0014:00 is everyone ready all right we will start in 5 4 3 2 1 good afternoon um it is 4 p.m. and I'd like to call the board meeting to order for the Arizona schools for the deaf and the blind um Britney could you do roll Linda both present Bry beanan I am present Chapman no okay uh Lynn Davidson here Michael Gordon I'm here Su kifil here Katie sienko um let me think about it physically yes I'm present mentally not so much that's fair oh good okay moving on to agenda item 1.02 information item open meeting law presentation um Deborah Sterling ask can you hear me through the mic keep going keep going keep going can can you hear me through the mic now now no what should I do a little for theic is
002that is that better doesn't matter okay is that better okay good afternoon my name is Deborah Sterling I'm an Assistant Attorney General with the office of the Arizona attorney general I'm in the state government division education and health and I've been asked today to talk to you about the open meeting law um I did send a presentation so you should have something on as a board agenda item the one of the most important things to remember is that the policy of the opening un law was that it was enacted to ensure that meetings of public bodies be conducted openly and that notices and agendas be provided for such meetings contain information that helps the public to inform the public of what will be discussed or decided is that better now okay thank you sorry um
003there are two the policy sorry okay the policy the open meeting law has two interrelated requirements one is notices must be posted promptly and with a required information and the meeting must be conducted openly that's right sorry okay not a problem sorry about that okay to whom does the open meeting law apply all public bodies except for a very few specific ones that are Exempted and all quasi judicial bodies all standing special or spe or advisory committees that are appointed by a public body the open meeting Law requires that the public body post an agenda at least 24 hours in advance on on their website or in a public building where they as part of their notice and it has to include the the time that the public will if you're having a meeting in
004public in in person the AL media law now requires you post the time that this building will be accessible to the public that is a new requirement it actually went into into effect like two days ago um and you have to make the other important requirement is you have to make minutes or audio recordings or videos available within three within three days after the meeting um the meeting in in addition to websites it should be posted publicly some place physically so that someone can come and look at the physical posting this presentation will actually focus more on the open meeting law as it pertains to board members okay what is a meeting this has become more complicated over technology and time a meeting is commonly defi defined as a gathering in person or now through
005technological technological devices telephones emails video of a quorum of a public body which they may discuss prepare and take action and specifically includes a one-way communication by a member of the public that is s to a quorum and that proposes legal action so you have to be very careful particularly and I'll get into this a little bit later particularly between emails and phone calls and video conferences one of my basic recommendations is public business be done at a public meeting and therefore you have a quorum everything is appropriately noticed and there's no issues about whether things were discussed that should not have been at a different time important part is the agenda all discussions must be reasonably related to an adequately described agenda item so you have to think about how you want to um
006frame the agenda item to to be reason related to everything you think might be might want to discuss um a quorum a quorum is a number of members that is needed to have an official meeting for the asdb board the Quorum is in statute it says the Quorum must have five members so in order to have a meeting you must have five members of your board present and that not all you know that varies by board sometimes it's in statute sometimes it's not but yours is very clear now recusals and I'll get into that I got into more in conflict of interest but recusals do change the Quorum it decreases the number of people that are present for a quorum so you have to remember that when you're looking at if someone needs to recuse
007themselves from an order however well for your in your instance because the Quorum is always five members it doesn't matter how many vacancies you have on your board you know some boards do vary by the number of filled seats on their board but yours does not your your statute says five members five members make a quorum so it does not matter how many vacant seats you might have you always have to have five members of the board to um to have an open meeting and to take action and taking action includes discussion um extensions that is when you're voting if you decide to abstain because you do not think you should Vote or you not want to vote that does not affect the Quorum okay there's I'm just going to briefly talk about this again
008um because there come more of an issue more recently a quorum can be established Excuse Me Miss Sterling sure I apologize for interrupting this is Linda Bo hi Deborah um I just wanted to interrupt briefly to clarify um because I would like to have you um State a little bit more clearly for us the difference between abstention and recusal of course um I do understand uh that one affects qu and one does not but are they you are talking about different things correct can you clarify that for us please correct yes yes what a recusal is is when you have a statuto defined conflict of interest and by Statute you cannot vote on it an exension is when you do not have a statutorily required conflict of interest but you do not want to vote
