001e e e okay uh Megan Mogan I have her for agend agendized and non- agendized and I'm going to time that for three minutes okay Megan so whenever you start and I just have the agendized item so okay thanks good evening members of the board superintendent rikman assistant superintendent and staff my name is Megan Mogan and I'm speaking tonight as a community member um I was a very proud longtime former staff member here on the Tucson campus prior to my resignation last spring to pursue my my full-time doctoral degree um as a former staff member I had the privilege of working with leadership on the pillars outlined in asb's strategic plan for 2021 through 2026 and um the plan commits to four things just as a reminder excellence in education student development organizational culture and
002Resource Management um recent proposed cuts to teacher stiens removal of salary step increases limits on their professional development and a hiring frees directly contradict all four of the pillars in asb's strategic plan the cuts undermine asb's overall mission and threaten educational quality quity staff morale and ultimately Student Success so pillar one excellent communication and relationships freezing salaries and cutting stiens significantly undermines teacher morale it erodes trust between leadership and staff and research consistently shows that stagnant wages and lack of professional growth opportunities lead to high attrition rates disrupting student teacher relationships and th the overall stability of our school pillar two outstanding student development putting limits on staff professional development and implementing a hiring freeze prevents teachers from staying current with best practices this reduces instructional quality pillar three superb organizational culture salary freezes stip
003Cuts restricted professional development they devalue staff contributions making it harder to recruit and retain diverse highquality Educators the hiring frees and stagnant wages directly contradict objective 4.1 which calls for attracting and retaining the most qualified Personnel pillar four effective Resource Management any budget proposal linked to decreased or Frozen staff wages represent short-term savings at the expense of long-term stability cuts are not effective Resource Management so instead of targeting student facing Personnel the board must explore alternative cost-saving measures asb's own plan states that every student and staff has the opportunity to grow and succeed so I urge the board to uphold the commitments you made in asdb strategic plan and reject budget cuts that weaken the educational experience for asdb students and the professionals who serve them thank you realize that was that loud thank you
004next I have Sher Brown oh can you hear me yep okay good afternoon superintendent Annette rikman board of directors ASB staff um my name is Sher Brown I'm the counselor in the high school for school for the deaf and School for the Blind I've been working here for 31 years and so that makes me old committed but personally I like to say extremely passionate I'm here today because I want to talk about the budget cuts and the possible impacts on students I want to remind everyone that we are all having jobs because of our students so let's face it it is all about the students student education and safety must be our priority remember we are all on the same team and we really need to communicate and collaborate to address these budget challenges together
005we're all wearing red we are cons in solidarity supporting the school uh we appreciate super superintendent rikan's weekly short poil emails and especially Friday's in-depth changes and cuts but those Communications have only been one way we cannot discuss or ask questions or clarify points again we need to have an opportunity to come together to work together some areas being cut our field trips and restricted Sports and things that attract students to come to ASB we want to preserve programs and services that attract students and encourage parents to send their children to asdb I understand the importance of using data driven decisionmaking but that is only one aspect of the equation the other aspects are the students the most important part every single one of our students is on an IEP which we must consider their
006unique needs challenges language Behavior accommodation in order to meet those needs we need to have a sufficient number of Staff everyone is aware of the teacher shortage so we cannot afford to lose anyone or freeze positions on the front line in fact we need additional support because if an IA or a teacher is out we have limited backup we are already doing more with less and functioning on a skeleton crew I don't know how much more we can cut what we really need to do is make cuts from above the front line not to the front line positions above the front line need to be reconfigured and resources Consolidated positions from above the front line need to be dispersed so additional support can be provided on the front lines wherever possible we need staff on
007our campuses supervisors directors on campuses one or two days a month supervising from another city is not effective we also need staff work working in person not from home staff directly working with students must be protected cutting staff on the front line will and does impact students the impact cannot be seen or recognized by data or ratios but it's only understood by working with the Frontline staff and I'm overtime I have plenty to talk about I'm here to be consulted thank you thank you next I have Dan mallis I'm sure I just butchered that name and I apologize you're forgiv I'm sensitive to that with a name like kifil hello and I want to thank the board superintendent rikman and Miss kifil for inviting us to come and U express our opinions I am Dan
008Maes I have been a teacher here for the school for the deaf working with multiply disabled severely sensory impaired students M dssi for well over 30 years if I can take a moment i' would like to read from the asb's vision mission statement we are committed to respect support and the well-being of all we are committed to the Excell excellence in the education of all children through Arizona who are hard of hearing de and have vision loss excellence in the education of our children I am concerned that our students education will be affected by some decisions that may be made I am retiring this may and I have been informed that my position as a teacher for the deaf multiply disabled severely sens impaired students the MSI is going to be frozen I'm worried my
009students in their excellence in a education will no longer be occurring I am sure you are aware my students require a highly specialized education program involves extensive modifications that is functional under the category of multiple disabilties ities MD SSI my students require a specialized access to make progress in their educational curriculum program all my students IEP state that they are to receive specialized education from a teacher who is certified and qualified to work with students who are in the mdss program I ask that you do not just Place someone without the MD SSI experience and developing A specialized program it will be a detrimental to my students and their program and their excellence in education they will not succeed I wish that my students education not suffer by being given their instruction by a non-qualified
010individual um so I'm asking that you the board to reconsider freezing my position and to open it up also so my students can achieve their full potential in their Excellence of Education I know there are tough decisions to be made I know I only ask that you please honestly listen to the ideas that are being presented to you guys today and to be willing to take them seriously and to consider them when making your decision thank you thank you next I have Karina Lee hello Bard uh thank you for being here and allowing us to speak today my name is cran Lee I am one of the teachers at asdb campus and this will be my 17th year teaching um I hold a general education certification cross categorical special education CT as well as a
011teacher of the visually impaired certification in addition to those I hope the national board certification and special education was a rathon teacher of the year finalist and the Southern Arizona Association for the education of young children n and Brandon teaching award recipient tonight you will be voting to offer myself and colleagues a contract for the next year that contract will not reflect any of the additional certifications or Awards or the additional professional development hours that I have sought in order to be a better teacher to earn those recogn recognitions While most districts provide additional siphons for national board survi teaching asdb does not and my contract will not reflect that it has never reflected that and up until this year I was okay with that because I felt that asb's strategic plan aligned with my
