001okay we're ready to go go ahead Sue okay um good afternoon asdb Community it is 4M and I call this meeting of the board to order um Britney would you please call roll absolutely um Su kifil present I'm present uh Linda B present Colette Chapman present Lynn davidsson present Michael Gordon uh Katie Cino present and Earl Terry present thank you moving on to agenda item 1 .02 I'd like to introduce our new board member Earl Terry um I'm going to give you a little bit of his history and his bio um Earl Terry um his pronouns are he his and him is an afroamerican de blind de disabled and queer entrepreneur an instructor based in Phoenix Arizona on the AIML o Odum upper pum Pima hokam and O Odum land with over 9 years years
002of experience Earl specializes in teaching American Sign Language and is impassionate about promoting awareness and inclusivity for the deaf deaf blind de disabled heart of hearing and late deafened communities as an entrepreneur Earl curates Art EX exhibitions blah offers Consultation Services on ASL black ASL and protactile develops educational materials and conducts community-based workshops he is dedicated to celebrating the diversity of the deaf deaf blind deaf disabled heart of hearing and late de in communities and empowering individuals through education and artistic expression Earl is deeply engaged in the bipac black indigenous and people of Co color communities Arts communities curating exhibitions that amplify marginalized voices and showcase the unique contributions of Black Deaf artists with a master's degree in sign language education and a bachelor's degree in communication studies and journalism Earl combines academic expertise with
003practical experience to deliver impactful ASL instruction and advocacy inspired by Maya Angelo's words Earl believes in the power of self-realization and resilience stand up straight and realize who you are that you Tower over your circumstance through his work earl strives to uplift and Empower others to embrace their identities and communicate effectively with the community I'd like to offer a welcome to Mr Terry and I'd like to give him a chance to add anything if he'd like at this point thank you so much for the warm welcome and introduction I did like want to add that I graduated from pdsd in 1998 I have a deaf brother um who graduated from here as well in 2001 so we are alumni and it's wonderful to be back Katie is saying welcome home Earl all right moving on
004to agenda item 1.03 call to the public for agendized items uh we have we have have two calls to the public um one is present we'll call up Elizabeth I'm sorry I'm going to probably not pronounce this correctly Brouse that's correct hello thank you for the time today my name is Libby Brouse and I'm a preschool teacher at pdsd and the vice president of the asdb Educators Association I'm commenting today on behalf of asdb EA asdb has operating principles and working agreements known as act accountability collaboration transparency and those I'll be talking about in my comment ascb Educators Association would like to share our concerns over the recent decision to create a new position in the agency Deputy assistant super intendent of curriculum and instruction we would like to make clear our concern is with
005the process to create this position and the communication about the decision on April 26th the agency received an email from superintendent reichman with an update of the search for the assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction superintendent rikman stated after the second round of interviews none of the candidates were offered a position these interviewees while highly qualified did not have their Senior Management leadership experience she went on to say that the current leadership structure at ascb educational programs would be evaluated and formal professional development for current leaders would be explored on May 3rd one week and I emphasize one week after that update the agency received a follow-up email from superintendent rikman in that email superintendent rikman identified that asdb senior leaders evalu evaluated the educational programs and additional leadership growth opportunities for our current leaders
006in the same email the agency was informed that based on that analysis the position of Deputy assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction would be created and the position was already offered to one of the candidates from the assistant superintendent search after one week's time a new position in the agency was not only created but also filled this led many staff members and members of asdb to pause with questions this hasty decision certainly did not meet the standard of act and unfortunately has followed the inconsistent pattern in the agency of leadership positions being created without first being posted internally or externally on May 6th and 7th asdb emailed superintendent rikman with follow-up questions that were not addressed in her original email the questions were about the job description budget and posting of the Deputy assistant superintendent
007position on May 8th superintendent rikman responded to as dbea leadership with answers to all three questions though no additional information has has been shared agency-wide as members of asbaa continue to engage in conversations with our colleagues it is apparent that there are more unanswered questions and growing frustration around not only the lack of accountability collaboration and transparency but the leadership heavy structure our agency has found itself in staff have identified contradictions in theory of developing leaders from within and practice of filling leadership positions from outside the agency tension among staff is growing due to being left out of decisions and watching our agency leadership swiftly make decisions on items they deem priority without first Gathering necessary feedback from Key stakeholders like staff the asdb Educators Association is here again to ask that the board meet
008with us to discuss establishing an H policy so that the staff can meaningfully be engaged in such high stakes decisions on leadership thank you thank you thank you we have one more um public comment on agenda items this came as an email um I'll ask first if Richard if Mr Richard mlin Jr is present and he can speak all right I'll read his email in his email he says says my name is Richard A mclin Jr I'm a former student at Phoenix Day School for the Deaf I'm really excited and looking forward to see pdsd Master facility plan since I watched the board's study session about the master facility plan on YouTube and on pdsd I feel that I recommend to have second options to look at new lands to expand the campus due to
009increase in students enrollment and I feel that it needs to have more classroom and needs to hire more teachers to meet students ratio needs also needs to have a dorm on the campus due to students who reside in Far East Valley and Far West Valley so they can stay on campus and have students energy to continue to learning several students had talked about waking up at 5:30 a.m. to get on the bus between 6:30 a.m. to 7:00 a.m. and they arrive home approximately 5: to 6:00 p.m. or those involved in sports get home at like 6:30 to 8:00 p.m. and not have enough time or hours of sleep when completing their homework and some students take a nap on the bus in the morning I think it will be nice to have students to stay
010in a dorm on pdsd campus if new land uh if f a new land thank you for your consideration and hope you can look at it on second options for pdsd master facility plan thank you moving on to agenda item 1.04 um the superintendent report superintendent rikan thank you good afternoon president knel members of the asdb board of directors acting assistant superintendent ketov assistant superintendent Cooper members of the asdb community welcome to the May 9th board meeting here in Phoenix someone recently shared with me a quote or excuse me shared with me it is 100 the we are in the 100th day of May that expression 100 days of May is interesting and we all know what that feels like we're very busy and we're getting near the end of the school year we are
011preparing for graduations and we are all overwhelmed with so much to do before the the end of the school year I have to confess my favorite time of the school year is graduation season and we have two one graduation for the Tucson campus will be held Monday May 20th at 4:00 and the second graduation will be here Tuesday May 21st at 5:30 I hope all all of the board members are able to attend both of our graduations and we are cordially inviting you to please attend you all remember at the last board meeting I shared a quote from an ancient Greek engineer named Archimedes and that engineer discovered the concept of using the of using levers and he said give me a place to stand and I can move the world and I would like
012to go back and discuss that quote and that discussion about stability here at asdb we know that organizations that are stable have certain qualities for their staff and Staff feel things are predictable they are continual they are reliable and there is a sense of security and that sense of security correlates to stability so that sense of stability is critical to the organizational culture and for our leaders to provide that sense of stability then that allows the organization to grow and plan for the future and we know this we also know that asdb has a pretty good foundation we have pretty good stability of course we could approve but we already have some our core values and beliefs we have our mission the focus on excellence and Innovation and as was just mentioned our operating principles
