001good afternoon and welcome to the asdb board meeting um I call the meeting to order at 4 pm and Britney could you do roll good evening for roll call we have Linda B present uh I'm Britney banon I am present clot Chapman present uh Lynn Davon not an attendance Michael she's excused Michael Gordon on his way he'll join us shortly uh Su K present uh Katie Cino uh she's also excused we have Earl Terry present and um looks like our newest board member Susan Singler pres thank thank you moving on to 1.2 information item the introduction of our new board member um we have Susan Singler joining us she's been appointed by the governor um she is the new parent rep and I'm going to let her take over and tell us about herself first
002of all uh thank you so much and it's really a an honor and a pleasure to be here and I'm looking on looking forward to serving on the board for this wonderful organization uh my son is a graduate of Arizona School for the blind in Tucson in 2000 uh his name is Nathan wac and I'm very proud of him uh he is blind with Developmental and intellectual disabilities and some cerebal policy he is also a wonderful singer and sings the national anthem for the Special Olympics in Tucson and therapeutic writing of Tucson uh and has been invited to Sing the anthem for the road runners so I feel like this is a wonderful community and uh we look at ourselves as ambassadors uh for Arizona school for the deaf and blind so it's a pleasure
003to be here um my background includes a nurse I've been a registered nurse since 1976 um yeah that's a long time and and uh I was uh started a parent organization in Tennessee you all may be able to uh know that I have a little bit of a Southern accent um parent organization Tennesseee Association for the parents of visually impaired back in 1984 uh we started parent support group that grew into an Early Intervention Program that's now housed at vanderbelt University uh and started our uh early intervention services from birth rather than age4 I've also a contributing author to um a book published by the National Association for parents of the visually impaired it's a uh special education guide for parents of visually impaired children so this is my passion uh and I'm really happy
004to be here thank you thank you we're glad to have you thank you moving on to um item 1.3 information item Early Learning Program overview presentation with Dr Kendra Benedict and can I just mention for the minutes that Mike Gordon is now present hello assist director with Community also before I get started Michelle and I want to take a quick here to all of the STA everything we're to share with you today only happens because of them they're the ones on the front lines they're the ones with with children every day making difference so I would be remiss so I learned to tell you that my presentation is longer than 10 minutes so I'm G to skip through some of what can keep to the timeline um Michelle and I will be tag te here
005so if I can switch go to the second Slide the agenda we'll be going our programming all the different services that we provide around the state enrollment Trends which I think you might find interesting our student outcomes that you asked to see at our last meeting our current professional development initiatives and programming initiatives and where we're headed from here next slide two more slides please yes this is a super quick visual of how first of three of preschool fit in to the overall landscape of asdb and the state in regard to education ELP is made up of two very distinct yet related groups birth to three and preschool both programs of course fall under IA birth to three falls under part C and preschool light K12 falls under Part B three is overseen by as
006and preschool just like K12 is overseen by a I'm going to skip the next few slides it goes into a little more detail about part C and AIP and if anyone would like to know more about that at another time I'm happy to meet with you and go over that um but in respect for the time that we have I don't think we'll be able to do that today um um if we go to the asdb verse to three slides so about three more slides Perfect all right um we are the asip uh service providing agency designated Agency for all blind visually impaired deaf and heart of hearing and deaf blind children across the entire State we offer programs that are in the home Community bed and virtual as its's not only preference but mandate
007is that inh Home Services always be the is the first that is offered and then per family's choice we are allowed to provide virtual Services I'm let Michelle go about preschool all right um so we preschool uh functions under id idea Part B um and and a little bit about our preschool we're not just a one room Schoolhouse somewhere we do have multiple sites um we have uh itinerate services that we are providing services to kids in public schools um in region one and also in Yuma um we've uh we reach deaf and heart of hearing students blind low vision kiddos and also deaf blind uh we have three Campus based programs uh one in Tucson one here obviously where we are today uh and then one in Pima County this simonon campus um and
008then uh we have we also partner with the foundation for blind children and they uh here in town and they serve our blind low vision and DEP blind children in Maricopa County all right if we can advance about two more slides next one Michelle just went over and then the next one should be enrollment Trends all right and then one more please okay I'm going to go over the birth to three enrollment Trends and then Michelle will go over the preschool enrollment Trends these are over the last five years since 2020 you can see that we I think we are yes you'll see that 23 2023 is missing because that's when we had our um change in our student information system so the data is not as reliable from that period of time but this
009goes back from 202 2020 and you can see um the red line is our death and heart of hearing numbers and our blue line is our Blind and Visually Impaired numbers you can see that for the last five years we've had a steady incline in death and heart of hearing as well as blind low vision those lines are just are Trend trend lines this is not broken down by region um it is Statewide and next slide please these are our preschool numbers um so again we're missing the 2023 data um but you can see in red we have the foundation for blind children um and there has been a bit of a of a decrease there um not huge but it's there um at pdsd um more of an increase over time from 2019 to
0102024 uh and then at the tuon campus um there's more of a u you know similar similar data going on there um our one of the things that I would like to note um is in in Tucson we do not have U the foundation for blind children so the kiddos that might be coming to us here uh in town in Phoenix we don't have that um that luxury uh to have that that those players on our team um and we also don't have any specific um specialized classrooms for listening to spoken language so families who are interested in that um we we don't have a desert voices or you know uh other places that might might really focus on that like they do here in town Phoenix um so I would say that's one of
011the reasons why Tucson's numbers is a little bit more steady um okay these are some of my favorite slides next three and I ask that you pay special attention to these I want to show you with these slides the geographical area that we cover the number of Children and Families we cover and the number of U teachers that we have to cover these areas I think this is this is probably one of our most important slides today in region one our providers serve both birth to three and itinerate preschool that is not the same for region two for Region Three we also serve itinerate preschool but only in Yuma okay so in region one we have four Deen heart of hearing teachers and three blind low vision teachers and one of those blind low vision
012teachers is traveling up from Phoenix to help serve the area so really only two that live in northern Arizona one in Flag Staff and one in Cho we have two teachers covering 65,7 4 miles let that sit for a second okay we serve 32 birth to three children 10 I tener preschool children for de heart of hearing 48 birth to three teachers for blind Lo or sorry birth to three children birth to Three Blind uh low vision is 48 and N turn at preschool six so the three teachers that I was referring to that was blind low vision we have four teachers serving de heart of carrying a total of 42 children across 65,7 square miles so we do our absolute best but you can imagine it is very difficult to get everywhere that we
013need to and want to be next slide in comparison in region two obviously a much more densely populated area we serve 9,22 square miles our um birth to three teachers again we don't have itinerate in this area region two covers itinerate preschool in the metropolitan area we have 200 birth to three dhh with 12 teachers and 141 birth to three with four teachers and those four teachers are employed by foundation for blind children those are not our teachers and then for the campus preschool here in Phoenix we have currently 26 students in our preschool classrooms with five teachers and we have um actually Four now and blind lision at FBC 34 students and eight teachers and then lastly next slide Region Three you'll see similar to region one we have teachers serving a vast geographical
014area for itinerate preschool we have seven children in Yuma where we have one teacher providing those Services we have 100 birth to three across all of Region 3 covering 38,4 71 square miles with five teachers and then blind low vision 50 children with three children with three teachers and then campus preschool 23 children in the death and heart of hearing PR preschool with four teachers now U Michelle oh no actually I've got one more slide two more slides please okay um I want to talk about outcomes uh how birth to three and preschools is doing now I want to preface this with this is the progress of our death andhe hearted hearing students over the last five years our Blind and Visually Impaired students in our last strategic plan we really struggled to determine a
