0014:00 okay so we will start in 5 4 3 2 1 good evening and welcome to the board meeting I'm calling the meeting to order at 4M um Britney can you do roll call I can Linda B present uh Britney banan I am present Colette Chapman present Lynn Davidson pres Michael Gordon present Suk kifl present Katie senko present awesome moving on to 1.02 um overview of itinerant Services interim assistant superintendent um catch off yes excuse me good afternoon uh board president kifil members of the board superintendent rikman assistant superintendent Cooper and the asdb community um I would like to ask our three regional directors to come on up and give a presentation of and an overview of the itinerant Services here at ASB good evening president kifil superintendent rikman assistant superintendent uh katoff and Cooper
002governing board members my name is Jason Lily and I'm currently serving as the lead director of asbi itinerant programs starting in July of 2023 it tenant programs have been operating uh with the three regional directors to provide service guidance across the state to districts and Charters the asbit tener program makes up about 51% of the total ASB enrollment and we have agreements with over 200 school districts and Charters within the state tonight you'll be hearing from Greer Martin Parish who is the newest director she is in the director of region one a rosetta Hicks who is the director of region two and I'll be wrapping up this report with news from Region 3 uh Southern Arizona and our distance program if you could please hold your questions and comments to the end of the presentation
003we would appreciate it good evening board president kifil superintendent rikman assistant superintendent catch off and Cooper and governing board members my name is Greer Martin Parish and I am the proud director of region one itinerant programs my region encompasses all of the area north of Phoenix for a total of 65,8 49 square miles the counties that are served in my region are Apache Coconino hila and we serve the PAC in area only in that county laaz Mojave Navajo and Yavapai I currently have one supervising teacher of the deaf and heart of hearing with nine dhh teachers one supervising teacher of the visually impaired who also provides orientation and Mobility Services for the entire Western half of the state with seven full-time and one as needed tvi I also have one full-time and one as needed
004orientation Mobility specialist my team has an administrative assistant who works out of the Cottonwood Hub and a registar who works here from Tucson there are currently six hubs sites for our region that are housed in Bullhead City sholo Flagstaff Cottonwood page and Window Rock we are currently serving about 125 students across about 80 school districts and charter schools now that you know a little bit more about my region I'd like to share some of our highlights from this last semester that was organizing an in-person regional meeting that is usually held virtually due to the distance between our staff we were able to reserve a large room at the camp verie library and bring all teachers together in person for the first time in two years superintendent rikman assistant superintendent katoff and special education director Sarah
005soly also joined our meeting this provided an opportunity for team building and connections among staff among staff members in supports of pillars one and three of the agency strategic plan pillar one is excellent communication and relationships which ensures First Rate customer service as my teachers were provided an opportunity to strength strengthen their relationships this encourages accountability that is built on productive communication and supportive of cultural sensitivity pillar three is superb organizational culture with a priority of advancing a climate of continuous Improvement we have monthly Regional meetings and as stated previously they have all been virtual except for this last one in December our regional culture was definitely given a boost by having time to see one another in person and connect in ways that are difficult to do virtually this experience supports professional development and
006improves job performance by creating a climate of support and connection for teachers who rarely have face-to-face contact with other asdb staff it will be a priority to plan an in-person meeting each semester for my team our biggest challenge is currently Staffing while we do not have any vacancies on our teacher of the de and heart of hearing team we do have multiple vacancies on our tbii and O andm teams the positions are currently posted and we are investigating the option of utilizing contract teachers to fill these positions I would like to take this opportunity to thank my team my teachers and orientation and Mobility Specialists are doing amazing things across the region I am so grateful for their drive to support students and encourage their growth my leader leadership team has been an excellent source
007of support for our teachers through the transition of my starting as the new director and being housed in Son thank you for this opportunity to share the great things that are happening in region one now I'll turn it over to miss good evening board president kifl superintendent rikman assistant superintendent catch off and Cooper and governing board members my name is Rosetta Hicks I am the director in Region 2 I um for the itin programs my region encompasses all the areas within Maricopa County and Apache Junction which is located located in panau County we cover a total of 9,224 square miles I currently have 10 teachers of the deaf and heart of hearing eight teachers of the visually impaired and three orientation and Mobility Specialists along with two supervising teachers of the de and heart of
008hearing who also Al have student case loads and one supervising teacher of the vision impaired who also provides assessment for asip children in Region 2 my team also has an administrative assistant and is currently hiring for a register we are currently receiving support from other Regional registers we are also in the process of relocating our office space actually next week starting on Monday um we provide services for about 550 students across Maricopa County throughout 80 school districts and charter schools now that I have finished my regional summary I want to First acknowledge my team I express my gratitude to them at every given opportunity I will not able to I will not be able to do this without them I want the board and all individuals hearing this message to know how amazing the Region
0092 team has been while supporting the students district and each other year after year we have experienced many changes in Region 2 and I would just like to highlight the fact that we are still standing through everything while we continue to face challenges as it relates to Staffing I appreciate the Statewide model and the team really working together to ensure that we continue to do our best to meet the needs for Region 2 students and districts all of our opening positions are posted and we are are also considering contract companies to help with the Staffing shortage we have continued to work on providing excellent communication and relationships through our strategic plan pillar one the team has come together to ensure that we have open Communications with districts as we work together during our staffing shortage
010we continue to align oursel with pillar 3 superb organizational culture by offering PD opportunities and most importantly my leadership team and myself continue to model servitude leadership thank you for this opportunity uh to share a little bit about region two I'm gonna call back up Jason good evening again in addition to my lead duties I'm also the director for Region 3 and our distance program that provides virtual services to students across the state region 3 comprises of cois hila County minus Pac Graham Greenley Pima panal Santa Cruz and Yuma counties Region 3 has a total land area of 38824 square miles and spans the entire Arizona Mexico border across the region we have one supervisor for the teacher of the Deen heart of hearing and 14 teachers of the Deen heart of hearing one supervisor
011for tvis and orientation Mobility Specialists with nine tvis one orientation Mobility specialist and we are lucky enough to have three dual certified so they're both tvi and omm and um sorry um d certifi uh Region 3 also has a registar one administr one admin assistants in Tucson the distance program has one admin assistant in Yuma who is also the backup admin assistant um for All Region and we have one supervisor uh for the teachers of Deen heart of hearing and tvis uh in Yuma as well uh uh regions one and three have tvis uh TOs and comms who have some students who are served virtually so we have teachers who have Hybrid models where we have some in person some virtual Region 3 also has the two office locations so one of them is here