009on it okay and then um can you rein or reiterate how each of those affects Quorum an exstension does not affect Quorum because you just abstain you vote a recusal does affect Quorum because you do not vote at all any other questions on that okay please feel free to ask questions as I go along thank you for clarifying okay board meetings are held as public sessions that is the board must allow the public to attend and the public to listen and the public is also allowed to videotape audio tape and and um tape tape recorder I guess so few people use that anymore I forgot to put that in there but they're allowed to tape it what they are not allowed unless the board authorizes call to the public the public comments they are not
010allowed to talk at a board meeting that is the open meeting law requires that they be able to attend and listen however the board is discretionary and whether it wants to allow public comments and they have some discretion about how they about how they do that and different boards do it in different ways basically you have to make reasonable you have to determine how you want to do your call to public using Reas reasonable as as the standard okay um because I've seen this on various different agendas some boards have one call to the public and include anything um other other boards have several board have several calls to the public sometimes they do it by a call to the public for agendize items which actually means the board can discuss the issue because it's
011on the agenda um if the call if the call to the public is for non- agendized items the the board cannot discuss those items because they are not on the agenda and some some boards do a call to the public after every section and that really is at your discretion that really is a policy by the board okay and clarify the board can make reasonable time place and manner restrictions on the speakers so you can set it up uh some boards have a time limit some boards do not but it really depends again that's a policy decision by the board in a call to the public if it's not an already agendized item the board cannot take any action except at the end of the call the public the board can determine whether it wants
012to put it on a future agenda item whether it wants to direct staff or someone else to look at it and come back with it there is a exception that talks about if a board member is criticized the board member can respond I usually recommend that not happen it gets it's just not well defined and um the best course in my my recommendation is that whatever the public member says just ex you know listen to it and if you want to respond you can respond at another time if it's you know at a different meeting okay um board board meetings are always public they always start public they have to start in the public and they have to end in the public session but in between you're authorized to have executive sessions for certain specific
013specified topics um what that means is that you have the board first of all has to vote to go into executive session that is their choice that's a policy decision whether they go into executive session um there's some executive sessions like confidential records where I don't think it's much of an issue but there are other issues where boards do split on whether or not they want to go to Executive session in executive session the public is not in invited they cannot listen they are not invited to come in I will go over briefly um the executive sessions they include employment issues um purchase sale lease of real property pending or contemplated litigation contract negotiations confidential records and added this past legislative session that added school safety plans and programs and safety of building and critical
014infrastructures as as things you could discuss in executive session now there is one broader um executive session that is for legal advice and what and because you don't always know board doesn't always know whether or not you will need legal advice um you are allowed by the open meaning law to put us a notice in your not to section the board may go May request legal advice at any for any of the agendized items for the other types of executive sessions it is always recommended that you specifically note why you're going into executive session for that specific agenda item um if you know you're going into executive session for legal advice i' recommend that you put that in anyway um but you always have to put in for the other types of executive sessions um
015I want to talk a little bit I talked about this briefly a few minutes ago email and phones please members of the public board must be careful when U imizing emails or phones you can't use it for discussions that are going to come before the public body and it's probably just and it's not a good it is it is a good practice not to if you are using email not to not to have reply all to other board members and I know I've seen this we do we do have language that you put on emails because you may un unintentionally create a quorum and a quorum can be created if person a talks to person B then person B talks to person C conveying also person A's conversation and you get up to five you
016can get up to five pretty quickly so um while it's easy to use email it's become much more of an issue to laugh 10 15 years and you can appropriately use email for communication um just ensure you don't inadvertently um create a quorum because that would be an open meeting law violation and you don't start a discussion um it's to convey essentially information it's not to start a discussion discussions are to be done at public meetings in public sessions or executive session if appropriate okay um in in that vein the other thing is make sure when you do do discussions um that they don't if you're if you're discussing something think about whether or not it reasonably will lead to a board matter because that becomes very important when you sometimes make be inadvertently end