013act accountability collaboration and transparency as well as the Strategic plan the board has given us to guide us into the future I would like to add two more things that we are working on to have clear transparent communication we are working on improving that and really soliciting feedback meaning for important decisions and we are continuing to improve in that so asdb is really working towards the goal to become more stable as an organization so I'd like to give two examples of how as a stable organization we can better stand on our foundation and address the challenges that are facing us all over so you all might have heard recently the State of Arizona has a budget shortfall we did receive a letter April 19th following um a memo so we received two a first a
014letter April 19th and then a follow-up memo April 24th and those two pieces of Correspondence said for the next two years we have to to save $ 1.2 billion and again I will say you heard that correctly that was $1.2 billion dollar with a B so that means All State agencies are faced with having to re-evaluate how our budgets could be reduced we don't know yet the budget for the next fiscal year but we do already have several reactions or excuse me directives from the governor's office so I would like to briefly mention those for you and then later assistant superintendent Cooper will provide more explanation for first is we have a head count Max cap excuse me and so what do they mean by headcount cap the head count is the number of Staff
015we have full-time and part-time so all of the staff within the agency every agency has a headcount cap our agency headcount cap is 800 and 64 so when we talk about headcount we're not talking about uh FTE or full-time equivalent that is not what we are talking about rather each person who works with the agency so one IIA instructional assistant might be full-time at 40 hours a week whereas another might have five hours a week and that is considered two for our head count So currently we have staff we have 23 contractors and those are included within our headcount and most of our contractors are through Acro mostly nursing staff the remaining positions are7 vacancies so fortunately that gives us some wiggle room so that we are able to continue hiring for our teachers professional
016staff IAS bus drivers Etc it's not as much flexibility as we had before but it is still sufficient for us to be able to continue to operate so that is the good news so that's the first thing second is compensation we have a compensation cap we are not allowed to have any more compensation increases but at the same time the governor's office is allowing for current increases that we have already committed to and communicated to our staff so that means that you have on the board agenda today pay increases that you can and are permitted to approve because we have already committed and communicated with staff prior to the April 19th letter that was the cut off date so we can follow and keep those commitments that you see in board docs for this afternoon
017that also means from here on out any other increases are not permitted third we have our budget there are possible reductions that need to be made we do not know yet for sure we have not received our budget from the state as of yet so July 1st 2024 until June 20125 June 30th that is our budget year and we have not received um the information of how much we will be receiving from the state when we know that information we will share it so we are not aware right now just so that um but that does not mean that we are sitting on our hands and waiting we are already in the midst of discussions reviewing our budget and trying to figure out how we can find or where we can find that savings within
018our budget and we have a pretty good idea and we know it will evolve as time goes go on so that is one example of why it is important to have a stable organization so we are able to address challenging situations such as this the second example is our leadership team as the person who provided the public comments said uh looking at our leadership team we are trying to figure out what to do moving into the future as you know we did a nationwide recruitment effort to replace assistant superintendent katov and we had a partnership with nvy and that partnership was successful they brought us 24 candidates we selected the top five we went through a series of interviews and it happened at the end of the interview process n none of those five candidates
019were selected for the assistant superintendent position so that meant that we had to quickly figure out what to do the first decision was asking acting assistant superintendent ketov if he would would be willing to stay on in that position for an additional year and fortunately he did agree so his contract for the next year is on the agenda for your approval tonight the second decision we made was to look at the educational program and figure out how we could reorganize the education program to strengthen the stability and to improve the stability for the future the third decision we made was again to look at professional development how can we provide professional development to our current leadership and give them the experiential opportunities so that they do have the skills to move into upper Administration positions
020so we are committed to doing that we haven't figured out the specifics of what it looks like but we are committed to the concept and then the fourth decision was the decision to offer a different position to miss De La Cruz because out of the five candidates she scored the highest so I wanted to give her the same opportunities to learn and to grow and to bring her here and with her colleagues have professional development opportunities to to grow their experience and develop their skills to move up into a senior management position so that decision you we now have our Deputy assistant superintendent position that is up for approval on the agenda tonight for your discussion and approval so we have that another that is another example of planning for the future one more example
021I wanted to briefly mention is the master facilities plan you had the board work study session just just last week Thursday and you all had the opportunity to review the conceptual designs for the Tucson campus and the Phoenix campus and these this is really planning for the future we are looking at and figuring out how we can provide the best facilities that meet the students needs in now in the 21st century our buildings here are aging Tucson campus is even older than the pdsd campus so we have to have a master facilities plan I am hoping that you took the time to look over the materials that Albert Duff the director of operations has provided to you you did have time to ask questions if you had any and this afternoon we will vote on
022a conceptual design so if you vote on that that will give us permission to move forward and finalize our Master facilities plan and you might be thinking where's the money going to come from that is a huge question we are facing and we don't know right now but but that doesn't mean that we stop planning we have to have a master facilities plan and then we can use that to figure out who is going to be networking reaching out to the governor's office the state legislature and figuring out future Financial opportunities to fund and really give our students the future for both campuses so it to wrap up I'd like to go back to the point that of the importance of stability here at asdb and I think um both of our assistant superintendants will
023discuss that more as well but I have been working with you all for eight years and I really appreciate your support and how you cherish asdb it is obvious that you care about us very much so with that I am open for any questions you may have does anyone have any questions I do I was going to be kind and let these guys start um I I have three that I kind of want to start from the the last thing you said and move backwards a little bit so in establishing the deputy assistant superintendent position um I would assume that after let's let's say it this way if the agreement passes today to have um assistant superintendent catch off continue for an additional year I would assume that after that year extension the assistant superintendent
024position would then repost that is correct my second question to that is um will the it it will the deputy assistant superintendent position remain in place we don't know at this time okay thank you moving back a little bit um as being involved in a state ageny myself and having to go through the governor's reduction exercise um I I know that we were given numbers um to work with I I'm wondering and I don't know if Annette can answer this or Shaina can answer this um since we do operate as an Lea are other leas faced with the same reduction exercise no that lends to my next question um is there a possibility to approach the legislators with that in mind and request some kind of waiver or exemption to this reduction exercise since we
025are operating as an Lea per legislative directive we have completed the reduction exercise really that was a proposed reduction but nothing has been given back to us about specific commitments or reductions when that does happen then that would be the time time where we would go to the governor's office and request an exemption from the budget reduction but we haven't heard anything yet um I think it is a little premature to ask for that right now unless you all have a different thoughts on that in my very humble opinion I think it would be good to have something prepared prepared and ready to go um we as you know working for a state agency we are working with the premise that those reductions are going to be enforced and I think that we would be