015way to measure progress they're a very um heterogeneous uh small group um and we aren't the only ones that struggle with that we've been teaming with FBC with other states trying to figure out what is the most reliable and valid way to see if we're providing the services that we need to provide and we are still working on that happy to say we're closer and I look forward to the Strategic plan too to be able to improve but right now today these are just the Deen heart of hearing um numbers so for um birth to three progress over time you can see they're listed on the graph is are the last um four years and from our participation in the program Odyssey out of Colorado um every year the children take assessments six months apart
016from each other so six to seven months you want to see of course at least that much growth in that time to make sure that they aren't falling behind so we're right on that Target next slide and then this highlights birth of three progress over time in just the areas of communication receptive language and expressive language and you can see there that over a Time elapsed of seven months we're seeing about 6 and a half months growth so we still have work to do there I'm going to let Michelle Talk About Preschool all right also looking at the Odyssey numbers um we our original data in 2122 uh which was approximately 10 months between testing periods um we had a 10.5 in the growth area um so 10 and a half months of growth in
017in about just a little over 10 months so that's really really quite amazing which is why we want to also again send kudos to our staff because they are really killing it um and then as you can see as you go down roughly six months between testing periods and our growth is at 6.2 um and then we moved up to 7.6 um as far as the growth goes in preschool um for oh sorry I I forgot to advance the slide so there's all right and we're going to advance the slide once more this one is our progress over time in the specific subtests um moving from stating their needs giving commands um personal requests uh interaction uh explaining what they want um and in using higher language and overall um everywhere from between 11% growth
018all the way up to 21% growth you know depending on what those areas are um so we're we're quite excited about what's happening in preschool and um we'd like to keep moving forward I want to apologize it's difficult to stay up with the slides when you're not pushing it yourself they're helping us but we're not doing a great job reminding them to advance so um no it's it's sorry anyways um if you could Advance one more slide please okay um I'm going to not take as much time on these slides again I think you all are familiar with our contracts with foundation for blind children we have one for 1 to three one with preschool like Michelle said we don't have that luxury of serving preschool age children in Tucson that are specifically have needs
019and blind and and and and low vision we do serve some death line children at both of our campuses kdsd and asdv um and that's that's a learning curve for us but we have support from our blind VI teachers and death blind projects and so that's that's been going going well um each of those children teach us something every day um so if you could Advance the next I will tell you next slide next slide next slide okay I do want to mention the family support that FBC offers because this is available to All Families not just families that are enrolled at FBC they have many many different parent toddler groups um they have social events that families can and they they open it up to the state but obviously those in Maricopa County are
020the ones that most frequently going to to be there but they are a wonderful resource from birth to end of life in all reality they serve the whole Spectrum all right and then next slide and next slide I'd like to highlight some of the professional development efforts that we have put into place in the preschool programming um one is the pyramid model so we are embarking on a New Journey um working on uh honing in on those behaviors uh that we're seeing uh more and more kiddos with more and more severe behaviors and how can we reach those kids um how can we give our our staff strategies to um help make uh those kids as successful as possible um so the pyramid model is is kicking off right now as we speak uh we
021have our very first launch meeting um coming up next week so we're really excited about that uh we started the foundations for literacy it's a curriculum that's created specifically for de and heart of hearing students um it has a spoken language component and it has um an ASL signing component um so we've been I also have really fun data on that if you're interested if you like um we also been working on the um explicit contextualized vocabulary intervention with the UFA um and pairing that with our vocabulary strategies that we have been using over time um and coaching individual coaching is going to start happening with uh that ecvi very soon um and then uh there are many more uh but I just wanted to kind of keep it brief because I don't know how
022much time I have left but if you have any questions about more all the things that preschool is doing I would love to to talk more about that another time all right if you can dance the slide a few more next one yes that's correct thank you so improving efficiencies that's something that we are focused on doing we've been doing that all year um obviously for a number of reason reasons but to maximize our resources um to reach those kids across those 65,000 square miles in northern Arizona we need to be as efficient as we can in house um we have an incredible first to three um referral system that is overseen by Manuel giakomo and primarily Laura hawell but also Lisa ring and Melissa hoel and we also have um a few blind VI
023teachers that have stepped up this year Amy hakaba Dian Wells and Ali Scott to assist us in processing all of those referrals that come through 365 days a year even on Christmas New Year's Martin Luther King Day all of them um we are very excited about the request for participation that we started this year for campus preschool we've never had a formalized referral process for preschool on our campuses so now we're better able to track the number of children that that are considering our program we're able to track the length of time from referral to placement to see where we can improve in regard to that to get these kids in by three and then inhouse just a few things that that we're doing that help us move along more quickly in our day with
024some incredible admin support that also help us with travel requests purchasing requests and those are all the things behind the scenes that make el run and without without those folks it'd be very difficult okay um two more slides Advance okay implications um for implications all of this that we've shared with you today which again it we can go into much we can go into much more depth in a in a work study or oneon-one or in a small group if anyone is interested um but all of these things um let us know what it is that when looked at holistically give us an idea of where we are and where we need to go we need to continue to to to consider developmental milestones and make sure that our our children and families are supported
025to be able to reach those and make progress on an individual basis we have many children as I've shared before that are twice exceptional that come to us with additional disabilities and we are always improving ways to find um uh strategies to be able to reach them child find find is is another um initiative that we are working with asip aip's child find numbers are down um we are seeing later and later IDs um and whether that's going back to covid or the number of medical resources there there are no pediatric audiologists there may be one in all of Northern Arizona so that's going to obviously impact um the age at which those kiddos are identified um and then of course family support and we want to extend our family support we have amazing birth
026to three support but we'd really like to improve in preschool and work with FBC more to provide support for families with blind and low vision and um and then work with within our preschool programs with it tener and campus to provide better family support Beyond age3 can advance the slide and that is what we have today for you we can take whatever questions you have I have a couple um on the progress that you showed for us I I saw that the progress age was in months um any like rough median age for like actual age in comparison just to kind of give us an idea like where they started and where they ended real age if you there's one slide in birth to three and I think there's one in preschool as well um
027I don't know how to tell you to advance to it but I think you guys all have copies of this so if you go to the birth to three progress over time slide that has three rows of dayc 2 scores communication receptive language and expressive those are age scores right there so so so the aage the the age of the children at the beginning uh the the first test you have their average ages there by the time they took the second test and then time elapsed and the growth that they made within that with that with within that period of time we don't have scores um comparing them to their hearing or cited children um we don't okay thank you I appreciate the clarification and and also we our whole curriculum and assessment is all
028based on the Arizona early learning standards and so we follow everything we do is based on developmentally appropriate um growth for children um Michelle did you want to say anything else on that we can get those numbers for you if you do want uh typically developing peers um we can get those to you okay that I would be interested I ask a question that kind of Falls in line with that absolutely um my question is slightly related with the growth number do you have like what is expected growth like what what can I have a frame of reference for for this number like should we be expecting less than like in the specific chart you reference should we be expecting less than six and a half months of growth should we be expecting more typically
029like where does this where is this falling so it depends what they come in as if a child comes in preschool and they are say six months behind we're going to need them to double that growth in in in six more months and but we we definitely at least want to see them making a month's progress in a month's time or a Year's progress in a year's time that that's what would be expected thank you I have another question and then I'll open that up to everybody else as well um when we were looking at the numbers of teachers for both birth 3 and for preschool um you students per teacher ratio in some of those areas are very high how many unfilled positions do you have currently right now um we don't have any