012on the Tucson campus and we have one more in the Yuma area our Yuma office um I have made into our area for the distance program so it houses all of our materials as well as our admin administrative supports um in All Region 3 serves about 375 students and our distance program serves about 70 students virtually across the state um in Region 3 we have about 90 districts and Charters um one of the highlights of our from our region this year is that we were able to host the functional listening evaluation training during the first quarter uh this brought together all the regional uh teachers of the deaf and heart of hearing audiologists from across the agency and some ELP staff um the creator of the fle Dr Cheryl Johnson is an Adjunct professor of
013U OFA and a resident of Southern Arizona she lives here in um uh Green Valley um this and this supports our pillar three uh I was lucky enough to know Cheryl on a personal level so we were able to get her in um Region 3 was able to absorb uh five districts from Region 2 this Academic Year uh two in panal county and three in hila County but we also continue to struggle with Staffing as in the Yuma area specifically we have three posted vacancies that we've had for over a year and recently added an additional vacancy for Teacher of the de and heart of hearing in panag County um as well as a tvi position to provide some virtual Services um as a whole um and uh asbi T programs virtual services are growing
014and we are working to provide better quality of service uh for students who receive those virtual Services distance was able to purchase Universal microphones and green screen batd drops for teachers who provide the virtual services and um the feedback we are getting from our teaching staff is that these materials are helping improve the quality of the services we are providing uh this helps to support pillar one on a personal note um I have been on intermittent FMLA for most of second quarter uh because I am in the process of adopting one daughter and have been fostering a second my girls are 10 weeks apart um and we hope to have both finalized by July I cannot thank my admin support staff enough for all the hard work they've done to help me in this time
015um to keep the region going uh I have uh this also has been a huge year for me and I want the board to know what an amazing team I have in Region 3 as well as I've had the support from my fellow regional directors and the asdb leadership um during all this time I am grateful and blessed to be part of this ASB Community um in closing we'd like to thank you for taking the time to learn about our three distinct regions and the Statewide itinerant program as a whole now if you have any questions please we we're available to respond any questions thank you moving on to 1.03 call to the public for agendized items none okay having none moving on to 1.04 superintendent report superintendent rman good evening superintend uh sorry president
016kifil members of the board of directors acting assistant superintendent catch off and assistant superintendent Cooper Welcome to our January 11th 2024 board meeting our first board meeting for the New Year I'm happy to see you all here last week it happened that I was having lunch with a friend and that friend asked me what was my goals for 2024 for asdb and my resp response was really yeah I'm looking for a new assistant superintendent for the 2022 Sunset audit um and I have various other goals after that discussion I started to really consider and I realized that I have gotten I've received a lot of feedback from the community and more recently from the board through the superintendent evaluation and I definitely needed to reconsider the goals for asdb so I'd like to start talking
017about asdb as a house if you will a metaphor asdb is kind of our house so we have our foundation as you know the value of believing every child who is deaf who is blind who is deaf and blind can learn and grow and be successful we have a vision of excellence and Innovation we have a mission of commitment to Excellence in creating and providing educational services to our students in the state of Arizona and we are committed to excellent Innovations and our leaders in service and as you were just hearing what they were talking about the commitment to collaboration with the parents with the school districts and with the community community and we're also committed to Excellence in Innovation to partner with other agencies and that's the part of our foundation it's our operating
018principles if you remember our operating policy our pillars the um responsibility collaboration and transparency and that's stands for a how we behave how we interact our respect as we navigate with each other and you the board are developing the Strategic plan that strategic plan has four pillars and again you just recently heard them talk talking about pillars one is excellent communication and relationships pillar two is superb outstanding development culture in the organization and pillar four is excellent management of resources so those are the pillars the foundation of our house and then we have the wall walls the walls are our policies our procedures our teacher qualifications our continuous Improvement efforts all of our efforts to work at our operating system and then we have the roof the roof of our house and that's our results
019the better our results the better our roof the better our roof the better we're protected from the environmental elements I think the other day I was talking about the walls and then later the roof and I will talk about that a bit later but if we go back to the house as a whole there's something missing what's missing the soil the ground that which is underneath the foundation that soil if we don't if it isn't strong if it isn't stable to support the foundation then the foundation cracks and the pillars and the walls fall and the roof begins to crumble and fall we have to have a stable strong soil underneath the foundation that's what the soil is the soil is our culture our climate of culture if we have a culture of distrust disrespect
020speaking negatively about each other then the entire house will not hold will not stand we have to have a climate and a culture of respect respecting each other of trust we have to have a sense of psychological safety and then we can work together we have to be able to speak positively about each other you just heard the three directors of itinerant services and they spoke very positively about their organization about their work that they're doing so the first goal and I do have eight goals and I will have to look back in my notes to make sure I cover all eight goals but my first goal is to focus on improving the climate of culture of the agency we talk talk about how we can be better respectful of each other and how we
021can be better at developing trust that's pillar one of developing excellent relationships of focusing on Improvement in communication as you know I have been working on improving my communication and clearly I need to sustain continue work working on that but that's goal one goal two is the Strategic plan we have five years of strategic planning right now our third year we're in our third year and we're starting to look at the measurement and the Strategic plans we want to put in the targets of each measurement and we want to start watching the data that we collect and what we've collected so far and analyzing that data and using that information to help inform our decisions and we haven't started doing that but we want to do that so right now in the third year means
022a year and a half July of 2025 we will be proposing to you how we can improve the measurements the metrics of how we're going to provide data that's useful informative for you the board and to us as well the second goal that's the second goal the third goal is really agency relations that includes our public relations efforts and as you know we have contracted with an outside called live livage and last year 2023 we got the most positive metrics that we've had thus far TV newspaper articles great PR the robotics team that was in Phoenix they had three times that they were commented and videoed about our robotics team and we're continuing to work with lvid to do the public relations with Phoenix media Tucson media and all over the state we've hired a