026better served if we tried to have something in place sooner than later um and maybe try to rally some um allies on the legislative floor that if we if this would need to have that kind of support um just my just my two cents it's okay I don't mean to interrupt could you share what that is good feedback thank you uh reduction exercise so what Annette was speaking to earlier we were given the task of um reducing our budget based on the funding mechanisms as a state agency um the funding mechanisms that we receive our revenues some agencies have other funds which might be um from Taxation and some agencies have General funds that are appropriated from the legislature some agencies have both if they have other funds they were asked to do a 2%
027reduction for their fiscal year 25 budget which is the one we proposed last year that has not yet been approved plus project that 2% reduction for the next two budget years if you received General funds it was 4% for the current for the 25 year and 2% for the next two years if you receive both of those funds it's both of those things combined asdb receives both of those funds and that's a significant amount of money that could you know help continue to operate the school not a regular state agency um so I that's why I'm I'm saying I think it would be behoove um asdb as an Lea to be prepared to you know have to go to B and request some type of an exemption or a lesser reduction amount um in comparison
028to other state agencies because you know that was kind of made with a broad swoop of the pen and asdb does not operate the same as other state agencies and I think um we need to be reminding the legislators and the governor's office of that so just to I guess in a more easier to understand St way we were asked as a state agency alone to put on paper where we think we could cut correct by certain percents based on our funding input correct and we have submitted that yes and that could possibly be exactly what the governor's office does that could be so we and I'm speaking as a state agency and as a representative of the board as a state agency we submitted our budget proposal last year September 1st and then we
029were asked to do this um exercise this reduction exercise and I believe that was due April 24th is yes however as asdb was not originally included in that Statewide communication um it was about a week and a half later okay that's even more interesting to me um so then we submitted what that could possibly look like from the budget submission from last year um we are working from the like I would guess asdb is as well working from the premise that this is going to go through yes um because we have a shortfall that is going to impact the state and that money needs to be recouped in some way um so therefore you know again seeing that other leas do not participate in this exercise I think it would be wise for us as
030an Lea um to reach out and try to advocate for asdb to be exempt from this exercise this is Linda if I may I have a question thank you it's hard to get your attention from over here in the corner uh so I have a question for you uh Su you're asking discussing the possibility of asking for an exemption um if is there some language that we can use to ask for an exemption or what I would like to clarify exactly what we would be asking for So when you say exemption because we're an Lea um are there other agencies that are also leas are we the only one so I guess my my question is for clarification purposes and that's a very good question Linda um so because because of Statute We Now operate
031as an Lea and other leas within the state are not required to do this reduction exercise for their budget I think it would be prudent for us as ASB to request the same treatment as an Lea and not have to go through this budget um which now is there a method or a mechanism for that Shaya might have more information on that than I do um I do want to add in in discussions with our ospb analyst I did mention a lot of what you're already discussing as it pertains to us being an Lea he did indicate to me that there have not yet been processes put in place for an agency to request for an exemption and I did let him know at that time we would be more than ready to go ahead
032and request for that exemption okay awesome I I just think we need to be you know thinking ahead um and not just in the moment as it as it relates to the budget in this regard because um knowing what we're reducing as a state agency that I work for currently um and and the funds that asdb gets sitting you know being on the um finance committee that's a significant amount that would impact the students and the day-to-day operations of um providing academics to students across the state that that was my questions does anybody else have anything else regarding the superintendent report all right moving on to um 1.05 assistant superintendent of curriculum instruction um report interim assistant superintendent catch off good afternoon board president kifil members of the board superintendent rikeman assistant superintendent Cooper and
033the asdb community almost a year ago in July when I gave my board report I mentioned that I'm a huge Arizona Cardinal fan and similar to football I always look at each school year uh kind of like a new season that means sometimes uh players that were on the team previously stick around sometimes you lose good players and you get upset and sometimes you add great players and it makes the team that much better back in July almost a year ago I was excited to introduce many new additions to the asdb leadership team people like CTE director Scott Matson Region 3 director Greer Martin Parish Tucson principal Paul Sanders OD director Michael Olivier sped director Sarah satii as well as a handful of new assistant principles Karen Talis Sabre Taylor and Melissa Brown going into
034this year that was a substantial amount of new leaders entering into new positions I am very proud in all of them of how they've grown throughout the year and as of today uh none have given an indication that they're leaving and they'll all be returning next year I know we still have a few months left and anything can happen uh but I do want to thank them all for their dedication and desire to stay with the asdb team it's always e easier to move forward and grow when many of the pieces don't change year after year as I wrap up a year in this position I want to go back to something I said at the May board meeting May 20123 I concluded that by saying we spend a here's the quote we spent a
035lot of time at these board meetings discussing the campuses but we can't forget the Early Learning Program and the itinera programs the largest number of our students that we contact are within those two programs a year later I feel like I need to reiterate that again as a lot of time a lot of my time this year has been spent on the campuses um no matter if our campuses have two kids or 2,000 kids no matter if they have veteran principles or new principles by Design that's where the majority of the federal reporting State reporting um idea IEPs that's where a lot of that emphasis is and they will always be taking um a lot lot of attention as we look forward as I look forward to next year I'm looking forward to working closer
036with Dr Benedict and the Alp as well as the itinerant directors Jason Lily Greer parish and Rosie Hicks to continue to learn more about their amazing programs within the agency which truly touch the entire State of Arizona in conclusion I want to give one of my famous one of my favorite quotes from a famous American business theorist named Edward Deming and that quote is every system is perfectly designed to get the results that it gets so again every system is perfectly designed to get the results that it gets as we wrap up this year or this season and as we reflect on our wins and losses throughout the year I do hope that all of us the teachers staff leaders and the board can continue to look at asdb look at the Strategic plan look
037at the master facility plan and work together to continue to build systems that are designed to get the best outcomes possible for this agency you all have a copy of my report if there's any questions please let me know any questions okay moving on um agenda item 1.06 six assistant superintendent of agency operations and Support Services report assistant superintendent Cooper good afternoon board president kifl superintendent rikan acting assistant superintendent katoff members of the board asdb community and staff members as we find ourselves welcoming May and then June we stand on the verge of closing out yet another fiscal year with approximately six to seven weeks remaining the operations and support services team has been very busy supporting each of the educational programs as they close out the academic year uh the various activities initiatives and
038projects that each of them have been working on have been included in the departmental reports but I do want to mention um at a higher level that includes finalizing the transition of of our new student information system working on filling staff vacancies assisting with with the coordination of the graduation so that we can celebrate our graduating classes of 2024 collaborating on the implementation of a new complaints system portal and monitoring our agency budget also included as a separate agenda item under 5.02 is the work our director of operations has been spearheading which is the development and completion of the master facilities plan plan these last two months are months of transition where we're shifting from one year to the next and focus on how we can better provide the support and resources necessary to both