012view that we should provide high quality special education to students in in our most vulnerable population I felt supported by Administration and colleagues I was proud to work at ASB and I had thought I had found my work home sorry last Friday I applied to work for another District in Tucson the entire budget budgetary process has me questioned CB's mission statement and strategic plan the lack of transparency and communication have not given me enough information about what extra expectations and duties will be placed on me if I sign that contract and I do not know if I can fulfill my duties to the best of my students needs when we hear about budget cuts the majority of them are affecting staff who are direct with students these Cuts include no step increases limiting fi trips
013no subay for covering colleagues classes and no stiens for going above and beyond as a leader on campus in addition we do not know if we will be able to fill any positions that are vacant my cooworker and I have repeatedly said that we are at our limit to add that we will be expected to take on additional respons responsibilities next year without clear guidance on what those will be or how the administration will support us the spirit of determination of determined optimism as leaders have stated does not include input from us the teachers who will have to find the supposed Spirit the contracts being offered to us at this time represent a future exploitation of teachers comp compassion for for our students I ask that you meet with teachers and direct service providers to
014come up with an equitable solution in regards to the budget crisis to get a plan that will allow ASB to be successful without losing highly qualified staff thank you thank you I appreciate everybody's comments tonight and before moving on to the next agenda item I I do want you to hear that this is not something we take lightly um All State agencies are being asked to reduce travel reduce professional development freeze positions that are open look at position descriptions and see where we can um downsize in in the light of the budget cuts that asdb has already been told that they have to make we are ALS also at the state being asked to do an additional 2% per year um on All State budgets as far as any kind of spending goes so I
015don't want to say that what you are saying is not important but I do want you to please bring some of these ideas forward to your leadership team um emails I'm sure will be accepted by not only the executive team but as well as your direct supervisors and managers um a lot of those things come directly to us a lot of those things Anette and I speak about on at least a monthly basis um so please feel free to reach out and and bring that information any ideas that you might have up the line um the finance committee all of that information is public um it is on the board docs page I believe it's on the ASB page um as well and you can see what we talk about at those meetings you can
016see where the bottom line is as far as that money goes um so I would encourage you all to take a look at it and reach out with questions thank you again for your comments tonight moving on to 1.3 superintendent the superintendent report superintendent reikan good afternoon board president kifil members of the board interim assistant superintendent katov assistant superintendent Cooper and asdb Community I'm very happy to see you all here with us this afternoon and I appreciate you sharing your thoughts and ideas as well as your feelings about what is currently happening at ASB we do not make these type of decisions lightly thank you board president kifo for sharing that with the community as well that these types of discussions are ongoing at the agency level at the board level and none of us
017want to have to make these types of difficult decisions but we have to move forward one of the things that I'd like to discuss is the qualities of a leader we have here this afternoon our asdb leadership and their contracts are being brought to the board for approval we have a list of Leaders with the intent to offer contract for the next school year I do not recommend that you offer contracts to these leaders unless they have these specific leadership qualities so this afternoon I want to talk about three leadership qualities that these leaders do have agility and that agility means that any time a situation arises they are able to quickly adapt and respond to those situations they are able to make decisions on the ground provide leadership to the teachers and professional staff
018St and other members of Staff these leaders are good stewards of asb's resources sometimes when we become leaders we may think that we have a right to take what we want that we can use asb's resources for our own gain instead these leaders are good stewards they are not taking asdb staff resources or money for own their own personal gain they are here for the express purpose of providing the best education and supports to our students that they can and I just heard from staff and teachers that they have the same intent the same goal and the same mission they are here to provide the best education possible to our students we are all in alignment with that the third leadership quality that they exhibit is courage We As Leaders must have courage in order
019to confront difficult situations and challenges that we face and sometimes we have to make decisions that are not easy that are not popular and that others disagree with but we have the leaders here who have the courage necessary to make those decisions and to move forward with those decisions and those decisions again are based with the intent of our agency which is to provide the best educational support that we can to our students so I submit to you that we um look at at the contracts offered to these leaders for next year and that you the board approve these contracts for all of the leaders that are listed on the agenda we need them we also need our qualified teachers professional staff and support staff of course we need them as well our students need
020them but with that we do have to figure out what our resources are we have to look at the external environment and all of you are aware that our environment is is dynamic it is changing rapidly it is changing in ways that we never could have imagined three or six months ago for us here at asdb one change that is happening more quickly than I anticipated is the enrollment numbers of our students I knew that that was tied to the birth rate the first time I heard that discussed was two years ago someone asked me about the decline and birth rate and whether that may potentially impact ASB and my response two years ago was well maybe in five or so years down the road but I didn't anticipate it impacting us very soon however
021we are already seeing that impact with our enrollment numbers not just on our Campus based programs but in our itinerate services as well the number of students that we are serving and supporting in the itinerant Services model continues to decline the connection to the birth rate with our student enrollment and our new and and continuing students means that we have fewer students with which means we have less Revenue with less Revenue that means that we have to make some changes we have to look at the external environment and figure out what that means for us we have to be good stewards of our resources and figure out how to achieve long-term sustainability now we do not currently have that last year we closed the fiscal year with negative $1.8 million this year we are projecting
022a deficit of $2.3 million if we do that again next year we are going to run out of money literally run out of money we will not be able to meet payroll and if you've been reading the news that is happening in one school District in Phoenix right now they ran out of money they could not cover the payroll for their staff as good stewards of State resources I do not want that to happen to us I want to keep our commitment to paying all of our staff every two weeks we do that by looking at the resources that we have and figuring out how to cut our spending and cut our costs some of those cuts are not easy to make we started with travel with professional development with your typical areas where you