023part-time agency Relations Specialist and her work is going to be focusing on the development of quarterly agency prints outs they'll doing agency surveys to collect information on our strategic plan that was the third goal the fourth goal cognia accreditation sorry interpreter error the fourth goal is accreditation about six years ago we decided to get accreditation from Advanced Ed agency so we were supposed to get reaccreditation name cogia decided to postpone by one year so that means next fall of 2024 and spring of 2025 and we are currently starting to get ready for the accreditation review it will probably happen later in the fall possibly early spring and we have filed ass Melissa we have assigned Melissa de to do the work and take the lead for the accreditation for us there's going to be a
024lot of work involved with that the fifth goal as you already know actually about this is our Master facility plan we're continuing to progress with that and you will be hearing more about this from Albert Duff we contracted as you know with an architectural firm called Lea and currently Lea is working with the different Ed programs here at asdb and looking at their needs figuring out how the buildings are going to meet those needs we hope to have an open house in March um that will be advertised shortly and you all will be invited to come to the Phoenix campus and the tunison campus for open houses that we have planned we have discussions with the community about the Master's facilities plan and you've already heard some feedback I think you will hear more probably
025later into this evening the sixth goal is the Recruitment and Retention of teachers qualified staff you just heard from the itinerant directors about our vacancies we have about teachers currently in the working positions here at asdb 32 positions are still vacant that's more than 10% the breakdown of the vacancies and you've heard some from the three directors the biggest vacancy numbers are at the Phoenix campus Phoenix Day School for the Deaf pdsd they have 13 teacher vacancies which has really had an impact it's not just on our students but the impact is definitely on the students but it's also impactful on the teachers and other staff that are taking on the additional responsibilities and duties they are worn out so the thrill of the Christmas holidays that are happening that we just had that we
026were able to have a week of rest and coming back is letting us move forward and part of that is because we haven't had the teachers and we don't have the professional staff and it's the greatest impact on our finances as well so several impacts across the board that affects the students the other teachers and the people that are currently ly working with us and finances as well we are really looking over and analyzing what are we going to do with this because the programs out there the number of those coming out of graduate programs is dwindling numbers the students that are graduating are shrinking and we are competing for those same pool of teachers of those graduates they're just not there it's not happening so we're going to have to do something else and
027we're planning to do something else right now temporary assistant superintendent catch off is taking the lead with Courtney Fritz to write a plan for establishing our educational preparation not from a graduate program just getting certification a certification program so we're not even getting those with the master's degrees we're not giving master's degrees we're just seeking certification we've already had I think 10 or 15 teachers with emergency certification which means they're not qualified for teachers of the deaf or teachers of the visually impaired certification but the only way that we can fill the positions is to hire them without the qualifications and to get the emergency certification and then place them for three years while they get the training that they need and then they get the regular certification is that working I'm not sure but
028we are seriously considering erecting our own training a two-year training program next week we will have a meeting with the Arizona Department of Education for that discussion the ad has already approved another school district to do their own training so they can bring in people to become teachers to get the emergency certification these people can move to Texas and get a job as a teacher with a certification there probably not because it doesn't have the regular requirements in the certification but that's what we're seriously considering that's how dire the situation is currently so the seventh goal We are continuing with our 2022 Sunset audit we are currently in the process of finalizing that so if you was at as the board remember the Arizona auditor general gave us eight recommendations we've completed most of the
029recommendations we have yet to complete all but we just met with the Arizona auditor General's office to discuss the process for finalizing they just recently had some turnover so instead of the 18month followup which is supposed to happen in March of 2024 it will be postponed to September 2024 and I will allow assistant superintendent Cooper to expand a little bit further on that so the last goal of mine is a search for the assistant superintendent we just finalize our contract with Anvi this is Shane Feldman's organization he will be helping us with the national search for our next assistant superintendent we already have about 12 or 13 applicants for that position most of the applicants are internal here in the state inev will be helping us to broaden our search with networking nationally and asking
030others who are qualified to apply we will be scheduling and setting up an interview panel in March and our idea or interv recommending that we include the community and we include our own staff on the interview panel so our thinking is that we will have two representations from The Early Learning Program two representatives from itinerate services and two representatives from the two site based campuses maybe an administrator or a lead or staff which a total which makes a total of six and then we will invite the Arizona Association for the deaf and select a representative for that panel panel and invite the national Federation of the blind the Arizona chapter to send a representation send a representative so that we have blind representation on our panel so that makes a total of eight so if
031you have any ideas of those who should be on the interview panel I am open for feedback or suggestions we plan on scheduling come March the final selection hopefully in April and then in May at the May board meeting a candidate will be presented for approval that is the current plan I will keep you updated I also have a PowerPoint with the variety with the Inc comprehensive information from iny and I will will be sending out to ASB as well so that we are all on the same page so that is my 2024 goals the eight goals so that doesn't include everything there's a lot of other work that is happening behind the scenes ASB as you know if you take the time to read the board report there's a lot of information there about
032the other work that we I have been doing for example the PBIS programs established on both campuses the new information system that's been implemented Etc so I'm now open and happy to accept any questions thank you Anette um I guess if you could flesh out just a little more of the emergency certification that would train people in the field of deafness and blindness you said it was a three-year emergency certification that would allow them to receive a two-year training through asdb training on site is that accurate or and first and also who is providing this emergency certification and what's it what's it based on I do understand the labor shortage and it's a it's an unbelievable challenge in the field but I'm just curious about this who's supplying the training when it's being done inhouse
033and uh and what's the timeline again on the emergency as compared to the the U the training has being done on site I believe assistant superintendent catch off is taking the lead on that so I will turn that question over to you all right excuse me so in the state of Arizona right now you can get an emergency sht if you're currently in a program um for example the U OFA program to to get um their certification so that's one piece right now where we do have staff who are on emergency sechs who are in programs but they have not completed the said program so um they're they're kind of flying the plane while they're learning about the plane and and Aviation uh and and that's Arizona as a whole that's happening um everywhere in