039serve our students and our staff within this next year as some of what we've already been discussing with that said some of the most difficult challenges continuing to face us is that we're striving to provide that highest quality education for our students but that means we're having to manage our resources at the same time that includes our facilities our staff the technology as well as the finances to help navigate the state's projected deficit of about the $1.2 billion which became effective April 27th the governor's off instituted the Statewide headcount cap provided the compensation and measures for all executive agencies boards and commissions what the governor's office indicated is that the head count is not necessarily a freeze the cap but it's a cap on the number of positions as superintendent rikman mentioned in the agency
040and what that means is we can refill our positions if they become vacant and if there are any vacant positions that no longer need to be filled we can reallocate those positions if there is a need for a new position within the agency the head count cap includes all full-time part-time and contracted staff which as we've already mentioned include our contracted vendors for um primarily Acro which would be our um one toone nurses both with helping with supporting our FBC preschool contract as well as our one toone nurses here on the Phoenix campus and as already mentioned for asdb that headcount cap was originally identified to be originally and what that meant was that included our only filled positions and the 23 contractors that we had we seek clarification as we had a number of
041positions as you all are aware 117 vacancies and superintendent reikan was able to work and request that we a be able to add those vacancies to our headcount caps to ensure that we stay within the 864 headcount cap limit we'll be analyzing every vacancy before requesting approval to recruit and refill the position and we will also be requiring more specific justification when acts to adding new position as it relates to the compensation Administration measures which became effective April 27th the governor's office also indicated that any staff increases to their base pay will be put on pause unless it was already communicated and approved on or before April 19th these actions included ingrade adjustments individual Merit increases and agency Merit increase programs as superintendent rikman mentioned for asdb based on our understanding the salaries for 2025
042increases that were approved in our previous March 7th board meeting will not be impacted additionally over the last few months we've also publicly communicated to agency staff and made commitments to present the remaining fiscal year 2025 salary schedule adjustments which are included um are for our interpreters and related services staff as you recall we may have we've had every intention to present both of the salary schedules at the March 7th board meeting however both groups requested that we put a hold on that as they were wanting us to re-evaluate and take into consideration further feedback that they were wanting to provide as well as requesting that we conduct a market analysis we did just that during the last few weeks we've collaborated with each of the staff and have included those recommendations for their salary
043adjustments in today's consent agenda item 6.01 with the board's approval today we would have achieved our goal this year of recommending and receiving approval for changes to salary schedules before teacher contracts were issued and before staff members left to enjoy their summer break in add addition to the headcount cap in implementing the compensation Administration measures each agency as we've just talked about was tasked with conducting a budgetary savings exercise where we were directed to present plans to trim an annualized 4% from our current fiscal year 24 general fund operations budget of which the 2% had to be ongoing savings for ASB our schol year 2024 General funds appropriation budget for context is about $26 million so the 4% equated to identifying a little over a million dollars in cuts for the remainder of the current
044year with the ongoing 2% Cuts being about 520,000 so roughly a total of about 1.5 million dollar from our general fund our total operating appropriation a budget which includes both the general fund and our school for the deaf and the blind fund which primarily consists of our institutional vouchers and our land endowment is about $41 million in total which meant the 2% Target cut equated to about th000 the budgetary savings exercise did not include proposed cuts to the $2.3 million of our special line items which for ascb that would be our special um line item for our school bus our agency vehicle replacement and our Cooperative Services it also did not include the $6 million of our non-appropriated or restricted fund budgets which would be primarily for our federal grants and the prop 301 classroom
045site funds most of the proposed expenditure cuts the budget team initially identified included restricted purchases to only essential items limiting in and out of state travel and reviewing the various vacant positions primarily funded through the general fund positions that are critical in providing the student special education services as required in the IEPs were not included identifying the proposed cuts and presenting the plan to the governor's office was an exercise and not set in stone however it was meant to be a practice according to the suggestions that we were advised by our state agency Liaisons we have yet to receive our fiscal year 2025 um budget and if you recall that was submitted in early September so we do not know if any of the decision pack packages we requested appropriated funding for will be included
046in our final approved agency budget which begins July 1st both spending and revenue issues need to be addressed both at a um both need to be addressed as a comprehensive long-term plan I and as we talk about Su sustainability stability and given the continued Financial challenges were we were already facing with the contracted vendor services for transportation our student support staff most of which primarily results from our recruitment challenges the staff vacancies and our change in Lea status with the passage of House Bill 2863 as you've heard over the last couple of years I've been here we've already developed plans to continue with identifying ongoing cost reduction measures implementing accountability controls and creating operational efficiencies Additionally the agency's grant developer position which was a new position we did add this year she's been aggressively seeking
047new Revenue sources and funding opportunities and she's been doing an awesome job as she's been doing that this will all help to balance our budget and ensure we have that fiscal sustainability and stability we will be forced however to make choices regarding our budget situation um the sooner we take actions as you mentioned board president kifil um the less drastic they will need to be um du to our uniqueness of being a state agency that provides those specialized Educational Services and programs as mentioned we are seeking clarification on a few items and have indicated that we will seek an exempt from the state if and when necessary there is a lot of uncertainty and it is unclear at this time how strict the headcount cap and compensation ad Administration measures will be however we are
048committed to minimizing the direct impact on our students and staff at this time there's no additional information to provide I I felt like that was quite a mouthful um but it was a lot of information to definitely share um with the agency and the board I'm open to answer any additional questions at this time does anyone have any questions for assistant superintendent Cooper right thank you moving on to 2.01 um the approval of the consent agenda um with oh yeah um consistent with board policy to include items 3.01 5 .01 6.01 6.02 6.03 6.04 7.02 7.03 and 7.04 this okay can you hear I'd like to pull uh 6.02 and 6.03 okay can I have a motion to approve the consent agenda items minus 6.02 and 6.03 so moved do I have a second second
049all those in favor to approve consent agenda items 3.01 5.01 6.01 6.04 7.02 7.03 and 7.04 say I I I I any opposition seeing none those pass so I need to do three four two and three I think Michael Gordon said I I don't know if anyone else heard I did okay I just want so I don't forget okay then we are moving on to agenda item 4.01 the finance report Kim bitr director good afternoon board president kifo superintendent rikman assistant superintendent Cooper assistant superintendent tof members of the board and asdb Community you have been provided our most recent board report that covers the financial data for March 2023 and 20124 also included are the mar March financial statements for 2023 and 2024 this data was covered in our most recent finance committee meeting held
050last Thursday May 2nd with board member C Gordon also intendant were superintendent rikman and assistant superintendent Cooper the total student comp provided in the in the board report for April 1st 2024 is a summarized total we are analyzing the data from the student information system this includes finding missing data on the student records and validating everything the current data shows 2010 students as of April 1st 2024 compared to 2,146 students as of April 1st 2023 a total decrease of 136 students the locations where the student count has decreased our pdsd by 30 Regional cooperatives by 56 preschool by 40 and birth to three by 15 students at pdsd at least 12 students moved out of state and at least six students left for mainstream School in the regions some of the Region 2 students are
051being serviced by region 3 and some of the students have relocated to districts that do not use our services and the teacher shortage has impacted the number of students that we can provide services to as of April 1st we had about 507 FTE which includes 8.5 FTE at foundation for blind children at that time we employed 725 staff only 152 are full-time 12mth staff there were currently 182 vacancies across the agency that we are actively recruiting for the highlights of the March 2024 financial report shows the total revenue of 41.1 million was 1.2 million lower than the March 2023 revenue of 42.3 million the major difference is the decrease in receipts from the institutional vure and the fee for service Revenue these are tied to the student count the fee for service billing is dependent
