speak during the call to the audience. The governing board clerk shall be responsible for recognizing speakers and for maintaining order where it 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 have not completed the request form are not permitted to address the board. The speaker must state their full name and topic prior to addressing the board. Speakers are encouraged to be brief with a maximum time of three minutes. While more than one speaker while more than one speaker may speak together in the time allowed, speakers are reminded that they are not allowed to speak more
043than 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 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 that there may be children present and listening. At the end of the call to the audience, the governing board president will ask any board member 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
044address each topic. And our first speaker this evening is Dale Eugene McLaren. checking. That's loud. This is Dale Eugene McLaren II. My oh God, how do I say this? My issue is with what happened right after winter break. [sighs] Hundreds of students had been unenrolled, myself included, over the long break. This happened most likely because the bot that is in charge of actually dropping classes and whatnot was not turned off during the break. This resulted in both self-paced students and teacher-led students being dropped, unenrolled, unable to log in to anything, not even to the website itself. That is unacceptable, especially for the teacher-led students who cannot access their schooling without a teacher to guide them. This is the equivalent of just unenrolling students over break for zero purpose. As it stands, there's only two ways
045to solve such an issue. Increase the unenrollment period to 15 business days or 21 calendar days. Alternatively, measures are to be put in place that the bot is to be turned off during longer breaks or indeed is coded to not count days where the students are not to be involved in school. It is to that extent that I will not be an victim of this again because I will be walking in March or whenever that happens. It is for the future I speak for this. No other time, end time. Thank you. Next is um Dennis Ayala. >> Check. Good evening members of the TSC governing board. Thank you for allowing me to speak tonight. My name is Dennis Siala and I'm a senior at Ringcon High School and the president of Latino Student Union. I'm
046here today because of what happened on our campus with Turning Point USA. It was not safe and the way that it was handled by the adults made it even worse. TPUSA is not a student club with opinions. They are a national political organization known for provoking students and creating hostile environments, especially for students of color, immigration, and LGBTQ. When they were on our campus, many students did not feel safe. I know this because students came up to me personally, students with immigration status, asking me if they were safe, asking me if ICE could be called on them, asking me if being seen or recorded by TPSA officials could put their families or them at risk. No student should ever have to ask those questions or ever have to feel that way on their own campus.
047This fear is not imaginary, but one of my own classmates family was deported by ICE and she is no longer with us in this country. What is happening is real. This is personal and when organizations like that openly support ICE that are allowed on campus only interfere. In moments like this, students look for their adults for protection. But I want to specifically recognize and direct our attention to to a teacher. His name is Mr. Jeffrey Frensung. A teacher who is responsibility is prioritizing students safety and remaining professional during all times to protect all students. Funstone failed to do that and he involved himself in heated political confrontation in siding himself with an organization. That behavior puts their students at risk. And this is not the only instance Branson has a history of discriminary behavior towards
048his students. Many students have experienced and witnessed bias statements from him and he makes no accommodations for ELD students and this concern has been raised and nothing has been done about it. Teachers should never use their authority to indiminate students or push political beefs. When educators take sides in political conflicts on campus, they create fear and disrupts the students and they should never feel unsafe around adults who are supposed to protect them. I'm asking the board to take this seriously and to re-evaluate policies that allow outside political organizations on campus. hold staff accountable and when their actions put students in danger and listen to students of color and immigration status and students we deserve schools where we feel safe, respected and protected right now. That's not happening and it's your responsibility to change that. Thank
049you. >> [applause] >> Next is uh Avana Martinez speaking. Hello, my name is Hello and good afternoon. My name is Aviana Martinez. I am the secretary for Latino student union and also a student at Ringcon University High School working alongside Dennis Ayala to discuss similar issues today about staff or about things on staff and you know campus. So first thing I want to mention is I'm trying not to mention names that much and I'm going to try to go as quick as possible but Mi who is a black Muslim student was suspended. I first want to mention the argument him and Jeffrey Franone had. The argument was about Turning Point USA and about the teachers political opinions which he shared while hosting Club America on campus which like Dennis Ayala said hosted Turning Point USA.
050I also want to mention the fact that a white student was featured in this argument and the white student was not suspended. And I again I wanted to mention that Jeffrey Franone was recording the students without permission. And there were also people including the sponsor from Turning Point USA on campus last Thursday who were recording students in the heat of the moment in order to kind of mock students and make students angry and show them that kind of their opinion didn't matter and laugh in their faces. Teachers were recording students in the heat of the moment including Franone. I want to emphasize Francon's importance in this discussion. So I first want to mention Tam. Francon would pick at Tam last year and I want to emphasize that Tam is a foreign student who is not
051from America. Francon teaches refugee students and Tam was one of the many examples of this teach of the teachers discrimination towards minorities on campus. He refuses to accommodate ELD students. Turning Point USA and America Club on campus were calling students who are using their first amendment right, borderline terrorist, in order to kind of make them angry for being able to use like I again their first amendment right. Franong teaches earth and science which has nothing to do with ICE or politics. This isn't unreasonable and this is unreasonable and not fair game at all. His political opinions also violate USD policy when it comes to sharing his own political opinions. Again, this is totally inappropriate. And again, one thing I want to mention is that he was showing students videos of Charlie Kirk and Charlie Kirk
052debate saying that students should be more like him and which is totally inappropriate because he is uh because he does teach earth and science. I believe all students deserve to have a place on campus unless it hurts people. The letter of the law is not always right. Following the law doesn't mean that it's ethical. meaning that even though we're following TUSD policy and allowing students to speak, it is not ethical to let hatred on our campus, especially on such a diverse campus with that being Ringcon University High School. And I also want to emphasize that just because you have a plan doesn't mean the plan can change since we had just had a walk out that Tuesday about similar issues, which me I would like to emphasize my disappointment in both Miss Welch and Mr.
053on Hill who are the principles of Ringcon University High School for not being able to accommodate these issues knowing what how this would end in a way and we just all deserve to have a platform to talk regardless. BUT >> all right, next is Lillian Fox. My name is Lillian Fox. Uh, good evening, President Shaw, members of the board, Superintendent Trillo, and uh, Yolanda Barbboa. Now, I'm going to try to be organized tonight. Um, tonight you're going to hear about declining birth rates. TUSD is enrollment is declining a lot because it's an uncompetitive school that doesn't do a good job of educating kids. Uh when TRA was hired, TUSD was proud to be the second largest school district in Arizona. It is now the third largest school district and CFO Hernandez has assured us that
054very shortly we will have shrunk to the fourth. That is not because of declining birth rates. That's because we're failing to keep the kids here. Parents tend to try to who are moving here try to put buy houses in school districts that are high performing good school districts. They don't buy them here. And the parents and families who do live here, too many of them eventually send their kids to charter schools or to better schools in other districts. That shouldn't go on. We need to be a competitive district that does a really good job of educating kids. Currently in TUSD, 73% of our kids are not proficient in reading and writing. 77% of our kids are not proficient in math. That's horrible. Um, you know, it's just wrong. And we have a part-time superintendent who
055hired a political science major to be the CFO of this district. This is a district with almost an $800 million budget, 7,000 employees, and I think still 40,000 students. I'm not sure. And so, as a result, in the last two years, you have gotten two letters of non-compliance with USFR standards. That has never happened before. You can look at the auditor general's website and as far back as they go, this is the only time to has gotten letters of non-compliance with standards. Furthermore, we have two people from the auditor general's office tonight to talk to you because now TUSD is identified as a high as being at high risk financially. That also has never happened before. We've um it just shouldn't happen. You also have a proposal to renew uh Dr. Trillo's contract for another
056three years. He's been here seven years. That is more than enough time for him to have made some improvements in the district. We have steadily gotten worse, not better. Um you need uh highly qualified, good superintendent who has some ideas and plans about how to turn this district around and how to work on the problems we have. We can't afford another three years of just kind of dwindling away. Thank you very much. Next is Par Adan. Adajan. No. Okay. Um, now, uh, Regina McLaren. >> Good evening. I am Regina McLaren. I'm a parent of Dale McLaren. He currently attends Tuba Cole as a self-paced student and has for about five years now. Um, I'm pretty sure Miss Sadi at least recognizes us. We've been up here a few times. Uh we are concerned because my
057son not only got dropped from his classes, the instant winter break was over. He got disenrolled altogether and it took two weeks to get reregistered and all of his classes restored etc. Meanwhile, he was planning on meeting with the spec coordinator via Zoom on Tuesday, which would have been the 7th, right after school started again. but he couldn't because his whole file was gone. Him and several hundred other students, a mixture of self-paced and teacherled, got dropped, not just dropped, disenrolled. They had to reregister every one of those students. Uh, a litigation-minded family would probably try to take the legal route because that is not good. There's no reason for that to have happened in the first place. Um, I agree with my son that the drop rate in the system should not be 14
058calendar days. It should be 14 or 15 business days or 21 calendar days. That would cover the long winter break. Now, I asked specifically in the PTO meeting when Miss Sigus was president, the first PTO meeting for the school at the beginning of the school year. And I'm like, you know, winter break's pretty long. what are we going to do about this drop period? I was told specifically that that feature would be turned off during winter break. Obviously, it wasn't. The ball got dropped somewhere. Um, in addition, my son was blamed for him being registered because he didn't log on first thing Monday morning. Apparently, all these kids got dropped and unregistered because they didn't make tracks to either log on during break or after break. It didn't matter. My autistic child has a active
059504 plan and has had for several years. He missed out on two weeks of his education. I mean, he was sitting with Lisa on Zoom just chatting with her the twice a week that he meets her, but he missed out on his two weeks of education because he couldn't even access his classes, much less get onto the website. That goes for all the students. My son's walking this summer. We don't need to worry about him anymore, but he's concerned about the future if we can just train the AI better that runs Synergy or whatever the devil's you guys are using. Thank you and have a lovely rest of your evening. >> Thank you. Next speaker is Cameron Rodriguez. Thank you for listening me speak. I'm Cameron Rodriguez. I'm a teacher at Rencon High School. I'm
060addressing civil rights compliance and retaliation. Last Friday, I filed a federal retaliation complaint with the Federal Department of Ed's Office of Civil Rights. I offered the board the chance to resolve the civil rights issues I raised with them five months ago, twice before I filed. Ignored. My federal complaint details five non-stop months of retaliation from TUSC that have left me permanently injured. Ignored. I wrote directly to President Xramm and Sha, Dr. Shaw, with serious civil rights concerns back in September, ignored. I even had a personal referral from Adelaide Graalva, but still ignored except for one promise to look into things from Dr. Shaw, after which I was ignored. TUSD's signature tactic. When even Representative Grahava's word could not get this district to lift a finger, I understood something painful. TUSD was not going to help
061me. TUSD was not going to help anyone. After I filed OCR, the response from TUSD was, "The audience will enjoy this. We won't do anything until Trump gets to town." Exactly what Tucson families and children want to hear. Why should a teacher have to turn to Washington DC just to receive basic medical care? I had no choice. Nobody from my own democratic city would talk to me, having thrown our congresswoman's referral into the garbage. Is this what elective elected office is for in the city? To ignore local harm until the Trump administration forces you to act. Representative Graala has spent her life building trust in this city. But somehow in TUSD, that trust means nothing. And if her name means nothing here, what does that say about this board? Maybe the people in these chairs
062believe the community won't notice. Maybe they believe the reputations can survive anything, even this. Maybe they believe a disabled teacher can be ignored forever. Maybe it means I'll be forced to come up here a fourth and fifth time, this time in a wheelchair. It only took one year out from the USP before the board and district leadership invited them right back in. I ask the community to take what I said into account when the vote is put onto the floor to extend leadership's contract, especially given leadership's statement of support for families against federal reach into Tucson. Thank you. [applause] >> All right. Next is Georgina Austo. Good evening members of the board, superintendent Dr. and staff. My name is Georgina Isabella Gusto. This is my second time speaking before the board and I am here
063again as a concerned parent about substance abuse and drugs in our schools including vaping, marijuana, and other substances. I am requesting transparency. TUSD received over 7 million in settlement funds from lawsuits directly against ecigarette companies JUL Labs and Eltria Group to allocate for student support and intervention spec specifically how it is being used to address substance abuse prevention and early intervention. Parents deserve to know who is being served and whether these efforts are actually working. To be clear, I am not asking for data from the National Guard presentations. What I am asking is how many firsttime substance offenders are being served, how many second time offenders are being served and what interventions are provided before students are suspended. At this time, it appears the district is reacting after incidents occur rather than preventing them. I
064am also concerned about how the five community health workers, the two program supervisors are tackling student substance misuse and vaping. Are they supporting level one, level two substance related to offices or only stepping in at the level three? If intervention only happens after repeated violations, then we are missing the opportunity to help students early. I would also like to know whether the district tracks data on students suspended for substance use and what supports such as counseling, referrals, or treatment are offered to help those students, not just discipline them. Lastly, at the last meeting from December 9th, 2025, I spoke. I was told a board member would follow up with me. Miss Shaw, Mr. Romero, that followup never happened. I want to be clear. I am not here to be acknowledged and then ignored. I am
065requesting a direct response, a timeline, and a name, point of contact. I am aware and understand that only two board members can reply, respond to the audience. I understand that. So, God bless you all. Thank you for this opportunity again. Thank you. [applause] >> Yes, we are at the 20 minute mark. Um, we have eight um speakers left. President Sha, >> go ahead. >> Um, I'd like to extend the call to the audience. >> There eight speakers. We have eight more left. >> There's Yes. >> Eight in person. And how many to be read? >> Just eight in person. >> Just eight. Yes. >> All right. I'll second. >> All those in favor say I. >> I. All right. >> We have Mr. Len Rose. >> Okay. Next is Gina Santos. Um, hi. Good evening.