034Arizona there's also something called the EP which is called an it's an educator preparation program and this was approved by the legislature approximately honestly don't know maybe two three years ago to where they allow school districts to create their own educator preparation program this can be a two-year program where then you get a um kind of a special CT that you're um a qualified classroom teacher it would be different than excuse me if you had aert as a tvi uh dhh or any other certification that's available in Arizona it's really um state of Arizona's way of trying to to deal with the labor shortage and the teacher shortage so we we have started investigating what would that look like if we did it here um if we brought in people who did have a bachelor's
035degree um but if we created our own educator preparation program what could that look like for those two years prior to covid we did a substantial amount of work with coming up with an endorsement here in Arizona for a tvi endorsement and and a dhh endorsement that was well over a year of working with the universities um if you recall surveys went out uh stakeholders the field as to what are the most important things for folks to learn so we're we are looking at that to see is there a way that we can in a two-year period what would it mean here at asdb as far as personnel and resources if we took our own kind of created our own EP that is allowed here in Arizona um there's been initial um as the superintendent
036mentioned there's been some initial uh looking into it uh we have a more formal conversation with ad coming up I believe next week so a lot of the details are still in the future as we're trying to figure out what this could look like okay just one two quick follow-ups um is there a requirement of having a bachelor's degree for the Emergency certification Andor the in-house training so for the EP you would have to already have a bachelor's degree okay uh for the Emergency certification I I believe so because our folks would be getting their master's degree in tvi or dhh so my assumption would be that they already have a a bachelor's and the certification would eventually come from Department ofed because I know it's a certification body there's there's only a couple of
037them that are are available so so who's actually providing the certification ultimately so in both cases it would be the Arizona Department of Education with the emergency CT they're basically saying they're assuming that you're going to finish your program within a couple years and get everything completed uh with the EP it would be similar to where um they would be they would be the the final entity to say here's the uh the certification okay so it's not coming through aeer or through the blindness professional certifications or even acvp it's it's through Department of Ed directly correct because that would be through their their EP program okay it's interesting thank you and we really are in the exploration phase um I personally think there's a lot of Promise as we're uh it goes back to that
038almost looking for water of if your Well's not really pumping out enough you got to start drilling other Wells um we obviously love the U OFA we love all the programs that are that are pro providing us teachers but as inette mentioned nationally those enrollment numbers have gone down so nationally we're fighting for the same folks and we have to be a little more creative it's true and the emphasis on specialization just isn't isn't there as it used to be so okay thank you yep any other questions all right thank you thank you Annette moving on to 1.05 assistant superintendent of curriculum instruction report interim assistant superintended catch off all right uh good afternoon board president kifil members of the board superintendent rikman assistant superintendent Cooper and the asdb community um you all have my
039board report and I look forward to any questions but as mentioned in the board report the OD was pleased to facilitate a unique professional development opportunity for asdb Tucson in the dhh elementary Department our teachers collaborated with and hosted a group of 11 Boston University graduate students students for an entire week of ASL in English bilingual programming and instruction uh this took place over dece I'm sorry November 27th and December 1st uh the Boston University students designed and Applied Materials and instructions based on the models provided by their professors Kristen de Perry and Todd zubek based on this experience uh our asdb teachers now have access to all the templates models and resources uh that were provided by Boston University and that they observed over the week-long um experience training I do want to give
040a huge thanks to the OD director uh Michael Olivier our curriculum specialist Tina shartzer and Rose Andrea Cola as well as Tucson Principal Paul Sanders and assistant principal Melissa Brown for all the hard work that they put together to make this happen repeatedly so let me back up bu does Boston University does this every year repeatedly during their visit they talked about how our Hospitality was off the charts um and I'm not making that up uh we we really went out of the way to to roll out the red carpet for him and and it showed uh I also wanted to thank the entire Elementary team here in Tucson for their Hospitality as 11 graduate students basically took over their classrooms for a week I also want to thank Sabrina Lily bridge and glattus VI
041aobos for assisting with all the day-to-day requests that happened while be was on on campus as well as Kim bitrus and Jessica Calvin for working behind the scenes on items like travel and hotels for the Buu staff the pdsd literacy coach was able to come up during that week and pdsd has already started implementing a lot of what we learned from Boston University and Tucson has big plans for implementing that model uh moving forward next year we are really looking forward to continue uh working with Boston University and if any of those 11 grad students end up becoming staff here based on the Fantastic experience I'll make sure that uh the board is is aware of that before the break all staff on the educational side of the agency were given the opportunity to provide
042an anonymous two stars and a wish uh survey about their director or principal this was a very short survey to where they could give two stars which would mean two things that they really like about their director or principal and one wish of something they wish the person would do better um or could continue to build on the purpose of this was to give all of our leaders some formative data now uh instead of the end of the year so they could take that and make changes while we still have the staff here throughout the year this information has been summarized and provided to each principal and director these leaders will now be letting their staff know that they have the information uh thanking them for the two stars and they'll continue to work or
043they'll continue to do those uh and what they'll be continuing to build on when it comes to the wishes my staff also completed one for me and I appreciate their honest feedback as you know superintendent rikman has been Gathering a lot of input from agency staff and our stakeholders this year as evidence by the three Hall the three town halls that were completed in October uh the steering committee me meetings and the two stars in A Wish survey that I just referenced another form of data that we recently collected was the portrait of a graduate survey that was completed before winter break we received about 145 responses uh these responses came from staff asdb alumni parents Guardians community members and some of our partnering school districts a summary of this data has been included in
044my board forward materials this data will assist the agency as we move forward and and prioritizing what we need to do in our day schools as well as what needs to be in place as we move forward with our Master facility plans as you can see a lot of it focuses on post School outcomes in CTE uh and we've already started investing a lot en that as evidenced by our CTE director position this year so in conclusion We are continuing to grow as an agency we're increasing opportunities for communication as well as implementing best practices as we move into the future and our world keeps on turning to quote the great Mel Brooks as long as the world is turning and spinning we're going to be be dizzy and we're going to make mistakes as