030unfilled um dhh positions in northern Arizona we um we have other positions we've been approved for are filled I'm sorry in birth of three in northern Arizona and then in blind Pi we had one teacher just just retire and then we have another position that's opens so too thank you anyone else have any questions this is Gordon um looking at the uh okay um looking at the census information um I just want to make sure I understand it so region one is 66,000 square miles and and there are three teachers for the blind population that whole Northern Area correct okay I mean pretty daunting uh figures here for sure region two is basically Maricopa yes that's done by FBC correct and um that has about 9,200 now looking at Region Three the whole southern part
031of the state I heard a couple times saying there is no uh early services in FEMA preschool preschool yes I meant um but fbc's been mentioned several times what they provide here is it the position that they that vendors are needed in Region Three to provide the early intervention services or the bir to three I mean if there's and also that there was kind of a steady plane there well without any real Services that's gonna I don't even know how you read that but um go ahead fantastic question I'm so so glad you brought that up because we definitely need the board's support to be able to do that it's something that Annette and Orin and sha and myself and Michelle have talked about over the years our blind VI teachers down in Southern Arizona
032would love to see that happen um we've done some cost analysis um right now it's it's Fally would be difficult but we can look toward our partners as well to see if there are any opportunities there so we'll continue those conversations with the superintenden and gner any support that you can provide can I just add one thing um so blind and low vision children in Region 3 are receiving Services they're just not receiving them with us um they're receiving them in their home districts um in their District preschool programs and yes and with the itinerate program Region Three so thank any other questions yes this is board member Terry hi this is Earl speaking um I do have a question about your literacy program for deaf blind um low vision so when it comes to
033literacy we often think about reading and writing and those are great skills to have but obviously the other skill that we want to think about with our de blind students is protactile um and I know that time is of the essence in spe specifically this age range so are there any protactile curriculum or any resources that you're using in preschool um yes thank you for that question um for the specifically for the curriculum the foundations for literacy there's not a deaf blind component right now um however we are partnering with the protactile for kids um group they are here and they are working with our students um and working through interesting that that wasn't mentioned right I'm sorry should add yes going to be honest a lot of that falls under Jennifer scarrow's Department with
034de programs we wouldn't have the protactile team here probably if it weren't for Jennifer so thank you and they have been working with our birth to five families since Co um they braved going into homes back in 2020 and worked with um to to teach them protactile sign language to to use with their children so that is still going on today thank you for bringing that up any other questions or comments thank you ladies this was very informative okay moving on to 1.4 the call to the public for agendized items I have um two requests for agenda agendized items um the first one I have is for Elizabeth Rous hello hello superintendent rikman assistant superintendent katov and Cooper president kifil and board members I'm Libby Brouse Elizabeth brous preschool teacher and asdb president our agency
035is facing a 2.6 million deficit we have seen news articles with our school's future in question there's a mysterious audit being conducted looking into financial information about our agency staff have sent direct questions to our supervisors principes and directors those questions are being answered with I don't know yet I don't have that information it hasn't been shared yet rumors are beginning to start about layoffs hiring freezes and pay freezes there's confusion around what next year looks like for many staff here emails from our superintendent so so far have been vague questions about the specific budget items have gone unanswered transparency is lacking staff are feeling much like the Arizona legislative committee members that were left in the dark about the most recent vote to audit our school we are unsure and fear is growing I
036am here today to ask the board to vote to begin the process of developing an age policy as we Face such unsure times ah head asdb is looking to partner with our board and superintendent to help shed light during these un certain times we are not asking to be final decision makers just decision making Partners we are not looking to be the leader of the agency just to be recognized as the leaders we are we aren't looking for total power and control but we do think that those that need to find coverage to use the bathroom during the day should have representation at the decision making table we are looking to be a direct connection between board and staff a direct connection we are looking for that direct relationship so thank you for your consideration
037thank you uh the next I have um I am so sorry if I mispronounce your name is it AG swaka first of all thank you to our board for allowing me to come and make a comment and speak to you all first of all I have 20 years of experience with different school systems from age three months all the way up to K12 one thing that I've noticing over the six years that I've worked here is the number of students who are doing well um oftentimes those students they improve and then they leave pdsd which is sad um we have a high number of High need students and that number continues to grow and unfortunately the attention of our teachers is often diverted to those students and our high- performing students often leave the school
038due to those concerns they leave to other schools and so I want us and the board to think about how we as teachers can contribute and support our high academic performing students unfortunately we uh at pdsd have received a letter grade of D um I don't know if the difference between the Tucson c-grade and d-grade is because they have deaf adults in the dorms and receive language access continually whereas our day students do not have that luxury I would love to see some more representation when it comes to budget cuts um because we don't want to give up the things that have been supporting the Strategic plan and um we haven't had involvement with those budgetary cuts and instead there's a lot of fear and a lot of questions as to what's next I would
039love some support from the board of course if you have questions I would love to help answer and help brainstorm with how we can go forward with these budgetary Cuts thank you okay moving on to one .5 information item superintendent report superintendent rikan good afternoon president kifl members of the asdb board acting assistant superintendent katov assistant superintendent Cooper and ASB Community Welcome to our first January board meeting meeting of 2025 and I'm happy to see all of you here today I'm going to start with a short story about the American Bison some of you may remember this story which I shared with you maybe three or so years ago but I think it's a good story to repeat today the American Bison has a really interesting characteristic that I find fascinating that's because I grew
040up on a farm I was around a lot of cows and I know cow behavior when cows see a storm blowing in what do they do they run truly they absolutely Run for the hills they scatter the American Bison however does not do that when the Bison sees a storm coming they huddle together and they start running not opposite oos of the storm but straight towards it they make a beine straight into and through the storm think about that what happens after the storm blows away those cows someone else has to come after them and gather them back up bring them all back together and Resurrect The Herd or resurrect the system as it were however our buffalo have made it through that storm and they're still together that system is still intact they are
041able to just keep moving right along and take care of business that's a good reminder for us right now in the year of 2025 we are anticipating some storms some troubled times you've already heard from some of our community member our asdb staff who are deeply concerned about what is going on out and around asdb if we allow ourselves to run for the hills seek cover and Scatter asdb will surely falter we have to stick together we have to be United and we have to face that storm head on and go straight through it there is no other way to do this so we do anticipate some challenges coming at us one has already been mentioned and that is the forensic audit that is going to be happening with asdb this year why that forensic
042audit is happening we don't know what is going to come of that audit we also don't know we are not able to provide more information because we don't have it when we do have more information we will share it but at this moment we don't have any information we know that we don't have enough money to cover our expenses we have been honest and direct with the community about that fact we have projected a two .6 million shortfall we could have hidden that information but we chose not to we have shared that openly with you the board with the finance committee and with the asdb community everyone knows this it is not a secret how we address that shortfall is a little bit more complicated each of us of course of course each of us
043wants to make sure that our own program is not impacted does not have a reduction in funds does not have a reduction in Staffing of course we all want that I don't want a reduction in on anything either but if I am going to be a responsible superintendent then I have to make some difficult decisions I have to work with our leadership team and try to figure out what those decisions are that need to be made and try to minimize the impact to our students education and well-being that's our priority for us for all of you in the agency that is what we can agree upon that we want to ensure our priority as an agency continues to be our students education and well-being how we do that there may be some differences of opinion