066I'm Gina Santos. I'm a speech therapist in TSD. I'm a parent. Two of my children have graduated from TSD schools and I'm currently a parent of a middle schooler. Um, I at the middle school I where I work, the main hallway is decorated with essays, drawings, and poems in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. And when you look at these mix of um work, there are several drawings in red ink that reads, "Stop ice." And these are from middle schoolers. Um, one especially heartbreaking piece shows a figure shooting another figure and it's titled No More Ice. Another student wrote, "I dream of going everywhere with my mom and not being afraid of um her being taken." Another shared in her I dream um essay is that she dreams that families are not taken away because
067of their race. The reason why I'm giving you this example is because there's a I want you all to understand that this is what the vibe is like as as the young people would say what the vibe is in our schools right now. We have a lot of fear and anger and anxiety and um I have a whole thing I was going to say but in light of what Dr. Thrujillo had mentioned that um next week we're going to be hearing more about TOSD's response to ICE. I wonder that um if this response has been in place it doesn't feel like it. The response that um we have seen has to be um more than judicial talking about judicial warrants, talking about masked men. You have families who have fathers who are detained. You have
068families whose moms have been deported. Um and it's not just people who are undocumented. As we have seen in the news, citizens are getting picked up. My husband is a natural a naturalized citizen and he dropped me off and was going to pick me up and for a moment I thought I wonder if he got picked up by ICE and who am I going to call at this moment. So what I would ask is that yes we have pro um policies and procedures in place um but it seems that our admins are afraid to talk about it. um teachers that we talk to don't seem to really know what the plan and procedures are. Um and we want if we could next week when we hear about it, what is different than the status quo?
069Cuz we are not living in the status quo. People are being disappeared. Citizens are being murdered. What is different? What is different? This year has been wild. It's been scary. We all feel like we're in danger. Who are the people that TUSD are collaborating with to come up with the plan? Who are the stakeholders? Who are the families you all are talking to? Who are the agencies? We need to lean into a different status quo cuz it's what I was doing is not working right now. [applause] >> Thank you. Next, it's Betts Putinham Halgo. Now, we grannies and face those fascist terrorists together hand in hand so we can build a nation univided, kind, and strong. A place we all belong. My name is Betsalgo. I'm a granny now. I've always been a raging granny,
070but now I actually have grandkids. Um, public schools are supposed to be a place that we all belong. And I would like to know what is your plan. We just heard a person who teaches asking who you're relying on for your information to make your plan. That in and of itself, if I may be so bold, is an is not a good sign as to where your plan is coming from because you've got people on the ground who could be offering suggestions and who and who should be being heard. The person who deals with a crying 5-year-old because they're scared is who you should be listening to. No offense, Robert Ross. I know how important you are in this district, but unless you're playing that role, you should be in the background and these people
071behind me should be in the foreground. So, when this nightmare first started, I tried to get uh the schools I went through Dr. Trillo's office and I tried to get a poster of media rights information put up at the schools. Couple of iterations from him to me and through Nicholas etc. And I found out that the only thing that the district can post is stuff that the district writes itself. I thought myself as had since I was a parent I thought really so Scholastic book fairs are T USD written I didn't think so I thought that was an outside vendor and I thought when my kid was in school that they were all over in advertisements well the health and safety of your students is just as important and I think that there should be
072no rights information posted everywhere And beyond that, beyond that, I'm going to give you two cards. One of them is a rapid response number. The other one is a know your rights cards. These are not expensive. You have a print shop. You should be sending these out to 40,000 families. So, my point is simply make a plan. You have an all teachers training coming up. to your staff to know at their sight what is going to happen. What exit door do they go to? What doors are locked? What doors are not? The stuff about I I respect your plan, but frankly ICE doesn't. Thank you. [applause] >> That's if you can hand it over to Yolanda and she can give it to us so we can get through this. Thank you. Uh, next is Kevin
073Oberg. >> Good evening everyone. My name is Kevin Oberg and I'm a uh I'm here to talk about the item 91 on the agenda. I am have been for the last 30 months or so a member of your audit committee and the issue you're going to speak about later on tonight is the reason I simply wanted to get up and say that the [clears throat] audit committee is there to fully support you and recognizes just as the speakers have brought up you have a lot of agendas and anytime you have a group of people who I believe is as competent as your audit committee is, you ought to take advantage of them to solve the problems. A long time ago, I always wondered why is a school district office non-political. All the other offices around
074Puma County, you're either a D or you're an R. But all school boards have no D or R attached to them. And I think the speakers who have just preceded me show the reason that this is all about human dynamics. This isn't about necessarily right or wrong because all kinds of people have a lot of different opinions and you need to address those qualitatively and that's why I'm participating on a committee that is quantitatively oriented. You have the head coach sitting over here and he has his head assistant coaches. You need to depend upon them on the daytoday activities and you all need to make the strategic decisions and you're going to be talking about a big one when you get to item 91. And I look forward as a member of the audit committee
075to helping you solve that major issue. And thank you for your time. Thank you. Next is Marlene Avalino. Hello, my name is Marlene Avelino. I'm a parent to two elementary school elementary age students that attend Rosidge Elementary. Dr. I appreciate your comments at the beginning saying that you are about to start getting a plan together and I must say I am disappointed having seen videos of children in Chicago being taken by ICE. I feel like here in such a vulnerable area where we know we are going to be targeted that plan should have already started. I appreciate um wanting to stay within like everybody else said the line of the law and we also understand that that is no longer the time that we are living in and while I know that procedures need to
076be in place I also want to be reassured that staff and is always prioritizing students safety and each other's safety even if they have a signed warrant even if they say they're supposed to be there because these are dangerous times and for years I've had to tell my children that they're safe going to school knowing that they're not and now it is even more dangerous. Um I I appreciate your efforts and I urge you to reflect the urgency that we all feel. Thank you. Thank you. [applause] Next is Sarah Deiru. My apologies if I butcher that. >> You did great. >> Thank you. >> Hi there. My name is Sarah Derloo. Thank you to the board for giving the space to speak. I am a TUSD alumni. I'm a parent of a TUSD student, auntie
077by blood to six TUSD students and auntie by love to many more. I'm a social worker at the teenage parent high school where I serve young student parents and their families. I am deeply committed to this district and the families that are a part of it. I'd like to request a more clear plan and more support for sites to review protocols around how our district and sites are to respond to immigration and customs enforcement. My students, families, and colleagues continue to ask, "What will we do if ICE enters our building without a warrant? Where will we go? What will happen to our babies if our students are unlawfully detained?" When I share with families the know your rights cards, I'm asked, "What will I do if they don't listen to me? What will I do
078if they don't respect or honor my rights?" My nine-year-old son, unaware of all of the ins and outs, is asking me, "Can I take kids?" As a social worker, I know that having a clear plan in the face of uncertainty can really help contain fear and terror. When fear is contained in our communities and schools feel feel more prepared, our students can have their energy go to learning and growing and our staff's energy can go to teaching and supporting. Thank you for your time. Thank [applause] you. Next speaker is Eliso Gomez. Good evening board and superintendent. Uh my name is Eliso Gomez. Uh I'm a science teacher at PBLO High School and this is actually my first time speaking um in this hall. Um and that comes that comes at a critical time uh locally,
079statewide, and nationally. um as federal agents are ramping up their uh operations uh pretty in indiscriminately. Um so uh as you saw from Tuesday of last week uh our students are thinking about this as well. Uh thousands of students walked out across multiple schools in our school district and they are coming to us the teachers and staff to say so what are we going to do? So what's happening? What's the plan? What's in place? And currently I can't tell them too much because from the district there isn't too much that is in place. I'm here tonight to ask you superintendent to resend your letter that you sent at the start of last year. Um that was really heartening to families. It would be great to continue to send that as we've had new parents that
080have um been enrolled or enrolled their students into uh the system. Um, it would be great as well to resend policies and direct administration to train their staff so that all the staff are systematically trained to support our students with knowing their rights, with knowing how to observe, knowing how to report ICE in their community and let their teachers know that they've seen that. Um, we are not acting as proactively as we need to be, which is a problem because law enforcement is. [applause] So, we need to get ahead of the curve here. Um, and recent events uh in Minneapolis show us that uh yeah, the reality of the moment is that legality is out of the window. So, what I'm asking you to do tonight is truly the bare minimum. Um, and my final
081ask is just to continue listening to us and working with us. Um, as we know what's best for our students. We are also in the community. We're we're involved with other groups that are working to protect our students, our neighbors. Um, and I want to believe that all of us here in this room have our hearts in the same place, which is the right place that our mission is all aligned. So, let's act like it. Thank you so much. Thank you. And next we have Pilar Ruiz. Good evening. My name is Pilar Costa Ruiz and it's been a long time since I've been here. Um I see not everybody's happy with you guys still. Um, so, uh, I'd like to say that I am, uh, glad to see that the Arizona Auditor General's office is
082going to be here tonight, um, to report on TUSD's financial risk. Um, people have been coming to this podium for literally years and years and years talking to you about the financial unstability of this district. And yet you continue, not maybe some of you personally, but this district continues to put band-aids on the situation instead of actually fixing things. And it's just not sustainable. Um band-aids and shell games are not going to fix the problem. So hopefully this might hopefully be a wakeup call to you all tonight to do something different. Um as uh Mr. Oberg spoke, you guys have really qualified people on the uh audit committee. You had a really really exceptional internal auditor who unfortunately you all ran off by trying to control what she did and trying to audit her, which
083is not the point of that's not what was supposed to be happening. Um because she told the truth, she left because you all ran her out of here. And um you know that's the truth. And when people speak the truth in this district, it problems happen, but the truth always comes out. Um, so I hope that the uh Arizona Auditor General's office knows um also since they're here that they go back and look at all the complaints that have been submitted about the financial um conflict, alleged conflicts of interest um that have been submitted on some of our board members. Um, you know, the district has been hemorrhaging, as I said, for years, and a district this large needs to have qualified people at the helm. Uh, somebody spoke, I think, Lillian. Lillian gives you
084guys so much great information and you don't even read it. You don't even pay attention to it because this woman is pointing out the facts for decades. She's been pointing out the facts. You just don't want to hear the truth. Um, you know, I don't know of any other organization as big as TUSD that is run by somebody who doesn't have a degree in accounting, let alone is not a CPA. Um, she's right. All the things she talked about, these things have never happened in this district. She's right on. Like, you got to do something different. Um, so we're not only um we're not only failing with fiscal management, we are failing with reading, writing, and math. And that has not changed. So I hope you do something different tonight. All right. And uh, next
085speaker, Victoria Bodani. Hi, I'm Victoria Bodani. I'm a PBLO high school teacher as well. Um, I'm here to also speak about ICE and um coming up with a plan. And my specific ask is that we have signs put outside of schools, outside of the gates that are asking that ICE cannot enter without a without a warrant. I realize that having a sign is not enough, right? They are going to do what they are going to do. However, having a sign there reassures our families. It reassures our students. It allows them to come into school with at least some modicum of safety. And just having those those yellow signs that are all over Tucson and the country at this point that are asking that they do not enter without a warrant is the very least we
086can do. Okay. Um and they specifically say all law enforcement officials do not enter without a lawful search warrant. In addition to that, all of our staff should be trained to know what a an official search warrant looks like. There are so many resources in the community that we have not been tapping into that could be preparing our school monitors, our safety personnel so that they know our front office staff. They want to know what they are supposed to be looking for. If ICE comes into our school, they know that they need to look for a warrant. They don't know what a warrant looks like. We need that train, excuse me, we need that training. We need know your rights trainings for staff. We need know your rights training for students. Um, and in addition,
087you need to have a plan that's created with us. Look out there. All of those are educators at high schools, at elementary schools, at middle schools. Y'all aren't the ones who are going to get arrested with when they start coming through those doors. We are. Listen to us, please. The last thing that I want to say is families are scared and to not have a hybrid option at this point is irresponsible. Especially for our ELD students, Tuva is not an is not a realistic option for them. they do not get the services that they need and they are scared, especially our ELD students, to leave the school that they're at, reenroll into a new school, have to go through that whole rigome roll again, and then in in addition, they don't know if they're going
088to be safe. So, please consider a hybrid option or a remote option for those students who want it without having to go to TUA. Thank you. >> [applause] >> And Dr. Shaw, that concludes call of the audience. All right. Thank you, Miss Luna Rose. And thank you everyone for being here this evening. Uh, next is the board's opportunity to respond to criticism, ask staff to review a matter, or ask that a matter be put on a future agenda. And a reminder that no more than two members may legally address each topic. And I will um just keep the microphone uh for a moment just to to thank everyone for coming tonight to speak about our immigration uh and enforcement crisis that we're having. Um you know, as an American American with brown skin with an