052on the data from the student information system this is offset by an increase in the spending from the general fund the budget 2023 budget fiscal year 2023 obligated expenditures of 46 million were 2.2 million less than budget fiscal year 2024 obligated expenditures of 48.2 million the increase in is in payroll of 1.2 million due to the salary adjustments for minimum wage professional and outside Services increase of 1.2 million due to the contracted nurses related services staff and contracted transportation services travel increase of 165,000 is increase in student travel and professional development for staff these are offset by a reduction in transfers out that were transferred last year of7 770,000 to adoa for security upgrades at pdsd and food service equipment at both campuses the financial statements reflect the fiscal year data and not the budget
053fiscal year data fiscal year 24 obligations have exceeded the revenue by 2.5 million and we had to use existing cash balances to meet those obligations our ending cash balance is 1 million less than it was at this time last year the reductions are in federal grants of 430,000 the institutional voucher fund of 393,000 the classroom site fund of SE 63,000 and the increase in The Cooperative service fund of 300,000 this concludes my report and if there are no if there are any questions I'm here to answer thank you any questions thank you okay agenda item 5.02 information and possible action item approval of Master facility plan Albert Duff director of operations thank you president Kel superintendent ragman assistant superintendent Cooper assistant superintendent catch off um I would like to spend a little time today I'll
054lift this up so I can be heard a little more clearly I've also been told I need to slow my RO was speaking a few times so I will do my best uh Su with that as well um so before you today is about two years worth of work um we started this process and I think we went over that in the work study session the fact that we started the master facility plan back in October of 2022 that process process also had an a an aspect from the auditor general as a requirement to align our current uh facilities with Arizona administrative code in in order to better utilize the square footage that we had there was a lot of process that I think we went over in the work study session to get to
055this point and some options that have been presented to the board for your discussion the main point of today in this moment is for you to give me a directive of how I'm going to move forward with requesting Capital funding okay we don't have the level of funding needed internally to fund these projects ourselves so we have to go out to others and so therefore I have to have that information from you of how you would like us to proceed um I would like to notate that uh this discussion and action item I'm going to start with the Phoenix campus which is when we looked at the Phoenix campus campus the square footage student population enrollment and demographics have resulted in us seeing that the size of the facility is acceptable and works for what
056our needs are but the overall condition design and utilization of the facility needs a lot of work therefore what was presented for it at the work study session was that we would actually utilize our architecture and engineering firm which is Lea architecture to design and as you have forward in the in the board docs what is intended for each building how we would renovate it and the overall aspect of its future use the total cost of that was just I think right around $38 million to complete that maybe a little more off the top of my head that is a rough order magnitude so that's a rough estimate to do all of that work as a phased apprach approached over 10 years so it's a long time it's very very tricky as we have to
057pull students out of a building for six months to a year and then move them back in after that renovation is done any of you have worked in schools have seen what we all love to see of those portable classrooms that show up every so often that's what that would look like for this process with this discussion item the board can obvious obiously give direction to move forward with this process for us to renovate and keep Phoenix campus essentially the same as it is today and provide great educational opportunities for our students there with what we have one of the big notations I would like to notate um is the fact that we would be demolishing the m and tctc building we would demolish those in order to build a new birth to five Center
058as we we've seen an increase in enrollment through birth to five as well as a uh huge benefit to the operational aspect of having our Preschool teachers and our birth to five teachers all in one area so that way that Continuum of services provides the best service for the most crucial time of language acquisition and so that was the intent there for Phoenix Tucson campus is a little more tricky tucon on campus as notated in previous work study sessions is 346,000 square ft built over 30 different structures on 40 plus acres of land that was designed to house well more than 350 students in 1980 it had that so whenever they built the buildings in 1990 from the information they had they built it correctly but times have changed as well as some of the
059legal aspects that have for enrollment so therefore our enrollment on the Tucson campus has now gone down to right around 150 students through the projections and seeing what we have in front of us we're seeing enrollment stay stable between right around 110 to 150 so therefore we wanted to decrease that campus down to meet the Arizona Administrative Code of approximately 180,000 Square ft when we start started that process we found that we could renovate certain buildings which is presented to you as option one we went through that process and started to really look at the condition and age of the buildings as well as some unique design aspects of those buildings that would be challenging to renovate and it was determined to create an option to this was outside of the scope laa being wonderful
060Partners did option two essentially pro bono for us um which was wonderful of them and I really appreciate that and option two would give us the aspect of just building a whole new prek through 12th grade building on a vacant piece of land on the campus that's currently there as a point to bring out with those two items with regards to cost and timeline option one of renovating the buildings that are listed would take approximately only 10 years it would result in over $42 million of cost with an additional 2.7 million in landscape upgrades option two would take approximately two to three years to complete require no movement of students out of their current buildings and cost $4 million less the reason it's less is because of the inflationary costs of doing a phase construction
061approach year-over-year for years in the work study session it was mentioned could we do an option two for Phoenix as well I contacted Lea architecture they gave us one free pro bono and so they they did that for us but um unfortunately we would have to write another scope of work and go ahead and proceed forward with that I don't have a price point yet for this that but there is an opportunity to do a a a similar option to for the Phoenix campus I don't know at this time if it would be as fiscally beneficial or timeline beneficial as option two is that we see for the Tucson campus but there is an opportunity to do that and we could do that potentially next fiscal year um I know that there's a lot of
062information on the website with regards to the PDF files I know PDFs are not the most accessible format especially for our blind and uh visually impaired community and I apologize about that we do have some Braille versions that if there's more concerns that we will go through um those were presented at the open houses and we did have that in Braille for our blind NBI Community um there's been a lot of stakeholder engagement just want to at that as well and there will be continued stakeholder engagement we have essentially tears on our stakeholders we have identified them from the beginning of the pro process of one two and three not necessarily of importance just their role and their capacity regardless of what direction is given we would utilize the additional tier groups specializations from individuals
063such as teachers of the DEA teachers of the blind students alumni as we move forward with either option there will be a lot more stakeholder engagement more and more down that process as we look at individuals of what is needed in each building and each classroom I could take up all day going over all of this but I would like to open it up for more questions or comments from the board I will open it up to questions from the board I do you guys are be like shut upuk um so my first question is if if for tucon campus if we went with option two what would happen to the um once we moved into the new building what would happen to the old buildings and how much would that cost so that as
064far as anything with regards to Surplus land or buildings after the fact is not part of this discussion action item that would be a future discussion and action item okay um that then you answered my second question as well um my third question would be if we to move forward with an action item could we do something like um make a motion to move to approve of the master facility plan but give some leeway to allow for uh development of an option two with the Phoenix campus absolutely and do you want a definitive of option one or two for Tucson I would appreciate that in order for us to meet our auditor General's aspect um because we need to have the master facility plan completed by June 30th uh if there was a directive for