023would First Look to attempt to reduce cost stop buying certain equipment and those types of things some repairs um can be deferred other types of um methodology to try to cover costs right now in terms of reduction are um happening however what we're left with now are staff staff are 80% of agency budget we have to look at that we have to look at the numbers of students that we have and then we have to try to align our student numbers with our teacher and staff numbers last month we had a meeting with the two principles and the directors during those meetings we talked about their students we talked about their teachers and their support staff we talked about scheduling for the fall and how we can move things around in order to reduce costs
024in some way way in order to reduce the number of teachers that we need in order to align with the needs of our students and the numbers of students in classrooms we had productive conversations those conversations were productive so much so that we decided to do them again next year in about January or February we're going to have these conversations every year get those groups together to talk about our student numbers and our student needs look at our staffing and our teachers and who we are able to place in order to meet the scheduling needs that also align with our financial resources and try to pull everything into alignment we will bring those groups in to make those decisions annually again none of this is easy two weeks ago I I finally made the call
025that next year we cannot provide increased pay we do not have the money to cover that cost without that money to add cost in that manner is not feasible we have to balance our budget first with a balanced budget we may be able to become a bit more flexible but for the next year at least we are not able to offer pay increases and just to let you know your leaders were part of that conversation and it's been an ongoing discussion for the last three months when it was time to make that decision they didn't make that call I made that call I did not make that decision lightly and it was not easy my job is to look at the agency and the agency's long-term sustainability that is my goal I want asdb to
026be standing strong 10 years years 20 years 30 years down the road so what we need to do now to make that happen is have make these hard decisions so if that means right now we have to make difficult decisions then that is what we will do I will close with taking any questions from the board thank you doesn't seem like we have any questions so I will move on to 1.4 assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction report interim assistant superintendent or catch off excuse me good afternoon board president kifil members of the board superintendent rikman assistant superintendent Cooper and the asdb community you all have my board report and I look forward to any questions um in anticipation of a long board meeting as well as the rainy and windy weather outside for those
027traveling I do want to keep this brief as superintendent rikeman mentioned over the last two months we have met with leaders of the Early Learning Program itinerate services and the two campuses to dis to discuss the student count their IEPs the staff needed for next year and where we could potentially tighten things up to find cost savings I do want to thank all of them for advocating for their programs during these discussions while also being professional uh during these tough conversations it's easy during these times of the budget cut to forget that we do have amazing things currently happening at asdb for example the Arizona Department of education's comprehensive literacy State development Grant specialist toward our three toward three preschool classrooms this grant specialist was able to observe the foundations for literacy instruction in three
028different settings and they were incredibly happy about seeing how it's working in our programs at pdsd our Robo Runners robotics team won big at the state championship coming in fourth place out of 47 teams they also won the judges award which recognized their outstanding effort and exceptional presence throughout the tournament in the skills competition the robo Runners ranked third with a combination score of 212 points and was one of only three teams to score over 100 points in both the driving and programming portions of the robotics they're now off to the world championship in Dallas this may at our Tucson campus they're in their first year of implementation for positive behavior interventions and support also known as PBIS based on an assessment of their initial implementation the Arizona Department of Education found that the Tucson
029campus has a 93% implementation rate uh which is absolutely outstanding lastly I want to brag a little bit about the collaboration between Jason Lily and Scott maton in creating the first annual asdb transition fair at the Tucson campus the Phoenix campus and virtually for the rest of the State of Arizona this happened February 10th 11th and 12th they're able to pull together a vendor list that included acdhh VR ASU U OFA galet RIT Camp abilities Four Corners Camp abilities Tucson direct advocacy and Resource Center of Arizona foundation for blind blind children and Savvy this event or these three events I should say uh we're able to provide high school students from the campuses our itinerant programs um and clear across the state to come together and learn about supports and services that are unique to
030their needs here in Arizona as we navigate this budget um at times it feels very frustrating and at times very defeating but as I just showcased from the achievements above due to our leaders and our amazing teachers we are doing great things and we cannot forget to continue focusing and supporting these achievements uh in conclusion I'll quote Maya Angelou uh she stated that you might not be control in control of all the events that happened to you but you can decide not to be reduced by them and I think that's very fitting for where we are right now as an agency thank you any questions okay all right moving on to item 1.5 information item assistant superintendent of agency operations and support services assistant superintendent Shaina Cooper good evening board president kifil superintendent rikman acting
031assistant superintendent catcho members of the board ASB community and staff members as the final stretch of the school and fiscal year is fastly approaching the operations and support services team has been very busy supporting each of the educational programs with planning their needs for the end of the school year the team also continues to work on completing other various projects such as planning and scheduling building renewal projects for the summer and that's totally about $2.4 million they've been planning and preparing for Emergency Operations rotating the agency's fleet to ensure utilization and overall health of our vehicles we've also been continuing with monitoring the agency's projected current budget year shortfall developing plans for the New Year budget analyzing student count Trends identifying student staffing need needs we're also looking at strategizing new Recruitment and Retention efforts
032and reviewing staff member certifications and professional development plans in addition to the end of the year and New Year planning the 24mon followup of the September 2022 performance audit and sunset review was just completed and now we are all gearing up for the upcoming performance forensic and sunset audits where our operations management finances academic performance and student outcomes will be scrutinized with that said at this time I would like to go ahead and share some updates on where we have been addressing the budget challenges like practically every school across the state the nation is currently facing and as board president kif has already mentioned around this time last year the state governor's office instituted a Statewide head count cab and they provided compensation Administration measures due to the state's projected 1.2 billion doll deficit superintendent