089immigrant parent and a parent of td children, including one with very brown skin like my own. Uh my family, like a majority of families in our community, we're all very acutely aware of the othering and the scapegoating being perpetuated by our federal government right now. My three kids now have copies of their passports and birth certificates in their backpacks. And I know my second graders not still don't know exactly why this is happening and what's going on. I feel for all of our members in our community who are not just feeling targeted but are targeted who have accents originating from outside the US who are undocumented and trying to be productive members of our community. This is not the America of indivisibility of liberty of justice for all and shame on us for letting this
090America be the America it is right now. I definitely appreciate all the feedback and all the folks here who spoke. Uh I know I had conversations earlier this month with Dr. Duho on how we're communicating out our work here, address ICE and address immigration issues and uh and thank you for pushing our district to be better on this and we will definitely be following up to make sure that we're communicating more effectively. We're having resources for parents, for teachers, for students. Uh and we are addressing this together as a community. Miss Shaw and Miss Extra, Miss Larose, >> I echo the sentiments of Dr. Shaw. Um, and I want to thank everyone who came out tonight to speak. Um, I'll start with um, Dale McLaren and um, his mother. Thank you for bringing this to
091our attention. I'm so sorry that this has happened despite uh, your best efforts and checking with the principal and making sure that that wasn't going to happen again. And so I'd like ask staff to uh review that matter not only at Tuba but at all of our school sites because we we can't afford to lose students over just a minor um issue with technology. Um thank you to all the students from Rencon who came and spoke about issues happening at their campus. I'd like to ask staff to review the matter um about the student being suspended about the teacher and also about uh guests on campus recording students um which I believe is against our board policy. Um, let's see for uh Miss Agusto um if we can get um if I'm not sure if
092on the speaker card people put their email address or a way to contact them, but um if we could get her contact information so we can follow up with the report that Miss Warren Brand gave us. Um let's see. And then the issue raised by um staff regarding ICE. Thank you all for your advocacy, your ideas. Um I would like um us to form a community task force uh to um address the issues and you know things that we haven't done and things that we have and things that we should done so that we can get it right. Um thank you for um all of your ideas. I would also like to ask that we um immediately um send home a know your rights card to every family in the language of their household. And
093and that's it for me for the for the know your rights stuff and the task force. I would ask staff if we could move quickly on those matters. Thank you. I know that only two governing board members are allowed to address each topic, but I'm going to go ahead and address the topic of ICE because it is important to our community and to those who showed up today. I agree with you. I was on the phone with the principal at Draman on Friday and with staff and I have this I grew up in South Tucson. I know where these people are going to go first and it it's disgusting. Um, I also have a child with darker skin and I have conversations with her father every day. Do we need to keep something in the
094car in case one of us gets pulled over and are taken in like where is my child going to go? I have these same um fears as you all do, but I also recognize that I'm lighter skinned. So, you know, there's that, too. Um, we need to continue to be proactive. We cannot be reactive as a district. So, um, with Miss Shaw's recommendations, I think this needs to start tomorrow. We really need to get on this and we need to know and make we have to make sure that our families know that we are doing everything possible to keep our staff, our students, and our families safe. Um, it doing the same is not going to work anymore. We really, really, really need to move on this quickly. And I don't want something happening and
095then us reacting to it. I mean, Draman was an eye opener because that could have been on school property um if if that car had just turned, you know, a little bit after 22nd Street. Um, we need to do everything possible to get these teachers trained, to get our front staff office staff trained, to get our principles trained because I know that they are fearful for what could happen and we just don't know. So, um, whatever that takes, Dr. Trumo, we really need to move forward. And I also agree with Miss Shaw, we do need to look into what happened at, um, Ringcon University High School with Turning Point. That is unacceptable. We cannot have outsiders filming our students. It's ridiculous. So, that needs to be looked into as well. Thank you. Thank you. Um,
096since Miss Shawn, Miss Extramm kind of touched upon the RingCon issue and I think the students know I was there this morning where I stand. So, but I just wanted to say to the students who came, thank you so much. Um, I'm always a big proponent of students coming to speak to us because you are the boots on the ground. You're the ones that are are living it a day by day and we come every other Tuesday. And so, please, you know, tell all your friends. I mean, it's it's I think it's vitally important, especially in this time, um, to hear from you because, um, you are going to be, I think, feeling it more than than some of the adults. And um I really um deeply appreciate your advocacy and you know how to
097reach out to us. So I wanted to thank you and thank you to everybody that spoke this evening. I um I'm um it's just such a terrible time and I don't want to talk about anymore because then I'll probably start crying here on the dis. So I will turn it back to Dr. Shaw. >> All right. Uh before we move on, you want to take a quick five minute break or just keep on going? Let's do a quick five minute break. Thank you everyone. You want to reconvene the meeting? >> Dr. Great. >> Company board members, we're going to reconvene the meeting. >> Yes. Where did Jennifer go? All right, we're going to move on to our consent agenda. Dr. Trillo, item 6.3 to 6.4. >> Yes. >> Uh, President Shaw, members of the governing
098board, uh, the administration recommends passage of the agend of the consent agenda as arranged and presented to the board. Thank you, Dr. Trio. Government members, any uh questions or anything you'd like extracted from the consent agenda? Yes, Miss uh Sha. >> Thank you. I'd like to pull item 6.3. Okay. All right. I'll move items 6.2, 6.4. I think that's what we have, right? Okay. 6.2 and 6.4 as part of our consent agenda. I'll second. >> All right. Item moved by myself, second by Miss Lunar Rose. All those in favor say I. I. Hi. >> All right, we have item 6.3 to discuss. Approval. Let me get here. No. Item 6.3. Here we go. Approval of Native American policies and procedures for Tucson Unified School District. Yes. Um if our assistant superintendent for um student leaders
099or student success is here, he can uh chime in. But uh as it says uh we have a yearly agreement uh that we are responsible for that outlines the parameters for our receipt of impact aid funds. Impact aid funds are allocated to schools and districts that reside in zones that aren't subject to federal or state taxation. So we have military bases and then of course we have our tribal communities uh that we see with Tana Aam and that we have with the Pasuayaki and we have to submit a uh a plan every single year as a condition for the receipt of those funds for collaboration and a communication with our partners uh with both Pasay Yakitan and AAM in terms of academic information uh wrership information various aspects of access to school. Uh so I'll
100ask uh Frank Arment if you want to add anything more uh to item 6.3, our Native American policies and procedures. Good evening, governing board. Thank you, Dr. Trujillo. Um on this item, this two uh two items that um are very specific to this is is our monthly articulation that we have with Pasco Tribe that focuses on the academics of our students. The second part is um working closely with um Pasquayaki tribe and our parents ensuring that they get the information in a timely manner so that way they can see the progress of the academic um achievement of their children. >> Thank you. Um and I pulled this item years ago, probably my first year as a governing board member. Um my questions then are going to be pretty much the same tonight. Um, how many
101comments did we receive about um this plan? >> I did not receive any comments on that, nor did Roxan be. It's specifically to the Pascoyaki tribe and her parents, >> right? Um because um one thing in this item that I noticed is that if participation is low, TUSD will re-evaluate its plan and consult with um the tribe to enhance participation. Um, also in this uh the attachment it notes that the Native American Advisory Committee meets once a month to address comments and concerns of parents of Native American children and that the minutes are posted on the district website. I wasn't able to find the minutes or any of the meeting dates um either on our district website or the Native American Student Services Department's website. And so where are these minutes being posted and is
102this um committee subject to open meeting law? >> Um first of all, they do meet um and it is run by Roxan Beay and the tribe. Um I don't know where those are currently, but I'll make sure to get those right back to you to identify where they're at. And as far as the open meeting laws, I do not believe they're under jurisdiction of that, but I can also double check for that. >> Yeah, I'll I'll chime in here. It's not a governing board appointed committee. So it it's a regular parent committee or community committee. So there's no open meeting law that applies. >> Okay. Um thank you for that clarification. Um still because within the policy or the the plan that we're going to approve, it states that minutes will be posted on our
103district website. Again, it's it's hard to find things on our website, but I I I looked as as well as I could. Um, and if you know a parent is looking for them and they can't find it either, um, I imagine that maybe they're not posted or they're hidden so well that nobody can, uh, keep a breast of those issues. Um, and currently it states that the info will be sent via email and also the Pasco Yaki radio station, KPYT. Um, I did ask a um a friend who is a a tribal member if uh he was aware of this um correspondence going out. He didn't note that he ever remembered receiving that. Um, and so I'd like uh to ask that we pull this item and uh reconsider it at a later date once
104we get some of the information back in. And I guess I'll put that in the form of a motion. >> Second. >> We have a motion to bring this item back with further information. Any other comments? All right. All those in favor say I. >> I. Okay. Unanimous votes. So, we'll bring this back to us with the information that's requested. Thank you. >> Thank you. Yeah. >> All right. Next, we go to item 9.1, Auditor General, [clears throat] excuse me, Arizona Auditor General's presentation on TUSD's financial risk analysis for the 2425 fiscal year, Dr. Trillo. >> Yes. I'd like to tee this I'd like to send it over to our chief uh financial officer, Ricky Hernandez, to kind of tee up uh the presentation and welcome our guest from the Auditor General's office. >> So,
105good evening, board members. Uh as noted, uh we have a presentation for you on the district's financial risk. Um, as has been, you know, alluded to and directly, uh, noted, the district has been identified as among the highest financial risk school districts in Arizona. Um, so the, uh, we have staff here from the Auditor General's office. We have Amanda Wyn, senior accountant from the Auditor General. She's going to drive for a little bit. And behind me, I've got Megan Higer, director of accountability services division at the Auditor General's office. And they will go over the risk analysis with you. Thank you. Okay, thank you Ricky for the introduction. Um, good evening. My name is Megan Hager. I'm the director of the accountability services division. Uh, as Ricky stated, um, thank you first of all for
106making time for us to come here today and share the results of our most recent financial risk analysis and specifically walk through your district's results as one of the nine highest risk districts that we identified in this year's report. Uh if you aren't already familiar with our annual financial risk analysis, this is a report that we've been publishing since December of 2020. The analysis for the analysis, we look at 10 different financial risk measures that look at the most current data available to identify districts that are at the highest risk of not being able to operate within their budget constraints and available cash resources. The purpose of this analysis is information providing. We're providing information to district decision makers like yourself and stakeholders uh to have information that you can use when you're making certain
107budget and finance related decisions for your district. Our analysis is a year- round process. So, we gather the newest information as it's available and we reach out to the highest risk districts to share the most recent data with them, talk about what actions they are taking or planning to take to address those different risk measures. Uh Amanda uh a senior accountant in my division uh met with Dr. Trujillo and Mr. Hernandez in December uh to talk about the most recent high-risisk measures which is when your district moved into that highest risk group. Um after that Mr. Hernandez prepared a financial risk action plan using the template that we provide. Um and that's posted along uh the district's page on our website. uh we will have time at the end of our presentation if you have
108any questions on the analysis process or your specific results. Uh so just to mention because it is a web-based report, our plan is to just walk through the website um to show you the the best functionalities of it. Um we are going to be kind of swapping back and forth. So Amanda will be driving, I'll be speaking, and then we'll we'll swap back and forth just because there's a lot of moving around on the site. So, just wanted to give you a heads up that I'm about to walk away, but she'll be coming up. So, uh, with that, I'm going to hand it over to Amanda to talk about the first first parts of it. Hello, my name is Amanda Win. I'm a senior accountant at the Auditor General's office as was stated. Um, so
109I'm going to be taking you through the first part of the website. So, if you are to try and get to this, right now we have it on the main page, but if you wanted to get to it, we do have it on the very front page of auditor.gov. Scroll down to the very bottom. There's a financial risk analysis uh link right there and it will take you to a landing page where you can then navigate to uh this page which is the overview page or the state results or the district results. We also provide a data file there. It's also on this page which I'll show you. All right. So, this top part of the page [clears throat] is um kind of gives an overview of what our analysis does. We look at 10
110risk measures um in the seven different categories and we moni monitor that throughout the year as Megan stated. So this is our current year's analysis, key takeaways, and this page also talks about our process and our available resources. And then we will go into your more detailed results in a minute. We do have a more uh detailed about tab up on the web page that if you want to know where this report comes from, what we look at, why we look at it, the about tab at the top there is where you'll want to go. So, this top portion of the page uh provides our key takeaways of this year's analysis uh for this year. That includes increases in the number of overall highest risk and the districts approaching the highest risk category as well
111as an increase in the number of schools at risk for seven of the 10 measures compared to our previous year's analysis. After that, if you could scroll down. So, this is the uh list of current high-risk current highest risk districts um and the districts approaching the highest risk category. There's an expandable list of each district's high-risisk measures and then there's a map showing each district's location. We also include a downloadable summary that contains the list of high-risisk measures for all the highest risk districts and the districts approaching the highest category and a brief description of each of the measures on that blue button there that says download summary. Next is a new section we added this year which shows the one-year change in the number of districts at high risk for each individual measure compared