065the Phoenix campus to develop an option two we could still develop the master facility plan to meet our timeline and then add that in as an attendant if I may would like to also go back to the previous question I I know on the documents it says parcel for sale that is not determined yet I want to be very clear it would be up to the board at a different date to either sell transfer or lease that area out or do nothing but that is obviously something that when we maintain control of it we are still responsible to maintain it and part of the auditor findings is that we have to have Capital planning to maintain any buildings that are on our inventory list so there will be U um a push to figure out
066what we would do with those Surplus buildings and Land once the projects are completed I have one followup um I understand that in either of the two Sun options um the burger Auditorium would be part of that would that be then renovated yes we would intend to do that that might be um a combination of funds especially considering it it gets rented out so there's Enterprise funds that can help with that it is also a newer building so it wasn't on the initial list we would also maintain the superintendent's home um and which is now asdb Museum as well as the the historic aspects yes awesome then you answered my other qu my follow-up so awesome okay I will entertain a motion this Linda you have a question this is Linda yes this is Linda
067B speaking I I may have missed something I did actually miss that work study session unfortunately I was out of town so I was debating whether or not I should uh jump in or not um but out of curiosity if at some point down the road there is an issue with funding will we be forced into a situation where we may have to sell that unused land or that parcel um from the perspective of the state if they look at it and say you have this land we expect you to sell it to you and use that Revenue um or do you have any any thoughts or concerns about that what is your sense of that Albert that's a good question um as far as being forced and and this may be a question for
068our attorney general team over there as I don't know how that would work but I do know that adoa as well as the state legislature looks to be able to have this be as C neutral as possible so when we look at the level of deferred maintenance of the old buildings as well as the value of the land if the savings from not doing the Deferred maintenance plus the potential income from the sale or transfer or lease of that land uh meets or exceeds the cost of the new construction then it becomes very easy for the legislature to go move forward it's actually going to save us money so so could they put pressure I I would say that there's always going to be uh pressure as we are in right now from um uh
069the state to do what is fiscally best for the taxpayers but maintain um what we have to do as an agency what I would like to notate and it's something I did also say to superintendent reichman um and I know we have a lot of members that are watching from the alumni which is no matter what um we have to to honor our history without sacrificing our future ASB has done this before and we can maintain our history regardless of the option but it is a matter of putting effort and a conscious decision to honor that history and where we came from this is Linda um interesting you say that speaking of honoring and valuing our history I you serve on the board of another school for the deaf um it is half private half
070State and they've had the same issues come up um where they have a a parcel remaining um and it is a very um it's a very prominent area and when we got into that financial difficulty um there were they were pushed to sell and so I was wondering if that would be something that asdb from would be encouraged to do of course being this this other school is half private half State it's a little bit unique um but having um schools for the deaf both here and in other states owning large Parcels of land that we highly value um we want to preserve them for future buildings or future projects um it is very it's a very difficult position to be in and I and I do understand the difficulty of that which is why
071I wanted to ask where we were what we were looking at here in Arizona um if if we may be in that position so yeah I just wanted to share with the board as well that we're not alone in this there are other de schools facing the same kinds of decisions that's correct U we're seeing that in many other areas and I appreciate that uh Linda as well I would also like to notate that the museum is a historical building um due to the great work of Paulie Brady Garcia and so many others so the push to trying to get rid of that would be much more difficult uh so we have some great legal protection for some of our most historic and cherished areas any other questions or comments yeah okay uh Albert okay
072just to be clear my understanding is we need to have a master plan to the state by June 30 correct that is correct now this master plan if we were to approve whatever tonight then we'd be good for that and if there were changes things come up budgetarily um planned then this isn't set in stone never to be changed correct quite the opposite the intent of this document is to be a living document and that's part of the auditor General's finding that we had to make changes to policy and we already did that uh and so we have our Capital uh Review Committee that every six months we review this information based off of demographics legal aspects best education practices and would change it as needed based off of that so it is the opposite
073it is not meant to be fixed right that's the point I wanted to kind of bring up and make clear that you we need this plan and um we can always adjust adjust it as we go yes and also you know what you have in front of you is just the conceptual designs the full plan and I I have Lea behind me but we were trying to work through it and it's right around 200 Pages total so there's a lot more information in there about history and everything else it's a very comprehensive document but what you have in front of you is is the main goal so do we need to like to we have to make a decision so should we do that first and then yeah why don't we do that yeah so
074I think Lynn makes a very good point here um I'd like to maybe put a motion on the table or have someone put a motion on the table of which option to move forward for the Tucson campus and vote on that and then vote on the entire piece um together I move to um except put forward option two for the two Tucan campus I have a motion do I have a second I second all those in favor for option two for the Tucson campus please say I or raise your hand I I I opposed option two passes so now um I would also like us to consider for Phoenix to move forward with the proposal as is while also investigating the option um of a option two for Phoenix for lack of a better term
075and approve moving forward with option two and two Sun so do I have a motion so moved okay this is Mike can I ask a question just before you proceed absolutely Mike go right ahead um I I I don't understand why we would vote uh to accept option one for Phoenix when we really don't have the information for for auction two which sounds like it really might be the way we want to proceed Mike I don't think the idea is to move forward with option one on Phoenix the idea is to move forward with option one in the master facility plan until we have the information for option two so that we can make a decision between the two there's a due date on the master fa facility plan Albert if you want to speak
076to that yes sorry I think you probably already addressed it it just to me it seems to approve option one and proceed with with the Fulfillment of that while we're really waiting for the opportunity for option two to be developed if I a little out of sequence I if I may and I agree it is a little out of sequence we would have loved to um had more have more time close um what I would um notate uh Mr Gordon is that and maybe it's the verbage that we need to to get hammered down here is that uh if I may present an a motion in that sense is a motion to approve the current option pending further review of the development of option two in order to meet the deadline of the auditor General's
077requirements therefore it is clear that I have to come back with an option two prior to moving forward with any actual construction on any one of those sites this is um Linda I have a question if I may uh I had the same hesitation as you um Mr Gordon it's the what if what if scenarios that we're looking at here which are always difficult have we um discussed these things with our attorney general um for the school or the agency have we checked if it's okay is that a motion that we can make is that a vote that we can take um I guess I'm looking for legal advice in terms of are are we able to do this to say yes we'll go forward with um option one pending a potential option two that
078we don't actually have have is that o is that okay for us to do right so this is uh Katie you're asking if we have asked for approval from our attorney general yeah I guess I'm I'm wondering if there's like a a legal impact of this is that are is that an okay motion for us to make I'm looking over there I think there's an attorney so I think the question is at hand is can we make a motion to approve current option for the Phoenix campus pending development of a second option um to meet the de deadline for the Strategic plan submission um with the understanding that once that second option we would then re discuss and and then make a motion to decide which option we would go for with the Phoenix campus