045we move forward we might not always be perfect in the implementation of what we're trying to do or what our plans are but I do believe as long as we're communicating and including the right people in these conversations which includes the asdb staff and our community and if we continue to remind ourselves that we are here for the students we will continue to build the asdb that we all want thank you I have a follow-up question for you um on the two stars and one wish survey did you notice any themes across the board I did um a the majority of the staff do feel like they are being supported by their current directors and principles so in the stars um everybody felt that their their principal or their director is trying to support them
046the best that they could one wish and it kind of came up for me too is um trying to respond within 24 hours especially when it comes to email um everybody's busy um so that that is something that as a team we've already discussed uh ways that we can make that a priority um but you know the a lot of people want information uh they want feedback quickly and as we continue to to move forward in this world where there's texting email a million different ways to get information we do have to figure out the best way to get that to people thank you I just I wanted to say that I also appreciated that um receiving the special ed newsletter um that was very informative and I do want to say that I appreciate
047that she shared her two stars and one wish information in there that was really nice to see thank you thank you any other questions for okay then moving on to 1.06 um assistant superintendent of agency operations and Support Services report assistant superintendent Cooper good afterno board president kifil superintendent rikman acting assistant superintendent catch off members of the board and the ASB Community before I proceed with giving updates from the agency operations and support services departments I would like to provide more of an update on the performance audit and sunset review that was conducted by the office of the auditor general in which the audit report was completed in September 2022 and as outlined in our response we agreed with the one fin finding and eight recommendations in late February early March 2023 is when the
048auditor general began their six-month follow-up review to assess our programs in implementing those recommendations and addressing the audit finding in the meeting we had this past Tuesday we were provided a status update on their follow-up review where they did mention the eight audit recommendations we received and the one finding almost all of them have been completely implemented and as you are aware we're still working on implementing the master facility plan and reviewing the appropriateness of our iterant program fees reimbursement amounts and cost of services that we are providing additionally we are also addressing the recommendation as it relates to how asdb investigates and resolves complaints from staff students parents and the public which includes implementing time frames specific to this we are still in the information gathering stage of selecting a complaint management software that
049will let students staff and other submit complaints and assist us with tracking recording and resolving those complaints in a more eff efficient and effective manner our goal is to have the finding and all recommendations fully implemented before the Auditors begin their next test work which is scheduled for fall 2024 now specific to the departmental reports there are a few key items that I would like to highlight the IT department student information system team and data Integrity are actively working with each of the educational program areas to ensure their needs are being met more specifically related to addressing the scheduling attendance student count and Grading issues within Synergy there are also a few State reporting issues with ad that we've encountered some of these issues have caused additional work for the agency operations team as well
050as each other regist draws which has caused Ripple effects when it comes to ensuring that the funding and the associated voucher or fee for service revenues are being processed and received timely in other words it's affecting our cash flow however everyone is collaboratively working together to ensure all of the issues are being addressed and over the next few weeks and upcoming months it is expected that the team will review the operational effectiveness and efficiencies of our current student information system processes I was going to provide an update on the master facility plan um however superintendent rikan mentioned most of what I was going to report on I do want to add though the team is taking all data and information into consideration to ensure all agency needs are being met the two open houses we
051have for the campuses are currently scheduled in March and that will allow all staff students and the community to come and see the proposed consolidations and provide feedback that will be taken back to the architectural firm for evaluation I do want to mention we're also looking into the possibility of doing new construction for all of the agency programs for business services the budget Financial reports for November 23 and 2022 will be provided separately under agenda item 4.01 we have entered into the third quarter of the fiscal year and based on a review of the financial data thus far we continue to incur expenses for items that were not previously budgeted for such as contractual obligations for the transportation and nursing services and because of some of the Recruitment and Retention challenges we continue to face
052with the number of vacant positions we are having to use contracted St staffing agencies to help meet the day-to-day educational needs for our students and as you are aware I've been here for going on six years now and to be transparent I continue to ask myself since we've become an Lea these last few years how we are going to cover the gap between what we received from the federal government in grant funding other non-federal resources and what we receive from the state compare to the actual cost for our students to receive special education this all comes with my understanding that as an educational state agency we try to fulfill the needs of all of our students no matter how costly it can be so with that said the business services team and I make every
053effort to find a way to cover those costs and because of the contractual obligations continuing to be significant cost to the agency we will be buckling down and begin working with the various departments to forecast their year-end projections this will ensure we continue address the funding gaps as they arise with the limited operational and fiscal resources the agency currently has as it pertains to the agency's fiscal year 2025 budget package submission we have a meeting scheduled with the State Office of strategic planning and budgeting so that they can provide an overview of what is expected to be included in the executive budget we are hoping that most if not all the funding issues we are seeking monies for from the state will be funded in some capacity it is expected in the March 7th board
054meeting I will be able to provide more specific updates the media team has several projects that they have been working on which includes updates to the agency website creating donation marketing materials and working with the human resources team to create multiple videos for recruiting over the last several weeks the team has been supporting the two school campuses to ensure there is adequate media coverage for next week's Western State basketball classic which asdb is hosting here on the Tucson campus so good luck to our pdsd road runners and the Tucson campus Sentinels as we all know Staffing is one of the biggest challenges we face as our biggest commodity is people doing the work I want to remind everyone that Recruitment and Retention of staff is not just a responsibility of our human resources department but
055a collective effort amongst all each of us see that teachers PA professionals and highly skilled staff recruitment is becoming more and more challenging each year and as such we're having to adapt and learn new ways to attract and keep staff we're encouraging more staff to participate in our recruitment efforts such as the open houses and we've just recently implemented paid practicums and internships another transparent moment I want to mention is the ongoing levels of frustration and confusion over our various HR processes in alignment with the ACT operating principles accountability collaboration and transparency we realize that there needs to be better communication with staff on the front and back end of our HR processes to this end the team is modifying the existing resource documents to create more transparency which will include streamlining and identifying more