112to last year's analysis to help illustrate the overall increase in risk we saw in this year's results. We include some overall information about why we do this analysis next and why it's important for you to monitor financial risk. After that, we include the seven categories briefly described here that the 10 financial measures fall within. We'll talk about each of these in more detail later as we go through your individual district's results. As Megan mentioned, we provided your CFO with the financial risk action plan guidance which is over in this righth hand bottom box and the template and it's available here for all districts. Uh we do require the highest risk districts to submit a completed action plan to us and then the plan is posted on the district's page of the analysis site. Next on
113this page is a graphic of our annual process of how we gather data. We analyze the changes and then we communicate with the highest risk districts and then we annually issue this report. At the bottom of this overview page, we provide a data file in Excel which contains the January 2026 data, the analysis results, and other information presented on the state and district results pages for all districts, including identifying the highest risk districts. So that's the overview page. The next tab at the top is the state results page. >> [snorts] >> So, I just want to touch on this quickly before we go to the district results. Uh, this page provides you an overview of our financial risk analysis results at the statewide level. It can also be filtered by county or legislative district. For
114example, you could pick Puma County to see all the districts in your county and which measures they are high- risk for. Um this top section or the top section we were just looking at is a high level pres presentation of those number of high dis of districts at high risk for those measures. This bottom section here is providing you detailed information on which districts are at high risk for each measure. Uh this information can also be filtered multiple ways and sorted to make it easier for you to see the results you want. For example, you could click on budget limit reserve operating budget and see the districts that are high risk for that as well as we indicate which of the highest risk districts are um at high risk for those measures. So, next we're
115going to go over to the district results. So, at the top here you there's a navigation bar. You can either navigate through the districts or you can type in at the top to get to Tucson. And as you can see at the top, we've indicated that it's among the highest risk districts. Uh for high-risisk districts, we do include a narrative summary there of the risks identified in the individual measures. And then the at the bottom there is the district provided financial risk action plan that addresses the district's financial risks identified in these measures. Below the individual measures typically have an analysis and data section with your district's information. We're going to talk now about each of the measures, what it is, and your district's specific results. Um, more detailed information for each of the measure
116is measures is available on the measures tab. Um there is a link right there at the top of the measures or there's a link at the very top of the page and that way you can access the more detailed information about how we calculate the risk for these different measures uh what the measure means why it's important um and what as well as what data source we use. So if you wanted to um know more about each of the measures specifically that's where you'll want to go. So, your district has six high-risisk measures um leading to your overall highest risk designation. So, the first measure we're going to look at is the change in weighted student count. So, this shows a district's change in group A weighted student count over a one-year and four-year period
117as of December 2025. We obtain the weighted student counts from Arizona Department of Education reports. Student count decreases generally results in decreases in available revenues. So if in a district is experiencing continued substantial student count decreases and does not adjust its spending accordingly, it could exceed its statutoily prescribed budget limit. We look at both a one-year and four-year change because both long-term declines and a single-year substantial decrease can have a major effect on the district's budget. We assign varying points for both the one-year and four-year change percentages, then apply a multiplier to the four-year decline risk points for districts with consecutive year-over-year declines. This helps capture the risk associated with persistent downward trends in weighted student counts. Districts can receive up to five risk points for this measure. And districts with three or more risk
118points are considered high risk for this measure. If you want to see the specific risk point thresholds and an example calculation, you can go to that measures page that I referred to earlier for the detailed table that shows you by size and by decrease what the points are. So since Tucson USD is considered a largesiz district and has a one-year decline of 3.68%. You go back to the analysis. Sorry. So the 3.68% for the one-year change. Um that was assigned a maximum of the one risk point for that one-year decline. Next, the four-year decline was 8.99% resulting in two risk points for the four-year decline. And then if you look at the data tab, uh you can see that the weighted student count has declined every year over the last five years and therefore the
119district received the maximum multiplier of two points. So in total the district received the maximum five points for this measure and therefore is high risk for this measure. This weighted student count measure is one of the more predictive measures in our analysis. District boards and management really need to monitor this information to understand when you need to adjust spending based on the resources you have available. There are some districts that use even more predictive measures and you may use some of these already like surveys or dem demographers to try and understand and plan for where the your enrollment will be in future years to help drive spending decisions. As for the current year information, AD issues monthly student count and funding reports that the district should monitor throughout the year. Uh AD will issue the
120district's final recalculated student counts after the end of the fiscal year. So that's something you could be monitoring monthly. Next, I'll turn it over to Megan. Okay. Um, up next we'll look at two different measures that assess a district's budget limit reserves and its spending within budget limits. Uh, for a little background on what these budget limits are, every Arizona school district annually adopts a statutoily prescribed maintenance and operation and unrestricted out capital outlay fund budget limit. Those two main district fund budget limits are what we analyze in the operating and capital budget limit reserve measures. Those limits are in part, as Amanda described, based on the district's student counts um that we just described in the previous measure. So, as those student counts go down, the district's budget limit may be decreasing as well.
121Uh this year, we added some new pieces of data to this measure card. Um Amanda, if you could go to the data part of it, um to help provide some additional context around districts reserves reserve amounts. Uh those new pieces of data are each year's budget limit including the current year's budget limit as of today for fiscal year 2026. Uh actually I shouldn't say as of today as of December. Um and the total expenditure amounts for the last five years. So to give you a little bit of perspective of what the budget limit has been doing over time as those student counts change and how spending is changing along with it and then how that is then affecting the reserve amounts for each of those measures. Uh so in October after the end of each
122fiscal year ad compares the district's budget limit to its reported expenditures and any unspent operating or capital budget limit capacity is available to then carry forward to future years. So that is your reserve balance amount unspent budget limit capacity that's moving forward. So for this measure, we identify districts as high risk if they have either over spent their budget limit or if the district's budget limit reserves have substantially decreased. Uh similar to the weighted student count measure, we look at those decreases on both a one and four-year change to see what it's doing both in the short term and in the long term. uh your district is at high risk for the operating budget reserve measure since it reduced its reserves by 25.18% in fiscal year 25. Additionally, when looking at the capital budget limit
123reserve measure, uh that reserve amount decreased by 68.22% in fiscal year 25 and 82.99% over that four-year change. So since fiscal year 2021, uh that makes both the one-year and the four-year change a high-risk um identifier for that capital budget limit reserve measure where for the operating reserve measure only that one-year change is what we're identifying as high risk. Since as you can see there, the four-year change, that reserve amount is actually up a little bit from where you were in fiscal year 21. Those declining reserves indicate that uh higher financial risk um for a few reasons. One, the district now has less resources available going into the next year. Um uh and thus declining with the declining student count in current year funding. Um every time you're dipping into those reserves, you're basically getting
124rid of one-time money. So those monies are not coming back the next year because they're basically what you've had in your savings. Uh, so as I already mentioned, the four-year change is up a little bit in your operating reserve amount. We do describe a little bit in the summary that we have. Um, and Mr. Hernandez, I believe, acknowledged in the corrective action plan that part of that increase we see over time. Amanda, if you wouldn't mind um, going to the data on budget reserve actually. So, you can see some of the changes in there in the reserve amount that the amounts were actually increasing in your operating reserve um, from 21 through 23. uh and then it started to decline again there. Uh some of that increase can be attributed to additional co 19 um
125monies that were available to all districts during that time frame. Um it was something kind of common we saw across many districts that received those monies. They were able to build up a little bit of reserves over that time because those monies were did have very wide allowable uses and so some districts were able to use those and build up some reserves at that time that those monies were available. So that's why part of why you're seeing that increase and then it's starting to decline again um for fiscal years 24 and 25. Similar to the student count reports that Amanda talked about provides monthly budget limit calculation reports um for the current year since those budget limits are changing throughout the year with your weighted student count numbers. Um, so we recommend that district management
126and boards monitor those reports similar to the weighted student count reports to just stay up to date on what's happening and changing throughout the year for you. Um, so just to talk a little bit through the numbers that we can see here, um, the total operating budget limit column specifically, um, you can see that that in particular is going down from 25 to 26. Uh, but [snorts] one of the reasons we put both the budget limit and the expenditure amounts in there for users to see is you can kind of then compare. So, what were you spending last year? What is your budget limit this year? And are our districts in a situation where they need to make immediate action to be decreasing those expenditures to stay within the current year budget limit. Tucson right
127now is at a space where you're still have a limit that was above what you were spending last year, but we still recommend districts in this risk scenario. Take a look at those to see um if any changes are needed. Uh just because continually dipping into those reserves, you would get to a point where they obviously run out. Uh and then just a little bit on the capital reserve end pointing out the similar decreases from 25 to 26 in budget limit there uh like related to likely the student count change. Okay, I'm going to turn it back over to Amanda for the next three general fund measures and then I'll just come up one last time to go over the last couple pieces of information. All right, I'm going to go over the three uh
128financial position me measures. So, they're all there in a row. Um so, those the two budget limit reserve measures are looking at how much the district is legally allowed to spend in their in your two main funds, your maintenance and operation, your unrestricted capital outlay funds. These next three measures focus on your general fund financial position, which analyzes components of a district's primary operating funds revenues, expenditures, and ending balances to identify potential risk related to general fund resources. Although each of these measures looks at similar financial data, they focus on different relationships in that data. The general fund measures results often relate to the operating budget limit reserve measure since the maintenance and operation fund is the main component of every district's general fund. Uh the rest of the general fund amount is any funds
129that are designated as a general fund in your district's financial statements or unudited annual financial report. We obtained the general fund amounts from the district's fiscal year 24 audited financial statements and then the fiscical year 25 unodudited annual financial report or AFR that was submitted to AD to avoid distorting the measure ratios. They should not be compared to each other. So it's important to pay attention to the data sources in the year. So, even though the district is not high- risk for the operating reserve measure, we're still going to quickly discuss how the district can use this information. This operating reserve ratio shows the percent of general fund monies held in reserve for future spending or your fund balance and compares it to total spending from the prior year. A negative operating reserve ratio indicates
130a negative fund balance, which means the district must use monies received in the following year to cover prior year spending. All districts with a negative operating reserve ratio um in either of the most recent two years were considered high risk for this measure. But as I said, you're not high risk for this measure. The next financial position measure is operating margin ratio. That shows the percent of district general fund revenues not spent in the year received for each of the most recent two years. A negative ratio indicates the district spent more money than it received for the year and spent some monies from its previous year's reserve. While we could consider all districts with a negative reserve at higher risk for this measure, we only identify risk for districts with negative operating margin and less
131than two months of general fund expenditures in reserves at the end of the most recent fiscal year. Since a district with low operating reserves exposes itself to higher financial risk each time it spending it sees its revenues. So the district is considered high risk for this due to your fiscal year 24 and 25 general fund spending exceeding revenues by the 2.93% in 24 and the 9.27% in fiscal year 25. um and you only have uh over one month of general fund expenditures and reserves at the end of fiscal year 25. If we look at the data tab here, you can see that for both years, the district had more expenditures than revenues, which aligns with the downward trend in its budget limits as well. The last measure on financial position is the change in fund
132balance. This shows the one-year percentage change for each of the most recent two years in a district's general fund balance. Declining fund balances or negative fund balance in the most recent year indicate higher financial risk as less resources remain available for current and future needs. As you can see on this measure, the district's general fund balance has decreased by 42.25% from fiscal year 24 to 25. And the data tab shows a decrease of over 28 million from 24 to 25. Since the district's change in fund balance is a decrease of greater than the 25% threshold, this measure is high risk. Now I'll pass it to Megan to wrap us up. Okay. Uh the final measure as Amanda said that I'm going to talk about today uh is titled capital monies that are redirected to operations.