033rikan just mentioned for ASB we ended last year with a 1.8 million shortfall and in order to balance our budget this year based on year Pro ections we must reduce our expenditures by about $2.3 million because of some of the revenue losses and as we Face a second year of a potential budget shortfall we have continued with most of the same measures last year that the state implemented and because our budget this year was reduced by the state and because we continue to see student counts decline this is concerning because the revenue from our institutional vouchers fee for services prop 301 funds are directly tied to our students and their attendance and unlike other schools students are either placed at our site-based campuses or receive Services through our early learning and itinerant programs based on
034the referral and IEP determination processes with that said ASB doesn't Market our schools to our parents and students and we're not able to increase our student counts like other schools have the ability to we can however ensure our families and the community understand what services and programs we provide and what quality those services are it is important to reiterate that our siteb campuses operate as schools and we do not receive the same funding since ascb falls under the state funded agency umbrella were subject to what the state decides to allocate to use based on available funding and in addition to that as a reminder special education in Arizona for students with disabilities continues to be underfunded and so what that means for the students that we serve we fall short and are having to fill
035the Gap with other measures we're having to use legislative General fund Appropriations Federal and private grants donations and cash reserves from prior year non-restricted fund balances and I have expressed concerns about ongoing use of the cash reserves and our fund balances to help balance the budget we are finding efficient ways to try and reallocate our resources however we must continue reviewing our require ired programs services and Staffing to align them with our current student counts and based on what we're projecting and for an agency as a reminder our payroll is our staff that does make up 70 to 80% of our budget and as already mentioned we have been meeting with the educational leadership teams collectively to review their Staffing levels and that is because at this time the principles and directors are planning for
036the next school year and identifying ways to how they can align with their projected student counts and realistically because contracts are presented to the board annually in March budget kits as already mentioned either reduce the efficacy of Staff or reduce the availability for the resources for our students keeping in mind our goal though is to ensure we're focusing on our core educational objectives and the goals for the students IEPs so realistically that does mean some class sizes May grow elective courses and extracurricular activities could be impacted and may be impacted as we've already talked about and that does mean staff if necessary may be reassigned to other roles that match their qualifications and we've already heard today that does have an impact on our staff and their future and in full transparency while that may
037be our goal the reality is that those cost-saving measures are initially being felt by them and along those same lines there has been a lot of scuttlebutt assumptions made that we're only focusing on the educational positions but that is not the case we are reviewing agency Administration positions our Educational Consultants operational and support services staff and in order to be able to do that effectively we are reviewing each department individually across the agency and that will mean departments will see budget reductions and will operate with fewer staff and we're hopeful we'll be able to eliminate the need to further reduce Staffing levels through an attrition model of when staff resign or retire their positions will not be approved to be backfilled unless the IEPs the positions are IEP driven or will reduce the need to
038continue with contractual Services due to Staffing shortages with our drivers with teachers and nurses or they are needed for the continuity of the agency's operations and since 2018 as already mentioned we have already provided staff yearly ongoing salary increases that has totaled over $10.8 million and unfortunately when it comes to reviewing our staff levels we are unable to commit at this time another year of pay increases this is the first time since I've been with ascb that we've actually had to share that news and as we work on forecasting and projecting through the future at this time next year for fiscal year 2027 I am hopeful we will be able to continue to provide staff increases as appropriate however that does mean doing more with less to the extent possible in addition to reviewing our
039staffing levels we are actively seeking ways to reallocate our resources streamline operations and find new funding sources so we're just not looking at Staffing and unfortunately as we're all aware there is a lot of uncertainty at the state level and at the federal level and for some of us who do enjoy watching basketball March is a time for madness and with luck I hope at this time we're going to be able to address the angst the concerns that all of us have we are all facing I know staff get frustrated we're not able to answer any of the immediate questions however at any time during a normal budget projection process there is a lot of unknowns we are having to adapt to change and so if we're not doing what we're doing now it's going
040to be even harder in the future and as already mentioned nobody wants to talk about budget cuts nobody wants to talk about student enrollment numbers declining but that is the reality and we are being forced to have to make decisions but that means we need to continue to do that together and I know there continue to be challenges with communicating information but that is a collaborative effort it's not just the leadership we are relying on the input that we're receiving from stakeholders we are trying to make data driven decisions and again this is difficult conversations we're having um and so in order to be able to do that that does mean as superintendent rikeman mentioned making tough decisions regarding our programs services and Staffing and I do want to thank everyone for their ongoing input
041feedback and support and I hope that our students and staff are able to take this time during their spring break to be able to recharge and reflect on the work that they have put in so far and come back refresh to close out the year although I know it will be challenging um so at this time I do end my report and I'm open to any comments or questions that anyone may have yes um hello have I heard hello president hello is that you Earl you can go ahead yes yes hello yes Linda it's Linda speaking right now hi Lind can I go ahead sure yes hello I am here and I just want to let you know that I've been watching the meeting through video Relay can you make sure everyone brings their volume
042up because The Interpreter can barely here and has been struggling to hear for the last little while so when somebody speaks can they elevate their voice please thank you for the reminder Linda Earl did you have a comment no I'm good thank you okay go ahead Mike Shaina um you said the projection is about 24 for this year's deficit correct um that's about 200,000 a month and does that uh how much is each payroll each payroll is roughly about $1.8 million if I'm not mistaken on a bi-weekly I'm sorry I can't hear got to get it closer sha I I will try to speak up latter is that good enough yes I can hear you now so so we payroll is about 1.8 million and that includes benefits and retirement and that's a complete okay
043so that's pretty steep um in the private sector when you have repeated years of deficit uh quite often your auditor will write a letter of lack of confidence uh so it's perious when an agency or a business uh continues to have um negative income as far as their expenses so when you this isn't really a question as much as a kind of a statement about what's happening kind of systemically um that a lot of businesses agencies schools are in this position where they are trying to work within a deficit and it's not just a matter of what you can and can't fund for that year is a certain level of survival that is is really being addressed because if you do have a repeat showing of of negative deficits and that would come to your
044funders that information is sent to all your funders all your supporters that there is a lack of confidence in the in the uh solvency of the agency or school or institution so when it comes to difficult decisions it's not just a matter of what can you or can't you cut it's a matter of trying to determine how you're going to have Sur survive and when you have a 1.8 million payroll every other week that's a lot of cash that has to be covered regularly and in some months three times so in two months each year so it's these aren't just issues about what are we going to try to do and not do these are really hard and deep decisions that are being made is how can this money be made or oberved and applied