079just want to make sure we're covering all bases this is Linda good afternoon this is Deborah Sterling I'm an Assistant Attorney General and I work with the ASB on many of their issues can you get a little closer to the mic sure thank you is that better much better yes first thing I have to clarify is I normally do not give legal advice in public open session I need your permission to do that you need to you have my permission to do and I need the board's permission okay so so just make a simple motion I move that we allow um Deb to give us advice on this motion process do I have a second I'll second V by second all those in favor I opposed I motion carries thank you I mean I'm asking
080that because um it's a fairly straightforward issue um I'm not I'm kind of familiar with the master plan I've seen it and I've talked with the staff about some parts of it certainly at at the board level here you can make a motion directing staff to move forward as best you as corrected and if any issues come up then the staff can come back to you and they can report it and get additional advice okay any questions thank you thank you thank you so much I don't know if we move the camera so I don't know that we have an official motion on the floor or if we need to amend the current motion just but I am open to a motion on yeah if you can read them yeah good luck um I move
081that we approve the current option for the pdsd campus pending the development of of an option two at a future time to do this in order to meet our deadline for the master for the master facility plan to the state a second slove okay I have a motion in a second all those in favor say I I I I opposed I hearing none motion carries okay uh yes it is um we are at about 90 minutes so we are going to take a 10-minute break here and we will resume at let's just say 5:40 it's like e e e that was 10 minutes am I live can you hear me are we good I think we're missing one board person still media are you all set one minute yeah we're K I'm just waiting on
082Katie okay all right we're going to go ahead um and resume with 6.02 intent to offer fiscal year 2025 Employment contract to Orin catch off interim assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction do I have oh go ahead yes I just wanted to remind you all that he requested this discussion to be open okay right um this is Lynn I pulled both 602 and 6.03 not because of the P the people not because of or not because of Rosie I think they're both very fine qualified people for the positions my concern is more adding another upper level administrative position especially under the budgetary um terms right now and the headcap and I know we have some vacancies um but I just feel we're so topheavy I hesitate to add yet another administrative position and that's the
083reason I pulled them so do I have any comments or questions or any response from staff yes this is Earl Terry one please I did take a couple of notes I had a question about 6.03 Anette um excuse me one sec uh Anette proposed a new position for the deputy assistant superintendent and I just wanted to make sure that I'm uh clear there were 24 applicants or so that NE um got for us and we whittel that down to five um and the one um got got the top score we are um offering her this new position but I'm wondering if you could offer clarification on um why we're not offering her the assistant superintendent position and whether you're going to be conducting a brand new search for that position exactly that 6.03 and that
084is specific to Rosie so I don't think we H can have that discussion right now cor correct we're currently on 6.02 so if we can keep the conversation to 6.02 and then we'll move down to 6.03 after we decide what we're going to do with 6.02 so we can so we we can have a discussion you can ask questions or I can entertain a motion on this the I I make a motion to oh yeah sorry and if this breaks the orders of the the board I I apologize understanding what I just heard I am fine with changing my mind so you guys can discuss the two positions in executive session I don't know if I different agenda items we have to do them separately okay I mean we could go into executive session to
085discuss them both so that's an option as well um if you if anybody wanted that option I I can change my mind and provide that option understood I'm going to make a motion on 6.02 um to offer Employment contract to or catch off for interim assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction I have a motion do I have a second Linda b i second all those in favor say I I I I opposed nay okay um motion carries moving on to 6.03 um Anette if you would like to address um board member Terry's question for 6.03 or we can also again we can um move to go into executive session to discuss this um if we need legal advice um specifically to that person but if you are just wondering about the position in general Annette
086you might be able to feel that question that question of why we didn't offer the assistant superintendent position to any of those five candidates is because none of them had assistant managerial experience what we look at other deaf schools blind schools most of them are smaller schools they have a smaller number of teachers a smaller number of professional staff and when we look at assistant uh superintendent Orin uh catch off responsibilities he has 400 professional staff Underneath Him 220 teachers in that professional staff it is a large group of staff and it's a large agency he has responsibilities not only of two campuses but also for the intinerary services and for the early learning programs you just heard him say most of the time or attention is on the campuses and it hasn't been able
087to provide the kind of guidance and support that he wants to provide for ELP program and the itinerant program for our birs of three and 3 to 5 our tenant services are more than half of our students unfortunately we have a great leader and those people here have been here have been here for a while so it's really looking at those five ex those five candidates experience and their skills one was the Preferred Choice with the highest score but looking at the experience and the responsibilities for the [Music] job they did not align I could not offer that position to that person for assistant superintendent I just couldn't do that and several people asked me to do that and as I looked looked at the experience the qualifications it was a wonderful candidate but it
088didn't have that assistant managerial experience none of them had that so what's the solution we we have already um discussed with our leadership people and I just just discussed with you all about our uh leaderships and how do we provide them with professional development that gives them that managerial skills experience and then looking at that candidate that is preferred from the interview panel what do we do and how do we bring them to the agency I'm sorry what hey hang on a second what is what is happening right now um uh someone we're getting a little bit lost and distracted by someone walking onto stage um and this isn't um necessarily the right time or or place can you share with us what is going on please my apologies I merely wanted to make sure
089that the board understood I work for the Attorney General's office my name is Michelle I'm one of the Assistant Attorney General in the employment Ara and I just wanted to make sure that the discussion about this item did not cross the line into discussing the actual person because that person had asked to have that information be discussed in executive session so I apologize for the way I came up here okay I'm not present in front of all of you very often so I just wanted to make that com so I would say if we want to discuss this further as to why that person was not offered the assistant superintendent position and yet another position we would move this into executive session and I would need a motion for that this is Linda I move
090that we go into executive session um you need I'm sorry you did need a motion for executive session so moved I have a motion do I have a second all second all those in favor say I I I so we need to read the executive session information all over the place where do we need to go it's usually oh it's this one right here yeah thank you thank um don't we read that in executive session [Music] minutes this is just a minute something here she's checking I think you can read it okay so perer to AR 38- 43103 A1 the board may vote to go into executive session for the purposes of discussion and consideration of employment matters since we've already passed that motion we we are going to um go into an executive session
091so there'll be a short break okay e e e anyone outside we're coming back to get ready to start for okay thank you I'm just waiting for Suk e e okay all right welcome back thank you for your patience everyone um we are on 6.03 and I can we can entertain a motion this is Linda I would like this is Linda I would like to make a motion that we accept the approve the offer um of employment to Rosie DEA Cruz as Deputy assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction is that good enough language Suk I have a motion do I have a second this is Katie I second all those in favor say I I I opposed nay okay I think we have I think the motion passes thank you I got to go back