133Um in that statutory state funding formula that I talked about earlier, there's two basic components. One that's intended for operating, one that's intended for capital, but districts are allowed to transfer those monies um between the other each other basically. So transfer intended capital monies to operating and vice versa, transfer operating monies to capital as they see fit. However, we do still look at this as a risk measure um to see if districts are having to continually rely on that intended capital funding to support their operating expenses. Um so while districts can choose this, as I said, they may be at higher risk if they are putting off necessary operational cuts uh and using that capital monies to to basically help support it. So, similar to other our other measures, we look at it from multiple
134angles. We look at just the amount that was transferred in the current year and then also what the district has done on a 5-year average. So, looking at the 45 and a half for sorry, 45.15% in the current year and then the district has about a 19.65% average that it has transferred over the the five years. So um if we look at the data that's not necessarily it's not that the district has been transferring each of those five years. Uh the district started making those transfers in fiscal year 24 um and then progress that in 25 to a higher amount and again for 26. So even though there was none in 22 and 23 um it's giving that little bit of a higher five-year average amount. Uh and I do should just mention the our
135thresh threshold that we use for risk on this measure is 25% of the capital monies to operations. So the district is um at risk for the current year transfer amount. Um so the the just to mention really quick the other two measures um that are right next there are not ones that apply to the district currently. Um small school budget limit adjustment is something we look at in particular for very small schools. And then frozen tax rate is not something that applies to your district at this moment. Uh and finally, the 10th measure that we use is receiverhip. Your district is not currently in receiverhip. Right now, there are only two districts uh that are operating under a stateapp appointed receiver. Last piece of information I just want to be sure to point out to
136you, we have a section where we show less common revenues that districts receive for fiscal year 25. This is just to provide a little bit of more contextual information for users to understand when one district may have some additional monies that all not all districts receive. Um so just to give a little bit of extra information to consider when thinking about um the district's risk measure results that we show. Um so for Tucson Unified School District, we show here that the district receives $63 million in desegregation monies and about $1.2 $2 million um in federal impact aid. And then just at the very bottom there to be a little bit more comparable across districts of varying size, we provide the total less common revenues per student. Um since you're going to have we're going to
137have very varying amounts with with the different size districts we have in our state. So, with that, I just want to make a couple of concluding marks to emphasize really the four most important pieces of information that we would like members to take away today. Um, the first is the district's declining student enrollment. Um, and that it does appear to be declining substantially and that the board should be considering how that affects its budget decisions going forward. Second is the district's substantial decline in budgetary reserves in fiscal year 25. along with those declining student counts um should be another major factor in the district's decisions in the current year and when planning for fiscal year 27 budgets. Third is the district's spending exceeding its res revenues as Amanda mentioned that kind of goes handinhand with
138the budget reserves decreasing um considering those in your budget decisions. And then finally, although the district has not exceeded its statutoily prescribed budget limit or its cash resources, it should be putting an action plan in place to help ensure that that does not happen in the future. So that concludes our presentation that we had today. Um, happy to answer any questions. Thank you, Dr. K. We get a presentation from from Ricky. Should we do that one first? We answer questions first. What do you What is going to be the best way to I think uh having uh uh Mr. Hernandez go over the district's proposed action plan. We'll kind of help you see what's coming down the pike, what we we propose, and then of course we can go from questions from there. >> Governor,
139is that okay? All right. So, Mr. Hernandez, go ahead and do your presentation and we'll be able to ask any questions or make any comments after that. >> Jean, can you put up the action plan for me, please? So a as the staff from the auditor general's uh office mentioned uh we were required because we are among the highest financial risk school districts we were required to provide an action plan to the auditor general. It is available for download at the on our district page um at the auditor general's website. it you know and and I don't I won't go through like in detail because there is a lot of information but we are required to provide essentially what were the identified causes for each one of the six risk areas that were identified uh
140by the auditor general and so you know with our weighted student count as you know kind of we scroll down it it's a lot of things that we've already talked about right the impact of the empowerment scholarships the declining birth rates in in the county and the state obviously the mobility within the county, but also as you know was presented earlier, the mobility unfortunately of of our families due to, you know, a lot of the kind of the political atmosphere that's happening as it relates to immigration. Charter schools continue to be a competitor with us, right? We continue to lose students, you know, outside of the high school grades to charter schools. Uh, and we probably have the highest number of charter schools within the boundary of any other school district in Arizona. So, um,
141Gene, if you keep going to the next page. So, what are our mitigating actions? A lot of these things we've implemented already. So, some of these things are already taking place. So, some of these will yield results as we conclude FY26 and then we go into 27. So, the board approved hiring an external consultant, Kesa K12, that is working with our families, with our student placement and enrollment department to reconnect these families back to the school district. This is a performance-based contract. Um and you've received uh updates in regards to that media campaigns. Obviously, we're taking the message out on the road to the community, to our families, targeting specific schools um and communities uh to bring those kids back into the district. Uh expanding transportation, right? This is the first year that we essentially
142have universal transportation on all of our school buses uh across the district and and you know essentially transporting kids that go beyond the boundary of the district to bring them from neighboring districts and the expansion of Ksix models which as I've presented to you in the past have been popular in retaining particularly students in the sixth grade. Right? So, as they transition from fifth to sixth to a traditional middle school, those sixth graders staying at those elementary schools have actually yielded a higher rate of return because those kids are staying with us and then they're transitioning to our TUSD middle schools. Um, we've provided a summary of the financial impact thus far. Um, as we go into the future, we will continue to update that financial impact of those meeting getting actions. So, as you
143keep going um Jean um to the next page, >> Mr. Hernandez, I think some of them are easier than others, right? Like the immediate right >> sensation of transferring capital dollars over to the operations budget. >> Yeah. And some of and some of these things, you know, and I'll just kind of go through them, you know, because I spent a lot of time with this the the Otter General's team kind of going through that, but you know, we are which I will talk about in my presentation later. we are going to stop moving dollars from capital to operations. That is something that we started because we were fortunate of having uh a a bond passed in 2023. So, we took advantage of the ability to transfer a lot of these capital costs to the bond
144program. um the operating limit reserves. I mean, as was presented to you, we're you we we've been using a lot of one-time monies to do ongoing things, but also we've got increasing expenses that have not been covered by things like, you know, a 2% uh inflation factor from from uh from the state. And so things like salaries, we've talked about, you know, we've provided substantial amounts of increases to all our staff um across the district. the cost of benefits, which we will talk about, you know, in the near future for next school year. It it continues to be a market issue. Utilities, we are not exempt from the cost of utilities. We are charged the same amount of money that Costco has charged for for utilities. So, we can, you know, these are operating expenses
145that continue to move up and our dollars are just not catching up to those expenses. Um, so we've been using a lot of those uh those first-time dollars. the DEC budget deficit. As we go into the next year, we will actually be able to wipe away the DEC budget deficit. So, we will stop using one-time dollars to wipe away the deficit that the that the DEC budget unfortunately has been taken and that we that the board has approved action to mitigate. Um there's, you know, low people funding. There's a lot of these aspects that we have in here, the reliance on one-time dollars, those transfers from uh from district additional assistance or capital to M. uh things that we've already either stopped or we will now bring recommendations to to continue to mitigate. These are
146topics that we've discussed in prior presentations to you and the community. Um and you know and and ultimately you know it is your decision uh for for you to kind of give us direction based on our recommendations. So uh there are additional mitigating actions. Obviously, one of the most significant ones is having an override in in place, but the override is not there to solve our uh our deficit, right? The override is there to provide us support and the runway that we need in order to actually address the deficit the right way. We implemented a zerobased budgeting approach in DC. Um we will we implemented department budget cuts last year. Uh we'll talk about department budget cuts for next school year. We started a hiring freeze. We closed positions. So, we've done a lot of
147these things already that have actually already done and produced savings for the district. Um, and and there will be additional cost reductions that will go beyond fiscal year 27, which I will talk in detail um during my presentation. We're also talking about energy efficiency and building optimization, right? The investment grade audit um at some, you know, at the next meeting, Dr. Carter and her team will talk about the investment grade audit and some of those dollars are actually starting to come through. the upgrades in air conditioning have produced dollars back to the district and so those things will will take place. The technical components about the reaportionment I I won't go too much into detail but essentially making sure that where when we're collecting revenues from property taxes in state aid that they're deposited into
148the right amounts in the M and the capital fund. Um this is something that we changed a couple of years ago and didn't re-update. We've already this has actually already been fixed. We've already been able to increase our fund balance by $16 million just by correcting the right aortionment. So, um I won't go into the mitigating. You know, you've seen the financial impact of all of these mitigating actions. Um some of which I will talk about later on this evening. Um so, and then there's one more page, Jean. Uh and then the capital limit reserve and the capital monies that all that has to do with that $10 million shift, right? So we've dipped we've we've lowered our limit reserve in capital budget because we've been moving $10 million from capital to M which we
149will begin reversing in the 2627 school year. So that reserve by itself will begin to kind of soften as we start dedicating more actual capital dollars for capital expenditures versus actual operating expenses. And we will um my colleague, you know, uh Hu Lopez will you he and I will bring to you a capital improvement plan that will focus on long-term capital needs beyond the bond. Uh that we can now rededicate a lot of these $7 million and then $3 million in two years into actual capital. And then certainly as you've seen on the on the agenda, leveraging building renewal grants, right? focusing on uh leveraging the responsibility of the state uh on some of these capital responsibilities that unfortunately have not uh beared out for a long time but we continue to leverage as part
150of our capital. So that was a really quick kind of summary on it. Feel free to read it at your leisure. If you have questions please let us know. >> Thank you Mr. Hernandez. Uh and what are the names of our presidents from the auditor general office again? Uh my name is Megan Hager and Amanda Win. >> What's the other one? I'm sorry. >> Amanda Win. >> Okay, great. Thank you. Yeah. >> Governing board members, questions, comments, feedback, Miss Sha and then Mr. Romero. >> Yes. Thank you for your presentation. >> Did we have a meeting once like two years ago? >> I believe so. Okay. Nice [laughter] to see you again. >> Um sorry that it's uh under these circumstances. Um let's see. So when was the last time that TUSD was labeled high-
151risk? >> So I believe that TUSD was in the highest risk group in our first year's analysis. So that would have been December 2020. Uh they did come out of the highest risk group in the next year. Um and this is the first time since then of moving back into the highest risk group. >> Okay. And was it like six markers like it is now or >> you know I don't have that information on me directly but I could absolutely go back and find what the specific uh high-risisk measures were at that time. Um going off of memory I do believe some of it did relate to a frozen tax rate that was in place at that time um that I believe became unfrozen in the final year. But then again some of these weighted
152student count measures and likely also the general fund as well. Um, as I said, I'm happy to find out what the specifics were and send them to you all if you would like them. >> Okay, that would be helpful. Thank you. >> And so, um, in your opinion, are the remedies in the corrective action plan um, suggested by our CFO enough to get us out of uh, the high-risisk category? >> I don't think that I can answer that. Um, this is really anformational report that we put together. We're pulling together the data and showing you what it is. Um, I believe the district's uh, administration and board is probably in the best place to identify where you anticipate you're going to be because a lot of this is predictive, thinking about where you're going. We're
153showing you what's happened. Um, and then it then in the district's hands to make those decisions of what you think is best to help bring you out of that high-risisk group. and and what is the timeline typically for um districts to you know submit their plan and then to get out of the risk? >> I don't know if I could say that there is a standard. Um it's going to it's going to really vary uh depending on each district's circumstances. So what the indicators are for a particular district and how severe the risk is um is going to bend on depend on how long it takes as well as considering what level of actions the district takes. But there is no current standard. There's no requirement that the district come out of high risk at
154any time frame. We're using this as anformational report to help you understand the trajectory that the district is currently in in what in that something needs to happen to kind of >> change that. >> Right. I guess my my line of questioning is leading to like what like from getting this high-risk label and then uh god forbid we go into receiverhip like what is typically for those districts who are currently in receiverhip like how long were they high-risisk what were the indicators for them and how can we avoid that? Well, the the two current highest risk districts, Analopee and um Isaac Elementary School District, Isaac Elementary School District in particular was in the our highest risk group throughout the entire time that we've been presenting it. Um so starting in December 2020 and then now
155with this year's results, the district was placed into receiverhip last January and that was specifically as a result of overspending um that the district incurred. Analopee Unified School District um I believe has been in the highest highest risk group for about three years. Um and they as well were are in receiverhip related to budgetary overspending. That is one of the spec most specific reasons that districts generally end up in receiverhip is for exceeding their budget. There's a specific provision in the statute regarding receiverhip that talks about that as a trigger basically for what needs to be considered when a district needs to be considered for receiverhip. >> Thank you Mr. Rivero. >> So on this talks about January assessment states TSD is now at high risk of not being able to operate within available budget
156and cash resources. When did the district cross from elevated risk into high risk and specifically what had changed? >> Um I believe that was with our the most recent information became available in November um is when the department of education publishes uh its budget um budget reserve calculations from the prior year. So, they take the district's October annual financial report um that's been prepared and submitted, compared it to the district's budget limit for that year, and that's when we saw the most um increase in the risk for the district having that most recent year's results available. >> Okay. Um the report states general fund reserve um would cover just over one month of expenditures. In your experience, how unusual or dangerous is is it for the district of TUSD size to be in that situation?