045to to an agency or business's survival because if you do have a lack of confidence uh uh decree against you it's basically you're basically done and I know it might be a little different with tax dollars but at the same time there still is a bottom line it has to be observed in that way yes okay that's accurate thank you sha I do I have a couple of questions um this is Suk oh I do yes um this is Katie but I'll I'll go after you so I I'm making an assumption here but I'm asking for you to confirm it the fee for service and the vouchers that we receive for a student is that covering the total student cost no it is not the budget packages that you've asked for this year for this
046the current fiscal year and the next fiscal year were any of those funded by the legislature no they were not and those included coverage for the transportation costs that we do not get reimbursement for correct and are we able to do a bond type of thing like school districts do no we are not um and from an FTE percentage wise with the you're saying 75 to 80% is payroll not FTE payroll um is that common for an agency this size yes it is at this point yes okay um and as a rem reminder when back in 2018 we were at Staffing levels above 80% okay so based on attrition um we have been able to reduce where we can um and we continue to do that but yes I can't hear you again who's speaking
047sha hold on I'm sorry yes okay so I I know having to do the budget for an agency that we are often asked to or there's like a I don't know how to it's not a written rule let's say it that way it's not a written rule but they don't like our ER our Personnel cost to go above 50% of our total overall budget and we're well beyond that at is sdb correct we have been averaging at this time right about 45% of er okay all right thank you that's all I wanted to know does anybody else have questions or comments thank you for that this is board member cinko I'm trying to formulate my question so first of all before I ask my question I want to recognize the teachers and the audience and
048the amazing work that you do and the amazing work that you do to serve our students I see you I hear you it really bothers me to hear about the budget cuts that are directly impacting our teachers um I mean the I mean if we're talking about budget cuts we can talk about the cost of living that is exponentially increased for all of us but I'm curious as to what other Alternatives have you looked into if we're saying that we are not able to give pay raises what other options have you looked into before that other options that we continue to look at again would be reallocating some of our resources doing some reprogramming we have also identified reductions to a lot of our non-instructional classroom support departments we have reduced professional development we are
049looking at ways to reduce contractual Services um just trying to think there there's a list um non essential travel nonessential spending uh We've also tried to identify ways to reduce um ongoing commitments that we have made in the past to fund capital projects um computer refresh um so other non uh non-payroll related items and again it's not just payroll we are looking at re-evaluating how we are structurally operating with our services some of our programs that are not directly tied to the classroom as well okay understood and I'm currently in my doctoral program and I'm focused on industry and organizational development and and I understand where you're coming from and that point of view but my biggest concern when we talk about reallocation is when we also talk about hiring freezes or not replacing Frontline
050teaching staff that is very concerning to me um because like for ex for example our public commenter Dan who has a very special skill set um if we were to not open that position that potentially forces another teacher to teach that position with extra duties extra responsibilities without the experience or level of um experience needed for that classroom then causing burnout of the teachers that we do re retain which directly impacts our students so what are we doing to retain the teachers that we do have I understand that we need to save costs and that we are facing a deficit of 2.4 million but what are we doing to make sure that we keep the teachers that we have let me clarify it's not fair to them that's an accurate statement but let me clarify
051we have not made decisions to freeze all positions we have determined that if the positions are IEP driven or would reduce contractual Services when it comes to Staffing also if they are to ensure the continuity of business operation s we will make exceptions to fill those positions we are also looking at aligning certified staff our qualified staff to ensure that they have the necessary requirements the credentials for the individual classrooms that they are providing support for we um as I already mentioned we are looking at how we can rest strategize with our Recruitment and Retention efforts understanding that there has been a reduction of staff that we are looking to refill positions for um and so that is an ongoing discussion that we've continued to have over the last several years we have also in
052the past consulted a contractor to help identified ways on how we can improve that so that is an ongoing discussion and we will be addressing a lot of that in our upcoming steering committee meeting that is scheduled for April 4th okay um and I that then leads me to the question of how much are we paying in Consultants that could have been reallocated to teacher pay are you specifically asking which Consultants are you asking for contractual services or staff that we have identified as Educational Consultants that's a general question all over to consultants if I'm not mistaken for Educational Consultants plus contractual Services I would guesstimate that would be over maybe about $3 million well that $3 million could have gone to our def deficit again please know that I'm not here to try to
053make your jobs more difficult but rather just to share my perspective and I appreciate that thank you I appreciate you hearing me out um I also would strongly recommend that our leadership team revisit when we talk about replacing significant positions such as Dan position uh he's been here for a very long time and I don't want another teacher to take on that burden and then we lose out on so many great teachers we currently have so if we could revisit and take their cons their thoughts and ideas into consideration sorry I don't mean to monopolize everyone's time I will step down off my Soap Box any other comments or questions all right thank you Shaya moving on to 2.1 consent agenda items approval of the consent agenda items consistent with board policy to include items
0543.1 renewal of District agreements 5.1 the burger Performing Arts Center and other rental agreements 6.1 um school year 2025 2026 teacher employment contracts 7.3 policy gcfc 7.4 donations and 7.5 previous meeting minutes I'm open to a I can't even think of the word motion thank you wow this is Gordon I did we hit was that somebody on the phone making a motion yes this is Colette thank you Colette we have a motion do I have a second second thank you Mike um any discussion on consent agenda items all right all those in favor say I I I I do we have everybody on the phone okay thank you motion carries all right moving on to 3.2 action item approval of new District agreements interim assistant superintendent catch off president board members there you go and
055superintendent rikan we have one looks like new District agreement this is with the pine strawberry Elementary District we'd appreciate being able to to bring them on okay um are there any who was speaking can you please identify who was the gentleman that was speaking I can't see anybody my apologies this is this is Orin so this is an action this is 2K now this is an action item so do I have an motion to approve the new District agreement for Pine strawberry Elementary this is board member Cino I make a motion to approve the proposed agreement for the pine strawberry Elementary School District I have a motion on the floor do I have a second I second thank you CCT all those in favor say I I I I motion carries moving on to 4.1