056clarity on the roles and responsibilities for all involved in the processes again not just HR another major issue we continue to hear about is the need for us to fix compensation compensation is extremely important however it's often challenging to get it right this is especially true in our current Staffing climate where there is a rapid wage increase to combat the labor shortages and inflation so to the team's credit this is an area of focus that we continue to address and as you all are aware we're in year three of our compensation restructure project where we are looking agency-wide around compensation and how to improve our strategies so if you recall at the November 2nd board meeting you all approved an increased adjustment to the classified coach and special recruitment salary schedules to retain recruit and
057complete with other employers who are required by law to adjust their salaries to the Arizona minimum wage increase of $13.85 which went into effect this past January 1st as you know as an agency under the State of Arizona were not required by law to follow that minimum wage increase however we make every effort to try to stay competitive so effective January 6th all staff members on the classified salary schedule will receive a 75 cent adjustment wage increase in their base salary except those staff earning an annual salary of over $100,000 an email communication of this increase is expected to be sent out over the next few days also included in today's consent agenda item is 6.01 we are proposing updates to the teacher salary schedule this is to reflect a change from from 20 years
058of experience to 25 years of experience we've also updated the schedule to have consistent percentage rates between each step and if approved the contracts for the teaching staff will be issued with salaries for the next school year as you are aware we were previously issuing contracts for the school year with current salary information and at the March 7th board meeting we will present all other salary schedules that were proposing adjustments for the new year so that staff members who leave for the summer know the change is going into effect upon their return from summer break the other salary schedules include changes to The Interpreter and related Services salary schedules where we are also proposing extending their years of experience from 20 to 25 years and as we continue to address the compensation for all of
059our agency positions we're looking at the feasibility of how the cost of living adjustments have been given over the last couple of years as we continue to increase staff salaries we're also in the process of modifying our listing of all positions and identifying when the last time a salary survey was done for each and increasing the frequency of when those salary surveys and market analysis will be completed so to conclude my report for today's meeting my message is that we as an agency will need to be mindful and ensure we address the challenges of our fiscal and programmatic sustainability as funding is becoming tight staff turnover continues to be high and resources are hard to come by that wraps up my report and there's no other updates to provide at this time I'm open to
060answer any questions or comments at this time any questions I have one um have we considered from a um hiring and retention standpoint since we are using so many contractual um Services right now possibly a head hunter or a recruiting service yes but no I should mention that as you're aware um as a state agency we're having to use the state contracted vender um which is Acro um so they have been assisting us we are looking at other avenues at this time to be again to be creative um and head hunting has been an area that we H that has been mentioned or suggested for us to look into okay thank you no other okay moving on to 2.01 um approval of the consent agenda consistent with board policy to include items three 3.01 3.02
0615.01 5.02 5.03 6.01 6.02 7.02 and 7.03 I'll make a movement to approve 3.01 3.02 501 502 503 601 602 703 I have a motion do I have a second this is Katie I second all those in favor say I I I I opposed seeing and hearing none motion carries okay moving on that's a consern No 41 I'm sorry thank you okay moving on to 4.01 um Finance report Kim bitr director good afternoon board president Kel superintendent rikman assistant superintendent Cooper and assistant superintendent tchop members of the board and ASD Community you have proi been provided our most recent board report that covers the financial data for November 2022 and November 2023 this data was covered in more detail at our most recent finance committee meeting held on Monday January 8th with board President kifil
062also in attendance for superintendent rikman and assistant superintendent Cooper the total student count provided in the board report for December 1st is a summarized total based on the data available in Synergy the new student information system we are still working on getting the detail information including eligibility category on the student count similar to what has been provided in the past the current data shows 2,23 students as of December 1 1st 2023 compared to 2090 students December 1st 2022 in order to provide accurate data we will continue to validate the information reported in Synergy as we navigate the new system and the changes ad has implemented as of December 1st we had about 510 FTE which includes 8.5 FTE from FBC at that time we employed 729 staff only 55 are full-time with the 1.0 FTE
063there are currently 167 vacancies across the agencies vacant positions are posted in techfield the highlights of the November 203 financial report showed the collective revenue of 3. million was 1.3 million lower than November 2022 revenue of 4.3 million the major difference is the decrease in receipts of the institution voucher the October and November institutional voucher payments were both received in December the increase in the federal and state grants is due to an increase in the Medicaid reimbursements since they've improved their system from going to EFT payments the decrease in other operating revenue is mostly due to a decrease in receipts from the classroom site fund and this is partially based on the student count information the budget fiscal year 2023 obligated expenditures of 27.6 million were 53,000 higher than budget fiscal year 2022 obligated expenditures
064of 27.6 million salaries are slightly higher than last budget fiscal year however employer related expenditures are lower due to a reduction in the agency cost cost of medical insurance premiums contractual Food Services were moved from the professional and outside Services line to better track those costs professional and outside Services increas is mostly from the price increase for the contracted transportation services travel has increased with the increased professional development opportunities for the staff and out out of state competitions for students if there are no questions this concludes my report but I am available for questions any questions all right thank you thank you moving on to um agenda item 6.03 approval of superintendent rikan's performance evaluation this is Linda do we need to go into executive session okay I would welcome a motion to do that
065okay this is Linda B I move that we go into executive session I'll second all those in favor say I I I opposed okay we need to bre the pursuant to ar ar 38-43 1.03 A1 the board may v vote to go into executive session which will not be open to the public for the purposes of discussion and consideration of employment matters as it relates to this agenda item so we will um adjourn for a few minutes to move into executive session e testing can just want to let you know we're going to take a 10-minute break before we resume the meeting thank you minutes I was just giving you the heads up two minute War I hate those I feel like the one up in the booth is like right in my eyes so
066wanted me to write more I wasn't quite descriptive on the apparently it wasn't was cho cho big right do you need to count us down I'm thinking right at the 55 if we could media are you ready okay we'll start in 10 seconds 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 thank you we are um resuming at 5:55 after executive session and we are on 6.03 the approval of superintendent rikan's performance evaluation do I have a motion I'll make a motion to I heard Colette um I have a move a motion by Colette do I have a second I'll second all those in favor say I I I opposed hearing none seeing none moving on to 7.01 Ombudsman report Donna Williams Esquire I can lift it up a little bit good evening president gel