157>> We base our risk threshold for that on the government finance organization association's recommendations that districts maintain at least two months of general fund reserves. Um so that's why we use the decline overall decline. So if a district's spending more than it receives and then we also use that two-month of reserve as a measure for risk for districts. So are they both spending more more than they received and do they have less than that recommended two months of reserves in place? Um, I don't think I could give you a a a good statement right now on how unusual that is, but we do have our data file available um where you can see exactly how much each diff district in the state has in reserves if you wanted to then compare where Tucson stands amongst
158the rest of the 207 districts in our analysis. >> Okay. And then I think uh you know because of our override you know that has kind of helped us to try to fix this uh 21 million 25 million where we're at. So very fortunate for the voters to do that for us now despite spending reductions um 2025 still shows negative general fund operating margins and 42% reductions on fund balance. Is this still a traditional problem or is this a structural deficit? the are you asking about the idea of spending more monies than have been received? >> So I think in this case in particular u Mr. Hernandez touched on it a little bit that one of the contributing factors for your district was a misallocation of some revenues in I believe it was the current
159year most recent year in fiscal year 25 um that related to the district's transfer of capital monies to operations and whether or not the cash then followed in in the appropriate fund. Um this is based on Mr. Hernandez's analysis of it in what he's described. So, we can't necessarily see that for ourselves. Uh, but that did contribute to some of that general fund risk. Uh, but then again, it there still goes along with the declines we're seeing in the operating and capital budget limit reserves, which does indicate the district spending more than it received in those years. And so, that's just a basic function of having costs that exceed the revenues that come in. Um, our capital reserves declined 83% since 21 and 68% since 2025 alone. What point do we move from risk to
160potential failure? >> Again, I don't know if I can necessarily answer that question right now because it's up to what the district's decisions have been made in this current year. So, we have the budget limits for the current year that we're showing you in there. Um, the district would then need to look at what it's planning to spend in this current year. Um, is there an estimate of what you're going to be carrying forward at the end of this year and then maybe projecting out those expenditures going forward of how long the district can sustain spending these reserve amounts before it gets to a point where no reserves are are any longer available. >> Just a few more. Thank you. Um, we're talking about, you know, I guess enrollment, you know, action plan sites, enrollment
161stabilization efforts producing several million. Um, you know, and this might even be a Ricky question. Are these gains sustainable? Are these just going to be one-time recoveries? Um, I know we talked about ESA and, you know, are we losing kids to charters and things of that nature. Is our realistic enrollment outlook over the next three years? I guess realistic in our in our action plan. >> I was going to say I think that's a better question for Mr. Hernandez. >> What our action plan doesn't state because we know it's a very delicate topic and we know that people have various emotions and opinions about the item. But at some point in the future, not today, not this year, maybe not even next year, at some point, uh, the Tucson Unified community needs to reckon with
162its geographical layout. Um, the biggest boundary for us right now is the amount of sites that we operate. Uh, to give you an example, Mesa does uh about 53,000 students and they do that with around 54 55 campuses. So, we're built geographically like it's still 1996. And we know that that's a tough issue. I mean, I just experienced that recently. I found out that my childhood elementary school in Poria is going to be closing and just it just it a wave of emotion and nostalgia just overtook me, you know, thinking about my time there. And I understand how how emotional that the item could be, but that's actually a longer term um answer in terms of how we deal with this uh in the long term in terms of reimagining a Tucson Unified School District
163that is better equipped to meet the needs of the students that we have now as well as the enrollment patterns that we see that are starting to drift and starting to shift towards the west and towards the southwest. So, don't want to alarm anybody. That's why we didn't want to put a bunch of stuff in writing, but I think at some point in the future uh that conversation uh probably needs to happen. >> Yeah. And and again, I I'm grateful that you guys are coming here because I think um we have to realize a reality on a lot of these types of things. You know, there's uh issues that we have with school enrollment. Where were we when we had to close a bunch of schools last time or reconfigure? We have to have these
164conversations. We have to be willing to look at because we're not gaining any money. And I know a while back Ricky had mentioned for at Sanita for an example, you know, it cost us $3 million to keep it open. Um we're only getting a million dollars uh back to help offset those costs. We're losing $2 million. How how soon are we going to stop this bleeding? You know, this is something that's brought on up that um the public needs to know where we are in a financial uh aspect. You know, we've got a great audit committee that's uh not um able to do its uh duties as much as they should be. And I know there was one of these things that came on up and I had it in the question here that [snorts]
165um um you know early warning metrics um you know uh what could have happened or how maybe could the audit committee our audit committee that's supposed to be here for the board how could they gave us a quarterly reporting um so that no board member up here can later claim surprise that we weren't notified of the potential this high-risisk get a status report you know um yes uh uh um you know what is what was the the the word here was a mission or silence is a mission is also considered a lie what what have we not also been seeing on some of these things and I understand we want to kick the road can down the road and not look at closures of schools reconfigurations sacred cows but we have to realistically need to
166do that because our numbers are not going up. You have us down for the one year, what was it? 3.5 um 3.68 down in uh weighted students with a potential 8.99% in four years, 9%. Um how are we going to maintain the staff, the positions that we have of our staff, keep these schools open with this declining uh enrollment unless we have some other type of plan. I know it's not a popular topic, but it's something we need to talk about because like I said, I don't know how else we're going to get out of this high risk. We can move things around. I know we're supposed to come up with $10 million out this next year, another 10 million, another 10 million these next three years or, you know, 13, whatever it is to
167come up to 25 million to just right size. this override is just giving us a small runway to fix our financial uh problems. I think the board has to realize we got to stop writing checks that we can't don't have in our bank account. And that was what number three district spending beyond our means. I think is what you had mentioned, Megan. Uh on that um you know I have an action plan in place. Are we going to be held accountable to that action plan so that we can actually do some of these things? I had a lot of other questions, but um knowing kind of what you've been giving me, you have a certain realm that you can to answer some of these questions on. I think some of them a little bit higher
168than that. But again, I extremely thank you for diving in doing this, making us aware of that and putting us on notice that TUSD needs to look at their financial uh situation and we need to uh do a better job of the governing board. Thank you. Miss Luna Rose, you use your you moved your microphone, so I'm assuming you had something to say. >> I did. Thank you, [clears throat] Dr. Shaw. Hi. Thank you so much for um coming I'm assuming coming down from Phoenix. >> Yes, we did. Okay. [laughter] >> So, we try not to keep you too long so you can make it up at a decent hour. >> Appreciate it. But I I want to ask um what role should a board play in um supporting a district to move out of
169financial risks because to be fair to um Mr. Hernandez and his team he has come to us over and over that there's a deficit and we as a board and and we you know take account of the votes that we make. Part of that has why I think we have moved into this high risk. So what can we do as a board to support Mr. Hernandez um in the future to pull us out of this? >> Well, the board is the one with the primary responsibility for making those budget and the finance related decisions. um which is one of the biggest reasons why we in in this risk analysis want to get in front of each and every one of the boards that we've identified as highest risk to help um you all understand uh
170the results that we're seeing. So the boards is the one who's who's making the final decisions on budgets and um expenditure amounts and you know you likely have to rely on your finance team for information and recommendations. Um, but ultimately the board makes most if not all of those decisions. >> Thank you, >> Mr. You move your microphone. >> No, but I do have a comment. >> Go ahead. Um, I just feel as a governing board, we've again we've been notified about our financials and we keep talking about up up here about closing schools, consolidation, sacred cows, all of these things, but I have yet to hear from my governing board members what their recommendations are. So, if we're serious about this, I think we need to have a clear and concise discussion about what
171that looks like. And speaking of school closures, I would like to know how much the district did save uh from the last round of u school closures. If I can get that information at a later date, I would appreciate it. >> Thank you, Miss Xram. I'll say a couple of things. Um and thank you for coming down here for your presentation. I don't have any questions. And you know, I'll I'll just want to comment a couple things that Mr. Romero said. Um like all this information presented tonight is not new information. our our weight of student count. We address this every time we talk about 40th day, 100th day enrollment. That's not any new information. The reserves change over the years when we have the five-year projections. We see that with every major financial decision
172we make as a district uh as a governing board and we see the consequences on what this means for our reserves. And so we are we went into every decision over the last couple of years knowing that we have a reserve. we were able to accumulate a reserve of about $40 million and that's what's presented here in the audit uh website as well. And the question is, do we just keep this in savings for savings sakes or do we actually spend it on programs and services for our students and make sure that we can pay our staff uh a a more livable wage with inflation what it was and we decided that on a latter approach and we went into that with a very open eyes to say that we need an audit committee or
173someone to tell us this information like this is information that we are well aware of in every budget discussion over the last couple of years and to say that we write checks that don't have that we don't have in our bank account. That is 100% not at all what we're doing and that's really disingenuous to say that we're doing that and it really feeds into the negativity. We have $40 million in reserve or had $40 million in reserves and again that came from vacancy savings and financial stewardship and decisions we made during the pandemic years and which was helped with the funds that we had and we made very conscious decisions on how to spend those reserves. Again, we're not here to have dividends for shareholders. We are a public body. Our shareholders are our
174public and our students and we spend that money on our students year after year. And yes, I agree that we have a lot of difficult decisions to make because with our enrollment loss being one thing, but even more important than our enrollment loss is the massive cuts to our budget from the state government. When they think one or 2% of an inflationary increase will make up for an 8% inflationary rate during the last couple of years, that is a massive budget cut from the state government. And so we are dealing with not just an enrollment loss, but state legislators year after year that are trying to get rid of public education as their main end goal. And they're doing that by nickeling and dimming and death by a thousand cuts with their budget cuts. And
175so we were very conscious of the decisions to work on our reserves. And I understand that a lot of the decision making this a high risk going into like the reserves going down. And we don't make any apologies on that. We used our reserve. We used the $40 million of savings that we had to pay our teachers and staff to keep positions to keep services for our students active. And thanks to the override, we're able to maintain some of these positions and expand some of these positions that are making a difference for our students and families. And we are going to be making budget cuts to make sure that we are more living within our means. But we we never wrote one check that we didn't have in the bank account. that is completely disar
176like not characterizing the situation at all accurately and so I want to make sure that the public knows what we're doing and what we're not doing uh in this situation. >> Well, I disagree on you on that one. Uh you know, first of all to to keep blaming the air zone legislature for us not being successful. You know, what are we doing here in our own backyard? First of all, what are we going to do to fix this problem? This is our problem. Not the Arizona state legisle. Yes, if they gave us more money, great. Whatever. But that's not the situation. We're not going to be getting that. We unless you want to run for state legisle and change stuff up over there, then you have that podium. What are we going to do here