056information item Finance report Kim bitr director good afternoon board president kifo superintendent rikman assistant superintendent Cooper assistant superintendent katoff members of the board and asdb Community you have been provided our most recent board report that covers the financial data for January 2024 and 2025 the data was covered in more detail at our most recent finance committee meeting held on Thursday March 6th with board president kifil and board member Gordon also in attendance were superintendent rikman and assistant superintendent Cooper the total student count provided in the board report for February 1st 2025 shows 1, 194 students compared to 2,178 students as of July 1st 2023 total decrease of 274 students When comparing the February 1st 2025 student count to January 1st 2025 of 1932 there's a decrease of 28 students the Tucson campus decreased by one
057and pdsd remain the same preschool has increased by five students all at FBC foundation for blind children birth to three decreased by 10 and the regions have decreased by 22 as of February 1st we had 8 full-time equivalent staff which includes 8.5 full-time equivalent staff at foundation for blind children at that time we employed 700 and 13 staff there were 47 posted vacancies across the agency which includes 15 teachers and 10 drivers the positions that are open are required by student student IEPs those needed to reduce contracted staff and to maintain continuity of operations the highlights of the January 2025 Financial board shows the total revenue of 30.1 million was a 1.8 million higher than the January 2024 revenue of 28.3 million the major difference is the decrease in the general fund spend year-to date
058offset by an increase in the voucher Revenue the classroom site fund Revenue fee for service revenue and state grants vouchering students and invoicing districts for services has occurred earlier this year as compared to last year the state Grant revenue is from esen extraordinary special education needs grants for students with high cost from the Department of Education the budget fiscal year 2024 for obligated expenses of 38.9 million were 1.2 million less than budget fiscal year 2025 obligated expenses of 40.1 million the increases are in payroll and employer related expenditures of 3.1 million this is partially due to salary increases given to staff as well as step increases for teachers and related services staff to match their years of service this is offset by a decrease in all expenditure categories travel and Equipment are decreased as part
059of budget cuts food service is down as a result of few fewer students we are expending more non-appropriated funds this year specifically the classroom site fund and the Medicaid reimbursement funds to the extent allowable the financial statements for December of 2024 and 2023 show our fund balance bance is 41,000 higher as of December 31st 2024 than it was on December 31st of 2023 this concludes my report of the agency's financial status and I'm available to answer any questions on the information presented thank you any questions anybody on the phone with questions thank you Ken thank you moving on to item number 7.1 information item ud's person report Donna Williams Esquire we have her on the phone is Donna here or on the phone okay then we are going to move on we will table 71
060and we will move on to 7.2 discussion and action item urgent approval of revised policies Maria Murphy director of policy and government relations good afternoon board president members of the board superintendent rikman assistant superintendant and staff and members of the community for the record my name is Maria Murphy director of policy and government relations you have before you the policies AC through Ked for revision um I have requested an urgent adoption for these policies and you may have noticed that there's a lot of them the reason that we uh that there are so many of them and that we're asking for an urgent adoption is because we now have the online complaint portal and these are all of the complaint grievance policies which have paper forms attached to them so what we are trying to
061do now is take down all of the paper forms and root everybody to um the online portal so it's basically just we we want to reduce duplication and it doesn't make sense to to keep the forms online any longer than they need to be and with that um I'm open for questions any questions for Maria otherwise I will entertain a motion for approval of the revised policies as stated in the agenda this is Colette yes um so move thank you Colette I have a motion do I have a second I'll second thank you Mike all those in favor say I I I'll second okay I think I heard five eyes okay there we go um motion carries thank you thank you moving on to I believe we're at 8.1 call to the public for non-agenda
062items the first one I have is from don't oh the first one I have is from Caron Carmen robas is she present this one was submitted online okay um this one is this one I'm going to it's all it's online so it is public um it's open to the public it is in support of or actually against the redistricting of Transportation radius um so that her son her grandson could participate in asb's um program without having to live on campus moving on to the next one I have um Karen Talis good evening board members superintendent rikan and asdb community members my name is Karen Talis and I currently work here on the ASD ASB TUC sign campus I deliberately separated ASD and ASB because I believe that it is critically important for us to acknowledge
063the fact that the Tucson campus has two distinct and separate schools with different student needs different languages and different cultures this is an important distinction from our sister school pdsd that only serves one population of students in my 20 plus years of service I can't compete with Dan I have seen the agency face budget crises before when the last one occurred the agency instituted a reduction in force a riff and then that impacted two of my teachers and all staff were directed to take Furlow days as well this time around the agency is considering actions that will directly impact our students one of the first Cuts made as mentioned was limiting sports activities being able to participate fully in sporting activities ities is one reason why many of our students come to ASD ASB our
064visually impaired students have access to goall g o a l b a l l a VI specific sport but our VI students have also participated in track and field including cross country and even football and basketball these opportunities are not there in their public schools and are a draw for students across the state limiting these activities can have an impact on a future student's willingness to come to ASD ASB as concerning as that issue is there is another one that prompted me to speak tonight this came up during a meeting that I had today we have a shortage of teachers who are qualified to teach visually impaired and deaf heart of hearing students we have classrooms where teachers hold certifications other than VI hi some of our students have VI or hi direct service minutes
065on their IEPs these Services can only be provided by a certified teacher of the visually impaired or deaf heart of hearing we have temporarily solved this problem by working with an itinerant teacher but she didn't start with us until February however that is not feasible as a long-term solution because our itinerant teachers have full case loads and full schedules when I was asked what the plan was for next year I had to answer honestly that there is no plan right there are eight certified VI teachers on the TUC sign campus and we have two more teachers who are almost certified they're finishing up their programs one of those or of those eights of those eight one is an assistant principal me one is our IEP coordinator and one is employed in our low vision office
066another VI teacher that we have is our technology teacher serving K through 12 her schedule is full we have a certified orientation and Mobility specialist who is also certified as a teacher the visually impaired but we are currently short an onm specialist on campus and have been for over a year so we cannot ask him to provide those itinerant VI services that are needed all of the other teachers of the visually impaired are all classroom teachers and they don't have the extra time in the day to provide Direct Services to students in classrooms that don't have certified tvis we were assured that cuts would not be made if they impacted students IEP services or were otherwise legally required however there has been an almost total hiring freeze and we are not able to hire any