044but we have to come together and we have to address this situation we have to ride through that storm we cannot hide from it so we also know um involved in all of that we have a shortage of qualified teachers interpreters and staff so how do we bring in qualified staff if we don't have enough money to cover those costs well that's a dilemma we are working on it but it does mean that the number of Staff um have to be in alignment with the number of students that we have we also know that the number of students that we have enrolled within a sdb has declined if we are going to be responsible stewards of our resources we have to look at our enrollment numbers and we have to look at our number of
045staff and we have to make sure that those two numbers align currently we are doing a realignment of the agency and trying to figure that out again the information that we have we have shared we've shared it with you the board we have shared it with our leaders and I just sent out an email today to our leaders saying that these are the decisions that we have made what is not there are the decisions that we have not made I don't want to tell people information and then have to say no never mind I don't want to cause additional confusion I want to be very clear in all of our communication about the decisions that have already been made and what's left know that we are working through it and we are making those decisions
046as quickly as we can when they are made we will share that information with the agency and then we can also talk about our facilities you just found out that the there's a water leak somewhere in this building that we are in right now so we had to close the bathrooms so board and community members have to go to another building during the break to go to the restroom and this is just one example of the deterioration of our buildings on both of our campuses Tucson and Phoenix we desperately need Renovations but we do not have the funding for those renovations and the state has made it very clear that we are not going to get that money to do those Renovations we have some really serious challenge ahead of us in 2025 so for
047us for you the board for the ASB Community for us to be able to think about our long-term sustainability as an agency we have to look at the resources that we have we have to figure out how to align those Resources with the funding that we have so that we can continue functioning as an agency and what we are doing here is critical to our students in the state of Arizona you just heard Dr Benedict during her presentation and Miss Ahern talk about the services that they provide throughout the State of Arizona no one else is doing that work we are doing that we have the best teachers providing the best support to our parents and to their young children and our children are making progress they are learning and that is solely because of
048the work that that department is doing we are committed to continuing that work but that also means that we need to plan for the future we need to take a hard look at the environment that we're in the resources that we have and figure out what we can do and do well so for you the board members you have a work study session coming up on February 13th and we will be giving a presentation about our budget we'll talk about how much we're bringing in how much we are spending so that you can learn more in depth about our fiscal resources and then on April 10th we are going to be providing you with the next strategic plan strategic plan 2.0 for 2025 through 2030 with your information about the budget and then the information
049we'll provide about the Strategic plan we will ask for you to work with us to figure out how to use our resources to support that next strategic plan you'll have an opportunity to look at that provide us feedback and then at the May board meeting we will ask you for approval of the next strategic plan we have a lot of work ahead of us this year but I am confident that we can meet these challenges we can do it if we stick together if we face that storm head on and we run right through it as a collective I also want to mention before I close my presentation that I am really proud of our teachers our staff our leaders over this last year 2024 we have had some challenges and they have stuck with
050us they have remained committed loyal professional and I truly believe that they are providing the absolute best education and support for our students across the State of Arizona I would not be asking for another contract for three years if I didn't believe that about my lovely community and everyone who works with ASB so thank you and I'm happy to take any questions you may have uh this is Earl Terry speaking um I did like the American Bison story that you told of sticking together through the challenging storm I do want to remind you that going through various storms can lead to burnout and can lead to uh negative consequences like people dying in a storm for example so I do want to say that that your communication style is fantastic but I do think that
051um seeing the presentation um I I from that presentation I've seen a lack of some frustration and a lack of trust in what is being conveyed um I would like to say that ongoing dialogue is very important we can't just say I don't know we need more information than that and do the best of that you can in filling in details because just saying that you don't know can lead to more mistrust in relationships and um act communication accountability communication and transparency I am very concerned about the communication style and the leadership style talking about uh numbers reducing and budget cuts Etc I understand those are concerns but I am also concerned about the communication style and I do hope that you have been taking account account of what the public has been staying um
052in terms of the age policy in terms of retention uh those are two important topics that I'm keeping an eye on since I joined in the summer in June uh and the various meetings that have been present that I have been present uh and part of I have not seen an improvement to be honest with you I do have a question and it might be better suited for the financial presentation but I'm going to ask it here um the budget deficit of 2.6 million is that all due to overe expenditure or is that in part and parcel because of the legislature cuts to the budget this is assistant superintendent Cooper um as previously mentioned on several occasions most of the deficit is related to the reduction in student enrollment increased costs with nursing um also
053with contracted transportation in addition to uh funding decline with the state's general fund Appropriations as well as the reduction since covid we received quite a bit of money when it came to co so a number there are a number of reasons that attri to the projected shortfall followup question on that um I lost my train of thought I'll if it comes back I'll ask it in the financial presentation I I do have one other um question for you superintendent rikman um in relationship to that forensic audit um I am under the understanding that we have not received any to date from either the external auditor or from the legislature um giving us any indication of what it is that they are looking for or what it is um that they are suspicious of I am
054happy to share the jlac meetings all of the details I went and was the legislative audit committee meeting and I shared I can share that but that's not going to give you any more information because during that meeting there was no information shared okay okay um I think that's all for now does anyone else have any other comments or questions this is Linda bo uh speaking of the same struggles the facil the facility struggles rather um in terms of student safety staff public who come to work at these facilities bathrooms being closed down um uh sanit sanitation issues um what is how is that going to affect students and staff and when are we thinking about uh safety concerns who's responsible for the student safety if the legislature or state refuses to support those needs
055where is that accountability and where do we stand in that regard so that's something I was thinking of in terms of Stu students staff and Public Safety coming to these facilities is that something that we can is there something that we can do we can talk about safety and sanitation concerns that there are significant issues that the state is going to have accountability for when safety issues do arise I'm not sure we regularly communicate with the Arizona Department of administration their building renewal Department we have provided an annual request thus far included with our annual request of our capital projects the state has very limited funding the building renewal department has to Prior prioritize which state facilities they are going to make Renovations and repairs to so Statewide we are just one state agency of
056many that are across the state and the facilities there're in that don't have enough funding to cover all of the needed Renovations and repairs so each year we do track a list and submit what we think we need to take care of with our two campuses and their facilities the building renewal provides some funding to us but most of the time it's not sufficient it's about 500,000 700,000 is within a year to help provide some of the repairs and the renovations have been put off and put off and put off and now we're at the point where the infrastructure of several systems are starting to degrade and we have to go back to the facilities renewal and get their assistance to take care of those issues so so far we have been okay not great
057but okay uh Shaina was there anything you wish to add yes in addition to that internally we have since I started in 2018 tried to build in a contingency for emergency related items when it comes to the agency's facilities um so that is something that we try to budget for when there are emergencies related to life safety issues um but again it's not ongoing sustainability and amounts to the funding that is needed to address all of the related facility infrastructure needs for both campuses Shaya can I ask a sort of a followup in regards to that um first of all the money that we've been asking for from the the building renewal Department as well as the contingency you are building in neither of those things were taking place prior to superintendent rikman and Shaya