177as a district in TUSD? You want to talk about checks? You know, we made votes for $100 million worth of electric buses. We don't have a checkbook to cover that amount. It was other things that we've done. We had David Schmero that we decided to take money that was going in towards what was in the 1010 to take that money going over there. If you go look at any of the the bond types of things, we're going to run out of money uh in our bond uh things because we have so many projects that are way over budget. We keep spending money and now we're going to run out of money to for these other bond projects later on down the line. So, this isn't a false statement. It's true. It's what's happening. It might
178not be right now. It's going to be happening down down the line. you know, um to to say that it's not true that we're just, you know, like I said, you know, one of the few times I agreed with Natalie on here was when we talked about Davis being financially responsible on some of those types of things. Yes, let's give them good things. That'll give them an opportunity to succeed and thrive and things of that nature. But at what expense are we going to do for later schools later on down the line that aren't going to be getting some of that money? You know, um again, we can agree to disagree on that one. We can continue to blame the Arizona legislature or we can sit up here and make tough decisions as a board
179and see what we can do and increase our enrollment, help our students, increase their safety, do what we can for our teachers that, you know, put in so much work and effort as well as our principles and staff and administration, all those that do. We're here to work together, but at the end of the day, not everybody's going to be here with the district. we're going to have to downsize and we just need to start thinking about those things. And again, I appreciate your feedback on that. I'm just giving you mine. Thank you, Dr. Shaw. All right. Thank you for your presentation tonight. >> Thank you. >> All right. We're going to move back in the agenda to I believe, let me get back to the right page. 7.1, approval to appoint new members to
180serve on the Tucson Unified School District Budget Advisory Committee. and I will turn it over to Miss Luna Rose, our board leaison for the budget advisory committee. >> Thank [clears throat] you, Dr. Shaw. So, the VI uh budget advisory committee um has met several times in the last couple weeks to review um applications and talk about what kind of candidates they would like to see on the committee. Um right now there are three current vacancies and we have an upcoming vacancy. Um, correct, Miss Borboa. We do. That's right. Um, so, uh, the budget advisory committee, I I do want to state, um, I know I don't see any of the budget advisory committee members tonight, but I would like to acknowledge um, Monsura Cabo, who she uh, the chair, uh, Jason Free, Dr. Norma Gonzalez,
181Dana Islas, Taylor Pacheco, who's the vice chair, Dr. Albert Sieros who is resigning at the end of the month. Um William Solen, Dr. Teresa Toro, and Zenia Vadell for all their work uh on this committee. Um >> are they on? >> They should be getting on. They're not up. They'll be >> Well, my my apologies at some point. [laughter] Okay. Uh but I wanted to um thank them. Um it's a mix of parents, community members, and teachers, staff who um are concerned about um what's happening in the district, how the money is being spent, and their recommendations to the board and what they would like um the working on what the recommendations u that the board brings to them. So, I just wanted to acknowledge um their work um because we have spent I'd say
182hours on doing some of this stuff. So, um are we I don't want to >> we have two sections of our agenda that have budget >> advice on the next the next one. Okay. All right. So, um, second one, >> we, like I said, there's four openings and, uh, we as a board have decided to push forward Crystal Malay, uh, who is a parent and a community member, and and Carissa Shepard, who's also a community member. So, um, so moved. Thank you. >> I'll second. >> All right. Do you want me to call it? So moved by uh Miss Shaw and seconded by Dr. Shaw. All those in favor say I. >> I. Any opposed? >> Okay. The eyes have it. Um if we can uh let them know as soon as possible. And um
183to the other applicants, we do really appreciate your time. Um, we know it's a little bit of a process, but we really wanted to see um community members um and to make it more of a balanced uh BAC. So, but um it is open and um as Miss Shaw alluded to before, uh committee is always looking for uh fresh voices. So, please go to our website um and go to the governing board page and you can look at our committees and um find one that you might want to uh uh apply for whether it's the BAC or the broad oversight or um the alternative ed or the audit committee. We really um appreciate uh your service. >> Thank you, M. Rose. I'll add uh just for feedback for the budget advisory committee. The reason that
184we did not uh that I didn't want to move forward uh other applicants uh for a couple of reasons. We already have a high school principal uh involved with the budget advisory committee. We thought if we're going to have another administrator that's coming from a the K8 environment so we can get different perspectives on this committee uh that is addressing issues related to uh to all of our students. Uh and for the other applicant, we already have representation from Catalina High School and we'd love to have some uh other staff or other community members uh that can represent other parts of the district as well. So, uh, when you go back to the budget advisory committee, Miss Luna Rose, as our board leazison, you can give that that feedback as you're vetting future candidates. >>
185Okay. Thank you, Dr. Shaw. >> All right. We'll move on to 7.2 approval to procure goods and services for quarter 3 and quarter 4, fiscal year 2526, bond project priorities. Dr. Trill, >> President Sher, uh, Dr. Carter, uh, welcome to the podium. And looks like we're going to be focusing on window security film, right? Yes. Good evening uh to the uh governing board uh president Dr. Shaw and governing board members. I'm here to present the approval to procure goods and services for quarter 3 and four bond projects. The bond oversight committee approved the project requested and determine the priorities for implementation. The upcoming party bond projects include the purchase of security window film phase 2. And this may seem uh familiar. You guys did on December 9th approve the security window film, but I had
186a correction that I needed to make with the school names. So, this is really just to uh correct that. So, if you look here, um the amount is $83,498 for 13 schools for the security window film. And if we can go to the details, what was corrected was the school the school names. [clears throat] the amount was correct, but I wanted to uh definitely be transparent because we always match the dollars for the requisitions to the schools and that's when I realized that it was a correction on my part. So these are the schools. C Rose, K8, Deetsz, Duffy, McGee, Mccoral, uh, Pablo Gardens, Roberts, Naylor, Robins, uh, Utterbach, Wakefield, Sabina High School, Sara High School, and Sanorita. And of course, we do, if you can go down a little bit of the 20% contingency.
187So I am here to u make that correction. So I would like to see if there could be a motion to approve the procurement of goods and services for core three and four bond projects which consist of the security window film. >> So Dr. Carter, we already approved this is just a correction with the the school names. >> Correct. >> Okay, I'll second. Motion made by Miss Extram, second by myself. Any comments or questions? All those in favor say I. >> I. I. >> All right. 50. Thank you very much. >> All right. and we'll continue on to 7.3 consideration of extension of superintendent contracts. Um so I'll present this one. So uh we've had a chance in executive session to discuss uh the terms of the contact uh contract governing board member. Any uh
188comments, questions or motions before us? >> I'll move the item. >> I'll second. All those in favor say I. >> I. I. Any oppose? >> Opposed. Right. Item passes 32. Uh thank you and Dr. here. I want to thank you for your how many years of service now? >> Uh this will be >> entering into year 10 >> into year 10. Uh and so this contract will uh extend your contract for additional three years and want to thank you for your continued leadership of our district. >> I appreciate the uh faith and confidence of the school board and um it this really celebratory item comes at a very difficult moment for our community, our state, and our nation. Uh I'll only say that the challenges before our district are bigger than ever. uh whether it's
189our financials uh or the obligation to keep our students and our families safe and then the continued pursuit of academic excellence and making sure that whatever budget reductions that we make do not compromise our services to students or the academic excellence in the classroom. So, uh I'm excited to get started on that work. Great. Thank you, Dr. Trillo. Uh and then we'll go on to item 8.1 review and approval of budget advisory committee priority area recommendations for implementation in the 2627 school year. We'll turn so I will turn to our uh our uh board leazison for options um our um budget advisory committee member Monsar Cababayto uh we had an issue with the link that we were going to send her uh didn't get to her. So the options are we can either move it
190to February 10th or if you feel comfortable as a liaison representing the discussion uh we can have you along with Ricky go ahead and cover the item. >> Um well I was just in contact right now with um Monsarat and she would prefer to be here in person. >> Okay. >> So if we can make a continuation for our February meeting would appreciate it. >> Okay. >> All right. This action item. So we can just move this to the next meeting then. >> Absolutely. >> Any objection? All right. Seeing none, we'll move on to our last main item, item 9.2, fiscal year 2627, budget development updates. Dr. Tio, >> yes. As stated uh with the auditor general's uh visit and even before that visit, uh we've been pretty vocal uh about embarking on a multi-year
191plan to address uh what essentially is going to be around a $28 million deficit by 2829. And taking our first bite out of that apple will be a $10 million budget reduction package that we will be putting before the board uh in the next few board meetings for consideration. We are not going to we're not going to be able to tackle all uh $28 million of the deficit, which of course includes the expenditure gap that we've been talking about, as well as making sure that we're carving out enough um budget savings for future compensation increases. But what the override allows us to do is to be able to have a little bit of a runway to be able to chunk down this deficit on a yearly basis. So year one we're going to be targeting
19210 million for 2627. I want to turn it over to Mr. Hernandez to kind of walk us through the progress report. >> Good evening board members again. Uh so yeah, as Dr. Druo mentioned, this will dovetail into a lot of the action items that are part of that risk management plan that was presented um at the Otter General. So you know, I won't go over all of this. I'll kind of skip to the, you know, halfway down, but you know, because we're a high financial risk district, we we've got a lot of work to do to try to move us forward and out of a structural deficit, right? So, um, by fiscal year 30, our deficit is projected to be about $27 million total. Uh, so our operating margin on average across the next five
193years is a is a negative 8%. So that just means that we're spending 8% more than we are bringing in in revenue. Therefore, relying on one-time spending, right? So this isn't about budget. This isn't about carry forward. This is just about dollars coming into the district and how much we're putting out. And so how much reliance are we using in one-time dollars carry forward. So for the next fiscal year, our recommendation is to reduce permanently the nondesc portion of the M budget by $10 million. Uh so that that is currently the goal that that we'd like to put out. So just to provide some background, so the the hundth day came and went last week. Um we from December of 25 when I provided the last budget revision until the 20 until the 100th day
194this year um we lost an additional 74 ADM. Um so in May, we will bring you a budget reduction that includes an additional $386,000. Uh that that being said, the hundth day basically comes to about a 3.8% loss which you saw in the auditor general's report. Um fortunately, you know, I guess if there's a silver lining in all of this, we you know, when the board was presented and you adopted a budget, we incorporated a 1 and a.5% decline already. So, we are not having to eat all of that in one fell swoop because we created a budget that already, you know, provided essentially the fact that we knew we were going to decline. The fact that we're at 3.8% is is definitely a bit of a surprise. Um, but the 100th day average daily
195membership will not be finalized. It'll be kind of signed seal delivered and when the state does its recalculation in July. So, at that point, that's when the number becomes final. But this is based on the current projection we have today. Um, so we are currently aiming at a 3.8% loss year-over-year on the 100th day. Uh, just to provide kind of a an overview, you know, as Dr. Ravi mentioned, we bring you kind of a an overview of the five-year projection uh, across revenues, our expenditures, what does it look like going forward. You know, right now, based on where we're at, we're we're looking at a a balance of $4.1 million. Um if if all holds right now, this essentially will be the last year we will have a positive carry forward balance before we will
196have to essentially make additional reductions in order for the carry forward balance to move forward. This doesn't include you know any of the changes that that we are uh that we're asking to do. So this is just basically as of today it does not include the override as well, right? because the override is over and above and is separate from the ongoing operations of the district. But as you can see by FYI30, we're at $26.7 million. That's the cumulative total um essentially of or the net total, I should say, of the fund balance by fiscal year 30 going forward. So in those in those projections, you know, you mentioned it previously, you know, Dr. Robbie, there there are no projected increases to the base support level beyond the 2%. That is the stat statutoily required
197minimum or maximum I should say by the state that we're required to receive. And so 2% is all we're projecting uh for the next couple of years. There is currently no resolution in Prop 123. Uh we receive about $2.6 million. So after FY27, unless there's a solution by the state legislature, that that money essentially will disappear. um which is you know which is just under 10% of our total uh or 1% I should say of our total M budget. Uh so hopefully there is a resolution on Prop 123. We just don't know what that is based on the current temperature at the state legislature. One-time supplements for fisc uh for uh students who are eligible for free lunch. Um those run out at the end of fiscal year 27 as well. There's a commitment right