067new teachers to help us provide those legally required Direct Services to students additionally ASB High school has lost a social studies teacher and we have been asked to divide those classes amongst our remaining teachers rather than hire a teacher certified to teach social studies I am concerned that with the budget cuts and the hiring frees we are becoming more and more like a charter school as we know the State of Arizona does not require charter schools to follow the same certification standards as public schools if we cannot provide our students with certified teachers or opportunities to participate in activities they couldn't in their Public Schools then why would they come here I respectfully ask that before any final decisions are made regarding open positions that consideration be given to the impact this will have not
068only on the agency's ability to provide mandated services but also our students needs to have their instruction provided by a certified and qualified teacher thank you thank [Applause] you oh Donna are you there I am can you hear me I can I'm going to hold on the rest of the public comments and go back to the ombudsman's report and then we'll come back to these Donna the floor is yours thank you so much so there's a little bit of a delay so bear with me because what I see on the screen is actually not what's happening there so I'm going to do my best to get through the written uh report that I submitted and hopefully you all there in person are looking at the PowerPoint presentation so good evening board president t i superintendent
069reichman assistant superintendent Cooper interim assistant superintendent teof and members of the board and the ASB Community I am ASB UT person Donna Williams in this evening I am presenting the office of the ambut person semiannual report covering the period July 2024 till December 2024 so since July 2022 I've been working to facilitate positive relationship among asbb staff students and the public by collaborating with staff and the community to ensure Fair process that equitably and reasonably resolves concerns Reed from staff students parents and community members and in furtherance of these goals I've engaged in activities ranging from providing information to conducting mediations and training I'll talk more about the engagement and the various types of matters later in this report but overall the feedback that has been received thus far continues to be um that folks
070are satisfied with the assistance that they receive from the unut person and so I'm grateful for that um as we um Advance the slid and look at the aggregate user data um I want to reiterate that users can access the services of the umus person by submitting an electronic request for form by sending an email or calling on the phone um there's an agency phone assigned to the UT person as well as a Google phone that is assigned for public use and that number is on the website the request form Remains the most effective means of contact as it does capture the user's name their title contact information and then the details that they share about their concerns um once that form is submitted I'm alerted by email um and then can respond accordingly I
071will say that over time fewer and fewer users have utilized the request form processed most reach out via phone or email and await a direct reply from me um the direct um Bud person and the Donna Williams email accounts were used for this purpose uh generally speaking repeat users of services tend not to fill out the form more than once unless directed by me to do so so as we dig into the reporting period um from July 2024 to December 2024 approximately 15 users contact with the UST person 15 different users two users reached out using the request form and the remaining users either contct contacted me via email or phone uh many of the users engaged Services throughout the reporting period multiple times during um that period And I would say all the three
072of the users were internal to the agency some of the reasons for the contact included formal complaints informal complaints as well as interpersonal conflict some procedural concerns as well as policy concerns in most instances the matter was resolved with a subsequent email reply or other matters required a meeting or required involvement of third parties to fully resolve the matter most of the email users were information Seekers asking who what when where why how questions and really once a user's questions are researched and answered or the user is directed to the appropriate resource for the answer the matter is considered closed addressing user concerns via email appears to be the preferred method of communicating um with the um person's office a few matters appear to be ongoing in that they are um more complicated and require
073more people um for complete resolution my role in those ongoing matters is to really continue being a resource um and help the parties guide through um productive dialogue um on resolutions during the reporting period the Inus person engaged also in Special Projects participated in planning sessions for the newly developed online complaint filing system so beginning last May I met with the planning committee to ensure that the new automated system was tailored to meet the needs of the agency the planning meetings ended in July and the automated complaint filing system went live on August 16th 2024 with the start of the new school year the online complaint and grievances portal is accessible to staff students and the public through the ASB web website under the board board resources tabs and it's really too soon to tell
074what if any impact the automated system will have on the volume of users for umbus person Services um I also conducted training during the reporting period on September 13 2024 during the steering committee meeting I conducted training on winning with crucial conversations this training was designed to equi the leadership team with the skill necessary to engage in critical and highs convers ation with their teams the trainings offered tips and also gave participants a chance to practice their skills using roleplay scenarios the training was designed to help participants build upon the skills necessary to engage in upcoming conversations about the budget and other sensitive matters the winning with crucial conversations training was repeated on October 28th 2024 for the larger education executive team meeting the training was received by both groups in October I met with
075the group of ELP teaching professionals on the Spix campus to offer professional development around their chosen topic of effective communication and ways to improve your Effectiveness this training um included tips and strategies for active listening for interpreting verbal and nonverbal communication for reading the room and for delivering bad news these strategies will help them better navigate the conversations they are having with parents of students that they teach there's additional training plan for the first half of 2025 which will be discussed in the next semiannual report um in conclusion um the I am I logged in approximately 165 hours during this recording period addressing user needs and condu in training during the same reporting period in 2023 the hours log were 155 so still kind of in the ballpark of what has been typical the general
076volume and tener of work remains consistent and continues to be suitable for one umbus person serving in a part-time capacity the most prevalent concern shared by users has shifted from interpersonal conflict to um informal complaints which were often rooted in concerns uh regarding decision making or changes in policy or practice as the agency continues to navigate the current fiscal challenges the staff will need opportunities to share their concerns as well as their insights on how the agency can address these challenges effectively and sensibly the next report from this office will cover the reporting period of January 2025 through June 2025 that concludes my report I'm happy to answer any questions thank you any questions from the board anyone on the phone with questions hearing none thank you Donna re going back thank you very much