058coming on to the agency is that correct the request happens annually and has all along but we've improved how we're submitting the requests both with Shaya Cooper taking the lead and Albert Duff when I was promoted to when he was promoted to director of operations he started taking on an improvement presentation for the building renewal because of his efforts we have been getting more funding and more report the last five or six years than we did previous to that thank you I appreciate that Clarity yeah this is um board member question this is board member Terry um a question related to the annual request for the building renewals um I'm hoping that that information is available to the public or if it's not available to the board could you make that information available to to
059us yes we can make sure that information is sent to each of the board members but it is also published this is Su I I would add that thank you um it's pretty clear in our financial meetings and in the budget um information in board docs but also the state asb's budget that they propose to the state every year is also public information it it's on the governor's website okay I I'm meaning more of the internal information because I don't see that information thank you for sharing though uh scort member beanan um I don't want to completely if this question completely derails what we're talking about we can not answer this but I do have a question relating to if we do have such a budget short fall um how that relates to our Master
060facilities plan and how that's going to relate to our Sunset audit because I believe that our Sunset audit that was our biggest issue was our Master facilities plan and if we're not compliant with that this is going to cause a Cascade we developed the Master's facilities plan in response to the 2022 Sunset audit every year we have made critical project committee crucial capital capital project committee review capital projects I think we have met the feedback from the sunset audit the challenge is is that we don't have the funding to do the major repairs the major Renovations on both campuses so as a followup to be clear is the the state understanding that we do not since they are not giving us those funds it's not within our ability to complete these projects to be completely
061compliant with this like how does this all like obviously I'm very concerned about our buildings and everything that's going on the safety to our students and everything like that but we can't uh you know you just can't make it up here and the state is what holds up this for us so I'm just I guess I just want clarification on how we're possibly looking at moving forward with that or um kind of mediating that or balancing that with the state well we have done everything that we can to address the findings and we have a beautiful Master facilities plan we would really like to seek private resources in order to fund that plan and do those major renovations if it all possible but right now we're not able to pursue any private resources um for
062the moment I would still like to do that within the next one to three years to figure out how we might be able to do that with the Arizona auditor general we have not gotten the 18-month uh report and that would be from the 2022 Sunset audit most Arizona auditor generals um what they when they do an audit a sunset audit specifically they do that initial audit they have their findings and recommendations and then they print a report which they give to the agency um and they also give that to the Slate State Legislature the state legislature decides to continue or not um the agency in 2023 the state legislature decided to continue us for four years the Arizona auditor general was supposed to do a six-month followup with us um um with an additional
063report that would be published as far as what we had done to comply with their findings and recommendations we have been actively working um with the Arizona auditor general to complete um fulfill the recommendations and findings and then after that 6 months um we continue to meet regularly with the Arizona auditor general and uh we they continue to follow up with us to ensure that we are implementing fully all of their recommendations from that original report the Arizona auditor general is supposed to publish an 18-month report stating what we have completed and what has yet to be completed however we have not gotten that 18-month report yet from the Arizona auditor General's office when we meet with them there is no information um they have not said we're not doing what they're asking or anything
064of the sort the only information that we're receiving um all of the information that we receive says that in fact we are completing everything that they've asked of us so as far as I know and verbally we've gotten confirmation that we have completed everything we just don't have that final written report from the Arizona auditor General's office will we get that report maybe maybe not I really don't know because now that joint legislative audit committee has ordered the Arizona auditor General's office to conduct an RFP to get a private firm to do a forensic audit of asdb and that is for unknown reasons then in 2026 our next Sunset audit will come up so now we are essentially blending that 2022 audit with the forensic audit with the upcoming 2026 sunset that audit again I
065don't have any information um I'm not able to predict what's going to happen with all of this uh thank you for all that that you kind of like set that out for us I appreciate your um transparency even if the state isn't always the most transparent with us and I just appreciate you your points of clarification on that thank you Annette are there any other hello we'll go with um board member um Earl hi uh the forensic audit that's happening soon have we not gotten an official black and white document from the people that you're meeting with can we ask for one we have gotten nothing we have gotten absolutely nothing or are we waiting for them to give it to us yeah we have asked we have gotten nothing the only reason that we
066even know that the forensic audit is happening is because Maria Murphy found out that we were on the agenda for the jlac committee and that was back in December and Maria and I decided to go because we didn't understand why our agency was on the agenda in the first place during that meeting there was no information or explanation provided as to why or what was going on um there was absolutely nothing shared thank you the only thing that happened was that um the committee voted and that vote was to give $2 million to the Arizona auditor General's office to conduct or to contract with that Outside Agency to conduct the forensic audit of asdb this is Gordon I don't really have a question but I do want to just put a perspective out there that
067um and this isn't in defense of anyone and without even a position as much as just an observation um you know what's occurring here at asdb is the same that's happening with every agency every not for-profit uh everybody's facing some severe uh Financial shortfall uh as Sha said said you know everything was propped up with Co money the last we're only really 2 and A2 years out of Co maybe two years people think that it's gone and that was it now maybe maybe the incidents of the infection have been reduced but the Fallout is still very present uh when it comes to uh student census when it comes to uh people participating in programs referrals a lot of the State uh government agencies are still working vir or mostly virtually uh it's that can work
068okay when you're working with um uh when you're in a shutdown virtual work kept things going uh when you're trying to segue that and have the Synergy of that with people on site uh that doesn't work that smoothly um you know I've been on the finance committee for I don't know many years now uh our reporting is as accurate and as up to date as we can possibly have it again I'm not defending anything right now I'm just saying this is what it's like out there uh having a contingency plan for emergencies is unbelievably expensive and particularly when you don't have when you have a shortfall all of a sudden it was going to say we're going to put 50,000 here we're going to put 50,000 there doesn't work that way in business Cycles you
069go through these types of things anybody has any tenure and I look around this table a lot of people have some tenure so this is what you deal with sometimes uh it's not a matter of not telling people what they want to know because you don't have answers you know the idea of this forensic audit believe me I understand this 100% that this came out of somewhere that they've got feel they got some teeth and they've allocated two million dollars but that doesn't mean they're going to tell you anything until they decide they want to and you can ask you can knock on doors Maria has a lot of good contact she would have the most upto-date information that would be passed on but she doesn't have it again third time I said it I'm
070not in defense of anything right here I'm just saying how it works and this is what it's going on right now uh ppb money small business administration money that pumped Millions into agency's budgets that's not there so all of a sudden you take that out and you know we go from a 100% budget to a 97% budget we're at what 26 projection that's about what 3% I guess you know or so yeah yeah three and a half percent or whatever um you know you put that in also you take into account that that inflation has been hard on everybody labor costs have gone way up but again with no income to support that those labor costs we put it together this is what we're dealing with in 2025 and I don't mean just ASB but
071this is what what the economic culture is and I guess I'm just saying so people understand this that as a collective everybody's trying to work for the same good cause and and the ultimate cause so that's what we deal with that's what everybody's dealing with and I understand for even people in the audience that's what you're dealing with too on a different way but it is a cycle right now and we can be you know running through the storm or what however you want to approach it but it's got to it's it's a complicated issue and it's going to take a lot of work and it's going to take a lot of time and it might take some pain because that's what happens in these kinds of things and you see where you can come