198now in both the governor's budget um and the legislative budget to continue those one more year. But beyond that, there is, you know, that is up in the air. So unless we see a solid commitment projected by the legislature, we we're really not counting on those revenues coming back. Um on the positive side, the you know, we have this humongous solar array across the district that was um put on debt service uh several CFOs ago. Um that debt service will run out by fiscal year 29. So that $2.8 8 million that we currently move out of M to pay for that debt service will now return essentially to M. We will have satisfied our our leases on our solar panels. Um we have to talk about future salary increases beyond FY27. Um compensation will always
199be something that I know that is important to us and to our employees. Just as a reminder, a one-step 1% increase is approximately $4.5 million. um we will see a 12% increase in benefits uh for next year. Um that you know my colleague John Fernandez and I will will talk about this with you at a future board meeting, but I can tell you right now that it's 12%. Um the the industry average is hovering anywhere between 12 and 14. So we're definitely well within what is happening across the market of health insurance um in this country. Utilities are expected to increase by 7%. uh for obvious reasons uh you know electricity is you kind of the way it's gone um um as I mentioned before we pay the same corporate rate that Costco pays there
200is not a separate rate for public schools um so whatever that corporate rate goes so goes to USD um beyond that we're we're just reflecting a 1% increase and and because the ADM is tied to the revenue control limit our capacity and our override will decrease Right. So, we projected $45 million based on how our ADM has now changed. Um, currently we're looking at a loss of $862,000 to the overall $45 million capacity. So, we're now looking at, you know, about $44.2 million or so um available for next fiscal year. Uh so, ADM definitely has an impact on our capacity in the overwrite. So, our proposed budget realignments for next year. So I as I mentioned $10 million is our goal is a permanent reduction. We are starting with central budget reductions once again. Um
201so uh we are looking at accumulating about $3.6 million across all central departments. Uh the only two departments who will not contribute to this are risk management and utilities. So general liability and utilities 100% of their budgets are exactly for that. uh there was a 2% reduction across uh across five departments, Xed, facilities, fine arts, intercolastics, and school safety. All told, those five departments will contribute approximately $800,000 to the whole. And every other department not labeled up there will contribute the remaining 7% out of their adopted 2526 budget, about $2.8 million. Every department in this district with the exception of the ones mentioned there will contribute 7% uh by the end of this fiscal year. There are additional reductions totaling $4.1 million that we will bring to the board on the 10th. Uh we are
202finalizing those those items. We are still kind of making sure that everything that we want to bring to you is possible, but we are looking at additional $4.1 million in other sectors of the district. Um, and we are expecting turnover and attrition of about $2.3 million. We know that with a 3.8% decline, the number of positions we have we need in the classroom are not going to be the same. That doesn't mean that we're cutting teachers. That just means that as vacancies become available um that are no longer necessary in a specific school site, we will essentially close that position. And that is salary that will not come back unless that school goes. Uh so we are expecting about another 2.3 million in turnover and attrition to get to the full 10 million. Our carryover
203with these actions, our carryover without the override is estimated to increase 2.4 million. So we would decrease our deficit that we projected in that 5-year deficit by half just by doing this. Now anything above this is certainly gravy. If for some reason we get additional revenue through 123, if we get additional revenues through increases in the base support level and they're not reflected here, certainly that would be positive news to the bottom line, but currently that is not what we're projecting. So $10 million is the goal. Additional realignments is, you know, kind of going back to the risk uh assessment plan to the to the auditor general, that $10 million that we've been transferring from capital to M will be eliminated over the next two years. So 7 million of that 10 million will be
204returned to capital for to 2627. So that is going to contribute obviously to the loss in capacity in M simply because we're no longer going to have this 10 million. Um but that $7 million will be put right back into capital projects that we need addressed immediately uh both on the instructional side and the operational side. and then another $3 million in fiscal year 28 will come off and by that point all 10 million will have been returned back to capital. Um effectively we are increasing the capital budget by $7 million next year. Um that is I know that is kind of music to the ears of our folks in operations and technology and transportation and curriculum. Um and we are going to work diligently to put together a really good capital improvement plan. Now,
205we will need additional permanent reductions beyond fiscal year 27. Um, currently we're projecting another 5.5 million in fiscal 28, another four and a half million in fiscal 29 and another 5 million in fiscal 30 um with the goal of achieving $27 million um by that point uh in fiscal year 30. Um that's, you know, everything remaining consistent. The the projections, as I mentioned, all still include a one and a half% year-over-year decline. um I may get a little bit more conservative if we continue to see the trend in terms of the ADM moving further and further away from one and a half%. So what are the next steps? Uh again we will identify and come back to the board on February 10th to discuss the $4.1 million in detail. We have started using the 100th
206day ADM to calculate attrition in FTEES across the district. So, we are in the process of providing schools with their budget FTE allocations and essentially what they will have or not have. Um, we will seek uh and come back to you to discuss override funded positions and salary changes. Obviously, we want to make sure that we let you all know as we've committed and let the community know where we're funding, what we're funding out of the override, and where everything is going. And finally, we will present to you a capital improvement plan and seek a budget for your approval uh later in February uh once we've got everything sorted out. So those are our upcoming next steps on additional budget development. Any questions? Thank you, Mr. N. Quick question on the previous slide. So you
207mentioned uh February 10th meeting you're hoping to have the first bullet point uh to us. Is that for is that just for an info session or is that going to be some action? of >> it would probably be study action. >> Study action. >> Yeah, it would probably just because you know it depends on exactly what we identify. We may need action from the board. >> Okay. And then for the other bullet points, when do you propose a timeline on the other points to come to us for information or study action >> for the departments >> for the other three? So for well the for the second the second bullet will just be part of the budgeting process. Um >> May you said >> yeah. So, in the and the override funded positions, uh, we
208hope to have those sometimes in the next month because we really need to get those, you know, out there and we need to get information to our staff, especially around salaries. Um, the capital improvement plan, our goal is to have it back to you by February 24th. >> Okay. Governing board members. Bishan, >> could you talk a bit about the um reduction to XED $373,000? >> Yeah. So, uh currently that department has we have not cut XED um during any of the central department cuts that we've implemented over the last couple of years. Um, so what we're looking for is we're looking for that department to have a minimal contribution to the entire hole, which is why we focus not just on Exed, but other departments that are essentially vital facilities, fine arts, intercolastics, and
209school safety. And we want to make sure that there is some level of contribution. We want to make sure that departments are taking a look at are they operating as efficiently as possible with the dollars that they're being given. Um, XED is is about a4 to $45 million department. Um, the vast majority are services to students or instructional support, but they do have administrative functions as well. And so the goal behind that is we want every department to focus on are you doing what you're supposed to be doing knowing that we don't have the capacity to sustain everything at the current level. So those proposed cuts are those coming from the administrative level or are we going to see cuts to parapros and >> that's that's the direction that departments are being given is that
210cuts need to stay as far away from schools as possible and need to focus on administrative functions before they do anything else. So we will be evaluating those cuts as they present them to finance and we'll present them to Dr. Trujillo for his approval as well. >> Okay. and then the 100,000 cut to school safety. >> Same thing. I mean, we're we're taking a look at are they operating in the in the best efficient way possible. Um certainly these are our recommendations. Um we're welcome to receive, you know, feedback from the board if you if you want to make any changes to any of the itemized lists. Obviously, it becomes a whack-a-ole, right? So if we don't do a cut onewhere one place, we do need to identify some other place because the further away
211we get from $10 million, the more we have to carry into cuts into future years. So um we're leaving it up to departments to make those determination determinations based on their services. >> Thank you. >> Just to clarify, so you had mentioned the on the other document with this item that has the budget reductions per department XAD is uh $189 million for the not $45 million. It's 18. Yeah, it's M1 $1819 million. Correct. Yeah. Yeah. >> The other budget lines. >> Yeah. The 40 the 40 It's a $45 million department when you include all sources. >> Okay. And this is just including the M budget cut. >> This is just M and it's not dollars that are specific at the school. These are dollars specific at the department level. So that $18 million does not
212account for parapros at sites, psychologists, any of the related service providers. These are just administrative central department dollars. All right. Thank you very much for your presentation this evening. >> You're welcome. >> All right. And our last item is uh 10.1 future meeting dates and agenda items. >> Yes. Uh so we have a couple of of uh items to highlight, you know, coming up on February 10th where the budget advisory recommendations are going to be coming. We've reset that. We're going to be bringing forward our budget package more explicitly. appreciate the board giving us a little bit more time to work with our association leaders to flesh out some of those details. Um, but we expect to be back uh on February 10th. I know that uh Mrs. Boa, you have a couple of dates
213in terms of adding some virtual sessions. We know the board is headed into the thick of administrative hiring season. We want to build in a couple of virtual sessions, one in February, one in March, so we can do more candidate reviews and application reviews with the board. Miss Burga. >> So the dates I have proposed are February 3rd, February 17th, March 3rd, and March 24th. [snorts] Those are all Tuesdays, and we would start at 5:00 via Zoom. >> Did you already pull all of us in terms of availability? >> I sent the email, but I only received two responses. >> Okay. >> So the other Sorry. >> How many do we need, Dr. Trillo? We need we have executive sessions with our general board meetings on the it's February 10th and February 24th. >> So
214we're going to build in two we we see we're going to have some real estate. We're going to have some negotiations items coming at us in those months. Um usually three of those agenda items will create a packed exact session. So we're building these in as reserve. >> I know March 3rd is going to be work for me. Does that work for other folks? Do we have a quorum for March 3rd? I can do March 3rd. I can also do February 3rd. >> March 3rd is better for me than February 3rd. >> Right. So, I'm hearing majority available March 3rd for an executive session. That'll be from 5 to 7 we're looking at. >> Yes. >> Okay. And then um on the other dates on the 17th I already have a commitment with tea for
215a forum so I'm not able to make anything on the 17th but if uh all four of you are available that day um I could be absent for one meeting. >> What was the date of that again? >> 17th of February. >> St. Patrick's Day. February 17th, not March 17th. >> I see. Thank you. February 17th. >> I'm available. >> Yeah, I suppose. >> So, I see two people available on the 17th of February. Three. >> All four. [snorts] Okay. >> All right. So, I'll make a motion then we're going to have an executive session on February 17th and March 3rd and that we can cancel the next board meeting if we need to based on needs. Right. Do I have a second? >> I'll second. >> All right. Any opposition? I'll take unanimous consent
216for those two items for those two dates to be added for our exact session. Okay. Anything else? Dr. Trio. >> All right. I'll close our meeting. >> Yeah. Dr. Shaw, Michelle, go ahead. >> Um, I would like to add an item to a future agenda. If we can get the uh communications director here for a presentation on the media campaign for enrollment for the next school year, I would like that listed as an action item so that the board can have a say in all the money spent towards uh boosting our enrollment. and modifying any campaign if we deem it necessary. >> And with that item, can we get a um in the same time a summary from Kesa 6? Yes. K12 about what the what the situation was this last fall in terms of
217enrollment with them? >> Yeah, we're going to want that in with the K6. So, we'll do the K6 as requested by Miss Aram. We can add in the case um as well. Okay. All right. Thank you everyone. Have a good night.