067members of the board superintendent reichman assistant superintendent Cooper and katoff and the asdb community I present to you the office of the umut person semiannual report covering the reporting period July 2023 through December 2023 um is there a slide we doing the slides if not no worries oh there we are next slide again super so um since I've had this position which was July of 2022 I've really been working to facilitate positive relationships among asdb staff students and the public by collaborating with the staff and the community to ensure Fair processes that are equitably and reasonably resolving their concerns whether it be staff students parents and community members and really the activities I've been engaged in in furtherance of this overarching goal has been everything from just simply providing information um to conducting mediations um
068and just as an overall um statement I think based on the feedback thus far users have been satisfied with the assistance that they have received um from the office next slide please just as a reminder in terms of the availability of services through the office that is the menu of items ranging as you can see from providing information the very simplest form of engaging the office to mediation probably the most complicated and then everything in between and I think in this reporting period um just about every aspect of the Continuum was engaged um and that was true of the previous reporting periods as well so on to the aggregate user data next slide please um users are generally directed to fill out a request form when seeking the assistance from the udsp person office the
069form then captures um data like name title contact information and then details about the concern and then I'm alerted by email that there's been a request form and then I can engage users um um after that point so some users have been utilizing the form um I think many others have been reaching out both by phone and by email and certainly my experience has been that repeat users don't fill out the form anymore unless they have been directed to do so by me they just simply pick up the phone um or email me um and I would also know note that several users have used both the um busperson email address and the Donna Williams email address so at this point you know everything is all mixed up and that's fine um as long as
070users are using um so from July 2023 to December 2023 um eight users submitted the actual um buds person request form and of those eight requests six were from staff and two were from Administration one of the administration users was actually from an agency outside of asdb um um just for note so of of those eight users the breakdown in terms of uh subject matter would be um two for interpersonal conflict two regarding a formal complaint request two regarding a procedural concern one a policy concern and then um one would be in other category which is kind of a catch-all category um I would say that the concerns raised um were resolved probably at the level of about 60 65% with the assistance of the UDS person um 37 of those uh 37% of those
071are probably ongoing and working towards resolution sometimes my engagement with users requires multiple contacts um sometimes homework on their part sometimes homework on my part um so those things are um are in progress I did utilize interpreters um this past reporting period for at least one of those interactions and I also responded to over 90 email during that same time again divided between both the um busperson email account and my personal account and then there were about a dozen calls um it should also be noted that my phone rings consistently throughout the day most of which have nothing to do with um buds person services so I think the number is on some list people are trying to sell me things etc etc so that happens as well um one um of the users questions
072when they're researched and answered so once I've engaged the user we've met or talked um and I've done the research and really have gotten back to them to answer whatever concerns they had or at least directed them to the appropriate resource I then consider the matter resolved so when I'm talking about things being resolved it doesn't necessarily mean that their situation is fixed it means my role in terms of helping them navigate whatever that concern was um has been resolved um next slide please again and one more so um during the last reporting period which was in July um I talked about the results of the focus groups um and just to recap very briefly there were four main themes that emerged from the responses that were collected during that process um the first was
073U the need to establish a comprehensive uh communication strategy the second was meaningful opportunities for staff to provide feedback the third was greater information about and access to the board and then four greater visibility and engagement with internal and external stakeholders from the superintendent and an assistant superintendant since that time um I have been working with the superintendent and the assistant superintendent and the leadership team to help develop this uh comprehensive communication strategy um next slide please in August the steering committee met to discuss the focus group results um and really lay the groundwork for for the communication plan establish a timeline and then a process for agency roll out and then implementation of the plan um we also um had an education executive team meeting in October to discuss the communication plan in Greater
074detail and really its relationship to building trust and Collective efficacy which will serve as the foundation for the plan so the steering committee also met in October and that was to prioritize list of suggested communication commitments established during that um August meeting so of those priority commitments the udsp person will be directly involved with ongoing efforts to conduct focus groups so really this um ongoing process of getting feedback from staff on how we're doing um what more is needed um and anything that would involve that and surveying questionnaires Etc designed to get a pulse on how we're doing over the next several weeks the priorities identified from the October steering committee will form the basis of the internal communication plan which um will be presented in February the steering committee and meeting for review and
075discussion I recently met with a superintendent and the assistant superintendent to really figure out what direction we wanted to go in with the next round of focus groups so I'm in the process of drafting some additional questions that will bring in the original group of folks that participated in the first round to find out of all the things that we've implemented what is working what's not working and kind of where we need to go from here so those efforts will begin um over the next couple of months hopefully concluding in March or April um one of next slide please one of the um one of the things that struck me at least over the last year and a half is the community's awareness or not awareness of my presence here and you know it's it's
076it's good one way or the other but I think it's important to at least make sure that the community knows that I'm here how they can utilize me so that if there is a need um they know that I'm here so I think that I'm kind of underutilized by the community and if that's something that the agency um in terms of a resource wants to make available to the community then my suggestion with that we create some visibility around the role and maybe how um I can interface with the community so we have parent Square announcements things of that nature social media of course um I'm open to doing a video short um with ASL and then just any kind of marketing that might help with visibility so you know ensuring that the community has
077efficient information about the services um and how to access those services will certainly bring greater awareness and that's the goal so next slide in [Music] conclusion um I logged over about 150 hours during this reporting period that's really on par with previous reporting periods and so again I think the general volume and tenor of work is suitable for um um someone in a part-time capacity of course as soon as we open the floodgates right I say that today um uh with great conviction um but you know certainly should that change um over the coming months I will share that as well um but I think that also going forward and developing the internal communication plan will also um decrease kind of the inter interpersonal um issues that um seem to come my way on a