072out on the other side people don't want to hear that but that's how it is and I just want to put that out there because there is no lack of transparency here this isn't like well we're not going to tell them because you know sometimes you have to withhold until it's the proper time this isn't what isn't the case that's all Susan I thought you I think you had a comment um I may be overstepping my bounds here and as a new board member I'll I'll going to just go ahead and ask for forgiveness later um I happen to be privy and and basically speaking to those of you in the audience because I totally as a parent uh and as a recipient of the dedication and heart uh that teachers and staff uh put
073into helping my son get to where he is today I I see your fear I hear your fear and I too am very frustrated that we've got a senator who is not only uh not being transparent with our superintendent and with the board despite multiple requests there was a news uh brief from Phoenix that was held two weeks ago maybe that I happened to catch and is it okay if I talk about senators names and who we're talking about can I go ahead and say okay I'm looking to Michelle out there I'll just go ahead and repeat the what I heard on the news brief that we have a senator and Queen Creek Jak Kaufman uh who is the one who is actually bringing this to the Forefront with this mysterious audit and a $2
074million uh request was passed and he has members on his own committee that do not know any information uh about this a it and they went ahead and voted for it anyway I don't understand that I'm a nurse I don't get it I'm also very plain spoken and feel like um Plain Talk is easy understood so I have no answer as to why we're not getting the information that we need or that our superintendent uh and that is not getting the information she needs our finance committee is not getting the information they need need to be able to address these concerns what I want you to know is that asdb has a very good reputation over the years I want to see us back where we were 10 years ago uh and I do think
075we are going to have to move through a storm and it's not only going to take your board members it's going to take you all as well uh holding hands and finding out why are we not being told what's happening why are we not why is the legislature by the way they work for us right we pay their salaries why are they not being transparent with us so that we can address these issues and get it all out on the cable for everyone so teachers staff thank you board members thank you um and if I've overed my events well you guys just have to forgive me and tell me later that I can't do this anymore thank you Susan any other comments or questions before moving on all right going on to 1.6 information item
076assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction report interim assistant superintendent catchup good afternoon board president kifil members of the board superintendent rikman assistant superintendent Cooper and the asbb community you all have my board report and I look forward to any potential questions similar to last year before the winter break all staff on the educational side of the agency were given the opportunity to provide Anonymous was it was called a two stars in A Wish feedback for their director or principal via a survey the purpose of this is to provide our leaders with formative data that they can use to continue doing what is working as well as find an area where they can continue to improve all the leaders have been given that information and have been sharing with their staff what their takeaways are from
077that survey unlike last year our big emphasis at this time is the asdb budget shortage and how that affects our plans for this year as well as next year Deputy assistant superintendent Rosie DEA Cruz superintendent rikman and I will be meeting with both principles separately in February to identify their scheduling needs for next year ensuring that the schools are adequately staffed while remaining fiscally prudent this will be based on both their student counts as well as individual student needs this week and next week we have been meeting with the leaders at both campuses and the preschools to ensure that we're maximizing billing for Medicaid reimbursement in hopes that that can help us close part of that budget deficit overall I do appreciate how everyone from the teachers to the leaders have been stepping up to
078try to find areas where we can cut back as well as areas that we might be underutilizing for creating Revenue as we navigate a challenging Financial landscape I am excited to see the grit and resilience in ensuring that we have continued success for our organization as you all know grit is defined as perseverance and passion for long-term goals and I do believe that grit will be a key asset as we Face our current financial and fiscal constraints while the budget shortage does pose significant challenges it's not insurmountable uh I do believe that grit particularly in times of adversity can become an essential driving force if we try to harness IT staff and Leadership must stay focused on our long-term goals which ultimately are about providing services and education to our students we need to continue
079to focus and make sure that our we are spending on initiatives that that are most directly supporting our core Mission and our long-term stability before I close I would like to share some updates on the ELP itinerant services and our day schools in our itinerant Services we have been able to offer services to every District that we had on our waiting list we're officing we are offering services to every student that is referred to the asdv tenant programs we have inperson services for some students virtual services for other students and we are partnering with FBC for students who are referred to us from parochial schools that we are not able to serve as shown in Dr Benedict's presentation the ELP is excited to report on the progress of our infant Toddlers and preschool children across
080all of our programs the ASL parent and provider survey is underway as part of the identify services and improve capacity for children who are deaf and heart of hearing project which is made possible through a grant awarded to the ear Foundation of Arizona from the Arizona Community Foundation uh for more information on that Grant please feel free to reach out directly to Dr Benedict in practicing our operating principles of accountability collaboration and transparency asdb did get letter grades from the Arizona Department of Education this year this is the first time since becoming an Lea that ad has provided us with our letter grades as an Lea asdb received a letter grade of a c our Tucson campus also received the letter grade of a c as Agra pointed out pdsd missed a grade of a
081c by one4 of a point so not one point not a half a point but we missed it by 1/4 of a point we did did appeal that letter grade with the state board but that appeal was denied and I did share all that information with the pdsd staff uh this last Friday I'm I'm personally struggling with that we can't do anything to find 1/4 of a point but it is very clear that we've exhausted everything we can do and at this point it's just kind of accepting it and using that as a Baseline as we move forward as a point of reference I do want to share that gadets model Secondary School for the Deaf which is considered one of the better schools for the deaf in the nation received what would be equivalent
082to a c label by their state school's label designation and the only reason I'm sharing this is just a reminder that most State rating systems are not friendly to schools for the deaf and the blind no matter which state that they're dedicated or in what state they're they're located so for both campuses we will continue building upon supports that we currently have in place like tutoring tracking data on our students utilizing our instructional coaches in the classroom and identifying students who are close to moving up to the next level of proficiency as well as adding some additional supports as is ensuring that lesson plans are linked to State Standards spending more time with our students on understanding the practice tests so they know what these tests look like ahead of time uh as well as
083test taking strategies Arizona's letter grade system is a little bit complicated but if the board would like more in-depth information about it at a future board meeting I more than happy to to do a presentation on that through in closing the current budget shortage is undoubtedly a challenge but it is not one that we cannot overcome by leaning into the concept of grit perseverance passion for our mission and resiliency I believe that we will adapt innovate and continue to work towards our long-term goals as many have already mentioned in this meeting the upcoming months will require tough decisions but if we remain committed United and resourceful we will navigate this obstacle I'm open if there's any questions this is Linda B I do have a question um for the board members to understand what you
084mean when you made the comment that um programs are not friendly to De and hard of estate rating systems rather are not friendly to the the deaf and heart of hearing programs I'm not sure sure what specific word you Ed but you said not friendly to or does not align with or something along those lines what do you mean by that could you elaborate sure so for States who have some kind of rating system a lot of that does tend to be based on proficiency of understanding having being proficient to their standards um many of our students do come in below and we're trying to catch them up we also I think have a scenario where you know I'm trying to think of a specific term but I know for many words especially when you
085get academic terms teachers might be using different signs for what those terms me mean um on ad's test they do have Pearson that does some of the ASL translation which is wonderful and we appreciate ad putting that in recently um but a lot of times we do not get to see what those videos are prior so we don't know really the level of ASL that possibly some of those interpreters are using as well as some of those key words we might be teaching using a different sign and then when the kids you know click on the link to see the question in ASL it could be different based on is the person a professor are they based out of Pennsylvania are they based out of you know Colorado uh so I do think that some
086of those items which are hard for test makers to understand uh do make our kids and our our teachers have to try harder in my opinion okay you are right um tests do need to be developed differently in a way to accommodate uh deaf students based on the language that they use it's not English um they they're language tends to be ASL forward so trying to force them to fit into a round hole that metric is not it's going to be off at the same time because of language deprivation as well um in their childhood that also can cause issues with rating and also using differences in language but I mean as de people we do get used to and we do get used to adapting to various communication styles but not having a foundation