077going back to 8.1 the next um request to address the board is from Karen Feldman it's only one page hopefully it'll be quick um good afternoon members of the board leadership team um I just wanted to bring to your uh attention some concerns regarding proposed uh money-saving solutions to the de to the deficit we've been talking about this and a lot of this has already been discussed um we know that there's a teacher shortage across the country and certainly asdb has felt the impacts of the shortage as a supervising teacher in Region 3 I can tell you that hiring for Teacher positions in rural areas is beyond difficult sometimes we're lucky to find people in rural communities who have teaching experience and on top of that special ed experience and are willing to go back
078to obtain additional degrees in either VI or hi one proposal the administration is making is to not Grant great advancements to those people who have been working to complete Master's programs to obtain the certification required for their job that they've willingly said that they would do for this agency what's to stop those people from leaving the agency and working for an agency or a district that will value their time and their expertise leaving us in the Lurch to find some providers to for services to students I supervise one teacher who's been two years in a program she she's about to come to the end of her master's program and we now have to have a conversation and let her know that she will not be getting a great advancement un I've heard everything that you
079said and I understand it and my concern is is that this teacher will not feel valued um as a member of this agency um One cost savings area that I know has come up this evening has been to no longer um employ Educational Consultants who don't provide Direct Services to students the leadership my understanding is not interested in this suggestion and it's curious to me that services to students AR in't a priority at the last steering committee meeting several people in attendance suggested the superintendent hold T Hall Town Hall meetings with staff for open communication regarding the budget while the superintendent is communicating with staff on a weekly basis via email the communication is one way when staff are in steering committee meetings and they've asked questions they're told this isn't the appropriate time or
080place and are later then spoken to about their voicing concerns during sering committee meetings I could go on and my time is limited I appreciate your time today also know that um as a side note personally I'm terrified to be speaking in front of you for Retribution about either I'm going to be disciplined for speaking to the board as your employee and stakeholder or my director is going to be directed to do some disciplinary challenge against me so I just need you to understand that I and I don't think I'm alone I suspect that there are several other people who feel the same way so all of this is leading to a morale issue as well thank you thank you I appreciate your comments I I also have Tina Feldman hello I do want to
081clarify how many minutes do I have five for five minutes thank you so much to keep it brief I will just say hello and good evening to our administrators and to our board members and to our community and stakeholders who are here in our audience today and for those of you who are watching online my name is Tina Feldman and and I am a stakeholder times two my daughter was a former student here at asdb she graduated from here at 18 in 2022 asb's education was superb and was the best placement for her she had outstanding teachers who had experience appropriate qualifications and certifications for her her and her cohort of students the second part of my stakeholder is that I've been an employee here since 2001 and I've been in almost every part of
082this agency from birth all the way up to high school instruction including itinerate experience I have been here and I have seen a lot but speaking as a teacher is not what I'm here to do tonight I'm speaking as a parent of a child who has special needs who is deaf among other things there's a growing feeling of disenfranchisement of feeling completely put off and disenfranchised amongst the staff families who are working here and represented in this agency we've heard a lot about the deficit of 2.3 million and we understand that there's a shortfall but all of these discussions and potential actions are being taken without stakeholder input we don't have a seat at the table it's already been mentioned that the suggestion was brought to the table of having Town Hall meetings and yet
083that has not happened not even a town hall or open dialogue for staff or teachers let alone one for parents and family members of children who are being served by asdb within the community they are being Direct ly imp impacted by the decisions that are being made as a mother I'm furious about the idea that our families do not have an opportunity to reach out to be heard within this process that the agency is undergoing or how to manage this shortfall how is it that we are planning to be solvent as an agency while we are still managing to instruct and deliver appropriate education to our students we talk about growing classroom sizes which potentially then means that my child who is deaf plus who potentially has learning disabilities or cognitive issues related to working
084memory may have less one-on-one time with her teacher because there are several other students in the classroom that has a direct impact on their education or potentially another situation where we have a child who is deaf and has additional disabilities they may actually need a one-on-one Aid or a pair of professional in a class that large they come to us for a reason because we have a small classroom and student teacher ratio that's one of the reasons our students are placed here I've been one of those kids and I represent a parent of a child like that who needs to come here for that specific reason we H I have a unique lens as a parent and as a teacher but we need to have a serious conversation about the lack of dialogue the lack
085of transparency communication has been single-sided one way there's been no back and forth with the superintendent or the board I would invite you to set up a town hall for parents to be able to ask questions and have open discussions and a back and forth dialogue to summarize all I'll quote Shirley Chisum I'll paraphrase her if you don't give us a seat at the table we'll bring our folding chairs thank you for your time thank you moving on to 8.2 discussion and possible action item possible work study session date in June um topic would be the 2.0 for the Strategic plan yes this is Superintendent rikman at the last work study session which was February 13th the board spent about two and a half hours listening to presentations and having discussion about the the agency's
086budget and you were unable to finish at that time so you asked to continue that session so the next work study session is scheduled for April 10th and that will be a continuation uh and the presentation and discussions regarding agency budget so I am asking for the board to then add a third work study session in June and that session would focus on the Strategic plan 2.0 so I am suggesting perhaps June 12th I think that's the second Thursday in June this is board memb Ino I need to double check just trying to make sure there's not a um conflict with the acdhh board they tend to meet on Thursdays as well so I just want to make sure that there's not a conflict with the standing board meeting I think we should be okay
087I think our meeting is in May so we should be okay for June let me double check but so um do you do you need us to vote on that or do you need us just to go ahead and say schedule it this is superintendent rikan I don't believe we need a vote for that um if you are able to commit to come on June 12th for that work study session let's plan that then okay thank you all right moving on to 8.3 discussion item um agenda items for the next regular board meeting which is May 8th in in Phoenix is there anything that the board would like to see added to the next agenda we're good you can always contact myself or um superintendent rikman to add anything prior to that meeting um if
088no if nothing else comes up here um the next is 9.1 action item adjournment do I have a motion there's I Lynn's not on the phone today so somebody has to take her role I will I will motion to adjourn this is Linda motion to ad the meeting thank you Linda I have a motion do I have a second second seconded this is board member CCO all those in favor say I I I motion carries the meeting is the meeting's adjourned at 5:45 p.m. I want to thank everybody here in the audience not only for participating today but making your comments as well it's appreciated e