078regular basis but the next report for this office will cover the reporting period January 2024 to July 20 excuse me till June 2024 and that concludes my report happy to answer any questions any questions can I make a possible suggestion and maybe have her come to do an information session um at one of the board meetings like we have had other information sessions so that it would be also on the live stream for the public to see about utilization how to utilize the utsman position well I'm kind of looking at Annette and you both of you um as as a possible um idea just kind of throwing out there okay if no other questions thank you very much thank you okay moving on to 7.04 discussion and possible action item approval of suggested changes to
079ARS title 15204 and title 41 chapter 27 Article 2 Maria Murphy director of policy and government relations good evening Madame President members of the board Madam superintendent assistant superintendents and members of the asdb community for the record my name is Maria Murphy I Am the director of policy and government relations members of the board you have before for you the abstract and the template language uh that was presented to um representative David Cook to see if he would be interested in possibly running a bill uh regarding special education vouchers this would be um running the bill that was run last year again by representative cook we would be asking him to rerun this bill and we are hopeful that we may be able ble to get some motion on it um as you are all
080probably aware the uh regular session began on Monday uh thus far 749 bills have been introduced 598 of them were introduced this week 277 of them were introduced today so I've been pretty busy um as as of today I am tracking approximately 55 different bills um 19 of them are strike everything bills that will probably not come into play until later on in the session 17 of them are actually continuation bills and three of them are on what's called my hot list the ones that I have to keep um an extra eye on uh I find myself in the unusual position of coming here um asking you for permission to drop a bill but also to ask you for forgiveness because uh representative cook dropped the bill already he dropped it last Friday so it's
081already been introduced so uh I'm hopeful that you will give asdb permission to actually run the bill it is um House Bill 2144 um again if you do not feel that you want to go ahead and run the special education voucher bill then please by all means instruct me to um ask representative cook to withdraw the bill and with that I'd like to make myself available for any any questions thank you Maria do I have a motion for to Grant Maria permission to go ahead and drop this bill it is the same bill um that we attempted last year and um it would provide some additional funding for transportation I believe and then just cost of services in general yes with the institutional voucher yes okay um so I will entertain a a motion I'll
082make a motion Mrs britne uh to Sor oh sorry to um Grant Maria the permission to allow representative C to continue this bill one one quick question Maria what number is it a 2144 sir okay thank you this Linda seconding I have a motion in a second um all those in favor I I can't hear the folks on the phone are we still there this is I'm going to abstain okay um any opposition hearing none it motion carries thank you Maria okay um discussion and possible action item for possible work study sessions there are a couple of things I think um that will be coming up that I think we will need more information on what I would like to suggest is a motion from the board to have um letia or staff um do
083a doodle and get some dates on the calendar between our board meetings so I'm going to go ahead and move that we have staff do that do I have a second this ising second all those in favor say I I I any opposition hearing none motion carries we're moving on to 8.01 call to the public for non-agenda items um um our first public comment was submitted by email um it's online and it can be read there um I actually I should ask is Kimberly I'm gonna buter this um Akin present okay her comment is posted online it can be read there the second request to address the board I have is Megan Packard are you here here she comes okay hello superintendent um rikman board president kifil assistant superintendent and board members my name is
084Megan Packard I'm a public interpreter here at asdb this is my daughter Artemis she is waking up a little bit so hopefully she doesn't start crying the reason that I here today is because I wanted to discuss the topic of Parental leave and donated the donated leave policy while I was pregnant Governor Hobbs established a paid leave program uh that is a pilot program and it is for 12 weeks of paid leave for state employees I was thrilled when I learned of this policy however it states that it is for eligible state employees and universities and ASB are not eligible so that was very disappointing and worrying for me regardless I created a plan for my maternity leave I used my acred sick and personal time and my wonderful colleagues my fellow interpreters offered to
085donate some of their leave to me to help me take advantage of my full 12 weeks uh of leave well paid as time went forward we got to the end of November and I submitted my application for donated leave just yesterday I was informed by HR that I am not eligible to receive donated leave reason being the policy states that it is for non-job related serious incapacitating and ongoing illness or injury I did plan plan to be off for 12 weeks um starting back on February 1st but I will actually be starting again tomorrow as a result of this and I am very fortunate that my job has the flexibility so I can work remotely from home this month um and slowly transition back but not all staff here at asdb have that flexibility and
086I think it's important that we support our new parents and respectfully if um there is no paid uh leave here then I recommend that we change that donated leave policy at the very least in order to provide that additional support to staff thank you for your time and consideration thank you um our second request to address the board is paully Garcia hello members of the board and superintend reikan I'm so honored to be here tonight I didn't expect to be able to speak today I am still doing my research on asdb history and I plan to provide a summary in March I hope that you will be open to that I'm not here to point fingers I just want to share the information so that the board is able to make the right informed decisions
087I hope I find a ride to Phoenix for March thank you for letting me speak tonight I appreciate it and happy New Year uh that concludes all the requests on non-agenda items all right moving on to 8.02 discussion item agenda items for the next regular board meeting scheduled for March 7th 2024 in Phoenix um one of the things I would definitely like to have added to um the agenda if not for March then the followup is the uh what's the word I want um renewal of the superintendent's contract I know that we are coming to the end of that and so we will need to have that um and I don't know if we want to do um have pully do an information session prior to the board meeting or have her on the agenda
088either way I'm open to that can you repeat that please s in regards to having um Polly come in and talk about the history I don't know if we want to do that as an information session um or if we want it as an actual you know on the agenda item I'm or we can talk about it it being the next work study I'm open to either any Paulie and I are scheduling a meeting uh next next week so we've already set up a meeting and I plan on asking um you know for some more information as as far as what she would like to share with the board and it could be done either way we can add that to the agenda to give her some time to present to the board uh her
089new found information about the history of ASB or we can also do a work study session I don't have enough information to know which would be best and I will leave that to your very capable hands to make that decision and I thank you okay does anybody else have anything they want to add otherwise you can always contact myself or Anette to add things to the agenda if not moving on to 9.01 do I have a motion for adjournment I hear you Lynn I have a motion do I have a second second this is Linda all those in favor say I I the meeting now is adjourned at 6:21 p.m. thank you everybody for your attendance