087due to language deprivation maybe because families don't sign or have not taken the time to do that or because they focused on the uh spoken language methods until uh later in their life and missed that critical language learning period um there's layers of issues um there's layers and there's also accountability that isn't taken at those different layers of uh decision making so you know we do appreciate the hard work of our staff and our leadership team as well it is impressive all the work that has has been done but we do have to look at the source of the problem first as well and take care and start working there and our our ELP program is putting a lot of uh language exposure to our very young children and that uh helps Stave off that
088language deprivation Factor and which is one of the elements that does skew those scores so looking at that it may doesn't make sense for us to be measured by those metrics and I tend to understand because of my own experiences my own lived experience right I have a family history I went to a a deaf school um but a lot of people don't understand those factors that are influencing this so that's where we have to kind of partner with and work together to come up with strategies and methods uh specifically pertaining to language acquisition um those were my thoughts in response to what you were sharing so I wanted to share those thank you thank you I do have a followup as well I'm not to oversimplify this but I'm understanding that this letter grade
089system is based also on um student achievement based on like State Standards testing those tests aren't normed for our kids either um they're typically normed for kids you know may not have a language um barrier may not have a cultural barrier may not have you know a variety of other barriers that are faced um in front of them and I think um while I know and I appreciate the fact that you guys did work work to appeal that degrade I also think that we're we're trying to climb uphill push that rock uphill um and the system is working against us as well my two thought my two sense thank you I I do want to say that again we do appreciate that asdb does invite us in now for some of the item selections for
090the testing uh the adding of ASL has has been phenomenal they've also been very open um when Michael olier looks at some of those videos and critiques them to taking those those comments to Heart uh in meeting with two state board people earlier in the week they do want to meet to get a better idea of who we are what we do and what are some things in the a through F model that might be unintentionally hurting us um that said though it does feel like there's there's more holes in the dam than there are fingers but you I just gave a big spiel about grit and so we will continue to to move forward and do what we can and not give up any other questions or comments thank you um it is now
091about 5:36 and I'm going to call for a 10-minute break to give our interpreters and our cart folks a little bit bit RIT and we will come back at about let's just say 550 to make it easy e e e yeah I'm ready when you guys are am I on not we will wait for the caption somebody's waving at you from the okay all right we are oh not we are not back hold on concern when one of our death board members are speaking the interpreters are blocking them is there a way we can all right I believe we are live we are going to um go back to uh or go on to agenda item 1.7 the information item for assistant superintendent of agency operation and support services assistant superintendent Cooper Welcome Back in
092person not hear good evening board president kifil superintendent rikan acting assistant superintendent catch off members of the board asdb community and staff members it's glad to be back in person um um although I've been virtual thank you each of the directors have provided their departmental reports and in summary the IT department continues to work on numerous activities including the firewall replacement on the Tucson campus and the Wi-Fi project on the Phoenix campus the student information system and data Integrity team continue to work on completing the reconciliation of the October 1st report for our azed data collection the transportation is working with ADOT on our Fleet transfers as a result of ASB no longer being exempt from the state's Fleet in addition the team is performing a midyear review of our Fleet utilization and will begin
093transferring lower mileage vehicles to our higher utilization drivers in order to directly allocate mileage across the feet excuse me Fleet the Food Services team continues to work with the two campuses along with our it Department to implement a barcode scanning process to improve the cafeteria line at the point of sale and the equipment has been received and we're working on Printing and distributing those student IDs in the upcoming weeks for business services the budget and financial report for November 2024 and 2023 will be provided separately under agenda item 4.1 and we were recently informed today that the fiscal year 2026 Governor's executive budget is being finalized and the state's office of strategic planning and budgeting has reached out to schedule a meeting with us next week with that said we should receive an update regarding
094the various funding issues that were subed in September which we were hoping to get funded and that related to our contractor transportation and one toone nursing Services the HR team have been involved in training and testing the new state of Arizona hris system called a360 and have been working through the Recruitment and Retention challenges the new system will launch in May 2025 and will impact all state employees we have been told that a 360 will be accessible to our blind low vision staff members which is currently not accessible and so this will most likely impact some of our payroll processes and HR processes in addition to the departmental reports I want to provide a brief update on the ongoing work to address our significant budget challenges and outline our next steps toward fiscal sustainability and
095as board member Gordon mentioned similar to other schools in Arizona and Across the Nation we are all aware of the challenging Financial realities many schools and organizations are facing specific to asdb as previously mentioned the shortfall last year and this year has been brought on by a number of factors such as the change in our Lea status declining student enrollment increase student support needs increase contractual obligations Rising operating costs due to inflation and a reduction to the general fund Appropriations and other Revenue funding sources inflationary pressures on our payroll benefits and services have outstripped our ability to reduce our expenses through attrition while our student enrollment and funding streams continue to decline in layman terms that means our expenses are outpacing our revenues which means we're spending more than we're bringing in last year we
096had a $1.8 million shortfall and as mentioned we're projecting A 2.6 million shortfall for fiscal year 2025 if no major changes to our spending occur the last few years we've had surpluses and a health healthy unrestricted fund cash balance which has helped to offset last year's shortfall however the balance is finite and will not last long if we continue to operate with the shortfall we will need to rely on that balance in the shortterm being careful not to spend it down significantly as we continue to try to build in emergency reserves making budget adjustments takes Precision so just filling budget gaps deficits or shortfalls isn't as simple as some people tend to think um and as I've mentioned on previous occasions a lot of our funding is restricted so meaning it must be used for
097specific purposes several of of our key stakeholders continue to review data metrics as superintendent wri MC mentioned specific to the agency's operations both fiscally and programmatically as we focus on finding ways to cut and balance the agency's budget for 2025 and the years that immediately follow as Acting Superintendent um excuse me as assistant superintendent kov mention we have received recommendations from agency staff and have identified spending reduction measures to help cut day-to-day operating expenses to ease some of the budgetary pressure that we've all received ideas on as well in in addition to increasing our Revenue so we've received recommendations on how to increase revenue streams as well as how to reduce the budget The agency's Current financial status future outlook and spending reduction measures have been shared with and communicated to educ staff to ensure
098that we're able to process through them and some of those spending reductions have include reducing travel Transportation professional development we're monitoring strictly more purchases for materials supplies and equipment and we are looking at ways to reduce our payroll as you all are aware more than 80% of our budget is earmarked for salaries and benefits which typically Impact Staff um so with that said Staffing levels are being reviewed as previously mentioned and being spare headed um by our Deputy assistant and assistant um to align our enrollment with student count as we also look at vacated positions we're trying to address that through attrition and trying to determine if those positions should be refilled or eliminated the next couple of months will be emotionally hard and difficult as we make these decisions but it's necessary um I
099know we all have a range of emotions we continue to hear about that whether it's anger sadness frustration that's normal and expected and I feel those same emotions as well I wish I could say things would be a little different but it is my responsibility to work with the superintendent to ensure we as an agency are fiscally responsible despite the challenges we all are facing our reality is we need to focus on our students and when we continue to look at additional reduction strategies to both address those immediate and short-term long-term Financial Health we're doing that equitably across the agency so not just the education side but also the agency operations and support services as well trying to make sure that we minimize the impact on our staff students our services and our programming whether