092to my notes um Now we move on to 7.01 information and discussion item right yeah yeah okay introduction and possible discussion of policies BGE ebaa ECB JH jhd and kec Maria Murphy director of policy and government relations good evening Madam president Madam Secretary members of the board superintendent rikman assistant superintendent uh ASB community and staff you have before you the redline policies that are being presented no public comment was received um these are all in response to uh Arizona School Board Association advisories and I have made those updates uh with the review of our internal subject matter experts and this is first read so we will be voting on this at the next board meeting correct that is correct ma'am did anyone have any questions all right thank you Maria thank you all right moving
093on to agenda item 801 call to the public for non-agenda items I have two calls to the public on non- agendized items the first one will go with Paulie uh Garcia ni just PR sorry I wasn't paying attention board president members of the board superintendent and administrators community and friends first of all I will briefly um mention the master facility plans that have been proposed to be honest I'm not very comfortable I don't um necessarily like plan A or B for tucon campus um because I know too much about the problems there I think that the architecture has painted a picture to make it look good that I don't fully trust but anyway I actually wanted to make a comment about the history and the Chamber of Commerce um some comments that have come up
094about ASB and I will try to keep it brief um there's another story that I would love to share but I'm going to have to save that for another day there's an interesting one about milk and eggs but we'll talk about that later I've worked at asdb as the curator and I've done a lot of historical research as well I found a very interesting story about the Chamber of Commerce in 1914 and excuse me I need to use different glasses just one moment please in 1914 a question came up the question was regarding a state school for um the deaf and blind and that question came to the legislature it was to consider a permanent place for asdb Tucson could not afford to lose the asdb campus it was near the University of Arizona on
095Park Avenue and Second Street the secretary at the time was hearing and emphasized to the legislature in Tucson that the issue had been brought to them and he said we have to take quick action in order to prevent other people from taking over asdb and trying to relocate it to somewhere else like Phoenix one member of the Chamber of Commerce and a Tucson legislator said that Tucson was the natural home for the deaf and blind children and that land was intended to be permanent and their place their home was to be permanently in that area where ASB now is in 19 17 the legisl another legislator decided to propose having a school for the deaf and blind excuse me this microphone isn't necessary for me um and so that they said if you're going to
096do this school for the deaf and blind thing you need to do it quickly the purpose of um creating that land and and making that home in Tucson uh was intentional and everybody worked together they called for uh support for reinforcements and the Chamber of Comm Commerce advised the Tucson legislator to go up to Phoenix and tell them that um this is ours and we will give uh money funding for the school for the deaf and blind for it to stay in Tucson uh excuse me give 40 acres and rather than 40 acres they actually gave 50 acres and then in 1918 the land became permanently assigned to ASB and it uh found its home on West Speedway in 2015 I went to Phoenix to see the legislature and I proposed that asdb um became
097become a historical site our tuon campus and that easily passed uh with a unanimous vote I am proud to see that we have the blue marker of as a historical site and that is the reason um that when I see that word permanent it is important that we keep that in mind Tucson said that that land is the natural home for deaf and blind children that land on West Speedway should stay as it is that is what I feel truly strongly about the school should remain as it is we bought 50 acres we had 50 acres for the school and now we're down to 40 but that is our history those 40 acres are our history thank you oh and before that I also had a thought um I was uh listening about uh plans
098for the future expansion of the school and we do need to think about um the school as well and do something about that about those numbers thank you our last comment will be from Beverly Hawkins hello board and school administrators my name is Beverly Hawkins I will try to keep it brief I'm a graduate of ASB and I highly value keeping the school as it is I know that the legislator has said um that we have to uh cut our budget and we are looking at unused buildings and things like that um and trying to make our budget reasonable um perhaps change those um buildings and change the landscape But ultimately what we should be focusing on a student need give the students a place to recreate outside do something good with it as far
099as plans A and B I feel like we're confining our students to a smaller part of Campus um there are generally separate um dorms for girls and boys at other schools across the country if everything is too um um close together boys and girls are going to have find a way to have sex in the dorms so those uh Apache and those dorms need to be separated to keep boys and girls separate middle school and high school um those buildings were just built in I think the '90s they need to they need to stay the way that they are some of the other buildings could be changed to Parks or change to landscaping or something like that um to more reasonably use the money so those are my suggestions and thank you for listening thank
100you be before we move on to 8.02 I think um Linda wanted to mention something oh oh oh yes oh this is Linda I'm I'm so sorry I was in the middle of a coughing fit having some allergies up here I wanted to make an announcement for those who um may not be aware the clean election committee has partnered with acdh to develop a voter education guide uh and translate that into ASL and it is ready to go or will be ready to go for the primary over the next few days um in this week deaf interpreters will be working very very hard to develop those videos and I thought this would would be a great way a great tool to use for our students um as well as de adults to get a better
101idea of what um voting looks like um so that our Dove students can um understand their civic duty a little bit better and understand what the voting process looks like let's start them young so I wanted to make sure everyone aware is aware of that um we will do that for the 2024 election there will be more ASL videos coming out for the general election um at the end of August as well so please bear that in mind all right moving on to 8.02 discussion item agenda items for the next regular board meeting scheduled for July 11th 2024 and Tucson this is not specific for the next board meeting but I would like to um direct um asdb staff to work with the asdb e a did I say that right okay um and um
102we had talked about using the utsman and resources to pull um eligible um potential eligible members for the EA um on their interest and involvement in developing an H policy so I would like to direct staff to move forward with that so that we could possibly have a discussion for a um another work study session to to discuss the results of that um poll let's say does it still have the question about using agency resources to the or public resources for private organizations activ or private organization activities so I thought I thought we right but I thought we were discussing having the Ombudsman actually conduct the poll the unbs person's time spent from asdb and their time that is spent for uh paid for by the agency all right let me I will follow up
103with Annette on this and the AG cuz they have left for the evening um to see if we can go ahead with that for the oh oh she's still here huh oh I I'm not seeing her hi Deb there you are okay can can you answer that question for us can you answer that question didn't the table's right in my oh there's Michelle too yes sorry oh it has I guess it moves a little bit good afternoon good evening I guess I'm Deborah Str the assistant a again if you want me to provide legal advice you have to give me permission as benign as it may be to give it in the public session I move that we um allow Deb to provide some legal expertise on this subject I have a second all those
104in favor I I awesome okay um I think if I heard correctly the question is the use of State resources in order to um work with potential Education Association so what we're trying from our last um work study we decided we would like to get a sort of the pulse of potentially um potential membership for the educational Association right now it's very very small um and we'd kind of like to know the interest of staff that would be eligible to participate prior to developing a policy um can we use State resources to pull staff to do that I apologize I don't know the answer off the top of my head okay you know but what I can do is I know I mean I could review the law which there isn't a whole lot on
105but I do know other like school districts that have done this and I can certainly talk to their attorneys and find out how that was done because they would be essentially using public resources from their District so I I'd be glad to do that you let me know um that would be awesome if you could email Annette and I so that we could either move forward or think of another plan of action if we need it be glad to aw anything else I can help you with I not at this time thank you thank you all right any other items for the next agenda you can always contact myself or Annette all right moving down to 901 this one's mine but before I move to adjourn I this is teacher appreciation week and I want
106to express my appreciation for all the teachers staff nurses keep on keeping on and now I move to adjourn I'll second all those in favor hi hi I meeting is adjourned at 6:56 p.m. thank you everybody thank you ASD DB community