100it's funded or not regarding transparency financial information has and continues to be presented in the various fiscal reports that are published and discussed at the financial committee meetings and as a reminder prior to my start in 2018 the agency did not have fiscal data staff are more than welcome to send specific questions to the team and I and whenever possible we do our best to answer those questions but to be honest the six years I've been here I think I've only received a handful of questions I know this is a time of trust building and I want to reiterate I am committed to continuing to share information in a timely and transparent manner when available as we work together and find Solutions so where do we go from here I encourage everyone to consider what
101you can do to ensure the future of our students and ASB what it will take to balance our budget restore our financial health and create a sustainable path forward together we'll work through these challenges as we've all pretty much had the same message today and continue to prioritize the needs of our students family and staff and that wraps up my report and I'm open to answer any questions or address any comments thank you any questions for Shaina thank you I appreciate before moving on I do want to mention on record that um Susan Singler left but we are still meeting Quorum moving on to item 2.1 action item approval of the consent agenda consistent with board policy to include items 3.1 5.1 5.2 6.1 6 .2 7.2 7.3 and 7.4 I am open for a
102motion board president Kel this is board member Bo um I have a a question for you so these this consent agenda that's has multiple items that's all been lumped together so to speak is there a way that we can single out items um for example the BAC agreement those are fairly consistent uh the district agreements those are fairly consistent that we get those regularly um teacher contracts donations there's a lot in this consent agenda how could is there a way we could better organize this so in the agenda and it might be because of the new diligence system in in the agenda they are listed separately after the consent agenda so if you go through the other points of the agenda those are in there and explains a little bit more and some of them
103do have um yes attachments thank you um so they are in the agenda um if you if there are any that you would like to pull and look at and vote on separately we can do that as well I would need a motion for that though um this is board member banon I'll make a motion to uh accept all of the items on the consent agenda I have a motion do I have a second second board member Gordon seconding that all those in favor to approve the consent agenda items as listed please say I I I I I opposed hearing and seeing none the motion carries moving on thank you a point of order a question is there a way that we can organize this differently or better or a way to make this accessible
104separate these out that's just a point of feedback um to have them all lump together is quite difficult to access I will um speak with Leticia and see if there's a way we can organize this in a different way thank you moving on to agenda item 4.1 information item Finance report Kim bitr Director of Business Services good evening board president kipo superintendent reichman assistant superintendent C Cooper acting assistant superintendent kaccha did I get it right members of the board ASB Community you've been provided with our most recent board report that covers financial data for November 2023 and 2024 this data was covered in more detail at our most recent finance committee meeting held on Thursday January 9th with board president kifil board member Gordon superintendent rikman and assistant superintendent Cooper the total student count provided
105in the board report for December 1st 2024 shows 1932 students compared to 2,178 students as of July 1st 2023 that's the total decrease of 246 students When comparing to December 1st 2024 student count to November 1st 2024 of 1945 there is a decrease of 13 students Tucson campus increased by two pdsd decreased by two preschool has increased by five birth to three has decreased by nine and the region have decreased by nine as of December 1st we had about 514 full-time employees full-time equivalent which includes 8.5 full-time equivalents at FBC foundation for blind children at that time we employed 733 students there were 114 vacancies across the agency at that time since then we have removed positions that have been opened and posted for more than a year and we are reviewing all positions that
106have been opened for less than one year the highlights of the November 2024 financial report shows the revenue of 15.2 million was 44,000 lower than the November 2023 revenue of 15.16 million the major different difference is the decrease in the general fund spent year-to date offset by an increase in the voucher revenue and the classroom site fund Revenue these are both based on the student count since we are vouchering earlier this year we have received These funds earlier than we did at this time last year the budget fiscal year 2024 obligated expenditures of 27.6 million were 1 million less than the budget fiscal year 2025 expenses of 28.6 million the increases are in payroll and employee r related expenditures of 2.3 million this is partially due to salary increases given to staff as well as
107step increases for teachers and related services staff to match their years of service this is offset by a decrease in the other expenditure categories travel and Equipment are decreased as part of budget cruts food service is down as a result of fewer students we are spending more non-appropriated funds this year specifically the classroom site fund and the Medicaid reimbursement funds to the extent allowable um this concludes my report and I'm available for any questions any questions thank you so much thank you here where I about recruiting more board members for the finance committee even if you are not ready to join it formally you could always sit in and learn a little bit more and I would encourage that okay moving on to agenda item 6.3 discussion and possible action item education organizations at asdb
108all right um so we were going to have a presentation and what I will say is that there are minor differences very much nuanced differences as a state agency as far as having um a meet and confer policy one of the biggest is utilizing St resources which could be staff time um agency equipment um access to emails Etc um I I do I would like to move into executive session for additional legal consultation um if so I'm going to go so move that do I have a second second I have a motion in a second to move into EX executive session all those in favor say I I opposed hearing none you get to read your first to ARS 38-43 1.03 A3 the board may vote to go into executive session which will not be
109open to the public for discussion consultation for legal advice with the board's attorneys as it relates to this item so we will adjourn to Executive session at 6:13 which direction are we going e e e back everybody thank you for your patience um we're resuming the open meeting at 7:07 p.m. um in regards to 6.3 the discussion and possible action item regarding education organizations at asdb um per further um discussion and consultation with our attorney generals um it's my understanding that the theoretical intent of a of a meet and confer policy that asdb has policy in place to address many of these issues and staff in place including the Ombudsman to address some of these issues um I'm open to any further comments questions or a motion um I will this is board member I
110would move that we establish an age policy this is board member Terry I make a motion that we establish an H policy I have a motion do I have a second there is no second the motion fails do I have an alternative motion or any other discussion I am board member of can and I will make a motion for the board to not adopt an age policy I have a motion do I have a second I'll second I have a motion and a second all those in favor say I I opposed I'm opposed this is board member Terry we still have a majority the motion carries moving on to 6.4 discussion and action item renewal of superintendent rikan's three-year Employment contract beginning July 1 of 2025 to June 30th 2028 I will entertain a motion
111um to for the contract or to go into executive session I oh I do want to just make a comment that there would be no changes to her current contract it would just be an extension of those three years I'll make a motion to approve the contract I have a motion do I have a second I'll second that this all those in favor say I I I I opposed hearing none seeing none motion carries moving on to 7.1 information and discussion item introduction and possible discussion of policy gcfc Maria Murphy director of policy and government relations uh board president kifil superintendent rikman members of the board staff and members of the asdb community you have before you the redline of policy gcfc it was posted online I have not received any comments in regards to
112this policy uh just so the for the board's information these changes were recommended uh by the Arizona School boards Association and they are in response to changes in Arizona revised Statute from the previous legislative session and with that I'd like to make myself available for any questions thank you Maria any questions for Maria on this policy there's this is the first read correct Maria so we will see this again for Action yes ma'am any questions all right thank you Mar thank you 8.1 call to the public for non-agenda items do we have any oh sorry okay sorry all right um moving on to 8.2 discussion and possible action item agenda items for the next regular board meeting I would like to propose that um we add to the agenda for the next meeting discussion and
113Poss action about utilizing some of our work study sessions as the board to hold Town Hall meetings for um the asdb um Community as well as staff um to address concerns and bring issues to the board and executive team any other agenda items currently that you'd like to see okay um you can always contact the board or um Annette if you have anything you'd like to see on there I think we are down to 9.1 action item adjournment I'm open to a motion we don't have Lynn this is board member B I'll make a motion to adjourn the meeting I have a motion do I have a second I'll second that all those in favor say I I opposed motion carries e