017up with a quorum or talk you know end up having a phone call they call it a phone used to be called a phone tree now it's more likely at email stream but it's particularly problemsome if it's something that's likely to come before the board because that should be done at a public meeting and these public meetings do not have to be created at the same time unlike a public meeting like today where everybody's here at the same time time and you know when it starts and you know when it ends if you inadvertently create a public meeting by email and sometimes phone calls are most likely these days emails it doesn't have to be simultaneous you can track emails as we know and if you end up talking to a quorum or doing other
018things that are not appropriate is leading a discussion um then you looking at potential violations of the open meting law um one of the things that is important is that if you do in inadvertently Viola an open meeting law um during one discussions or one of year votes um essentially that decision becomes null and void now there are two ways to handle that if the date of the decision is important that is you had to decided at this meeting you go through a process called ratification of that um if it's if you if you simply need to decide it at the next meeting or future meeting you can do that too ratification is um a complicated issue I wasn't going to get into it here but if it ever happens we you know I'll certainly
019be glad to assist but there is a specific procedure if that happens um okay enforcement of the open meeting law uh the open meeting law is generally enforced by the Attorney General's office my office there's an open meeting law enforcement team or by the county office in which the violation occurred the attorney general or County attorney will initiate an investigation May resolve the issue actually file a lawsuit with the public body usually meets it goes to a lawsuit the court May impose penalties and the board may not expend public money to employ or retain legal counsel to the board or any of its officers at any legal action pursuant to this unless otherwise authorized to make such an expenditure um I think that there's no further questions um I did on the outline put two
020additional related um the meeting law is the Arizona attorney general's office has on its website Arizona attorney general handbook it has a section an open meeting the um busman has a section um budsman has published booklets both on open meeting law and actually on public records and usually those are the ones that I often refer to they they are very recent they're done in 20123 they include the Attorney General's chapter they include the statute of itself and include very useful and helpful questions and answers um related issues as I've sort of skirted around here is conflict of interest and public records does anybody have any questions can you hear me yes um just a question where you said that you cannot have meetings with less than a majority of the public body meeting with individual
021members so like two of us yeah can't talk or yes yes okay [Music] um you can't have a public meeting and in your case it's five for board members you can meet with less than a quorum as long as you're careful about that it does not expand to a quum my blanket advice is just do public business at public meetings however I do recognize that that may not always be the practical way so when you if you have to do it if you want to you want to do it you know one on ones many boards do that um just be careful that it does not expand to meet the Quorum okay thank you anything else I can help you with any other comments or questions for Deborah thank you so much I appreciate your
022time tonight thank you moving on to agenda item 1.03 call to the public for agendized items I have I I don't think my mic is working I have one I have one agenda uh one public comment and it's from Joe malinka hello good afternoon everyone superintendent rikman assistant superintendent and Cooper and board of directors thank you for the opportunity to speak to you this evening I would like to discuss policy gbba access to communication I have been a staff interpreter at ASB for 15 years I had the honor and privilege to be a part of the committee who worked tirelessly and passionately to develop this policy we were hoping to submit it to you back in July but we had a few uh encounters that we had to resolve and we are here now I
023hope that you will read and consider this policy and think about the staff here at ASB think about their experiences what they encounter as they try to access this environment they should have an environment that is open to them with no restrictions I am incredibly proud of the work that this committee has done and I hope that you will read it and approve it I do understand that this is a first read if you wanted to rush it through I mean of course that's up to you and again I thank you for your time and consideration have a good evening thank you no other comments with no other public comments we will move on to agenda item 1.04 the superintendent report superintendent rikman good afternoon president Kel members of our board acting assistant superintendent catcha
024assistant superintendent Cooper and our asdb community Welcome to our November 2nd 2023 board meeting November it's already started the official start of our 2023 holiday season right we're all getting to become very busy getting ready for holidays such as Thanksgiving Christmas New Year's and all the other holidays my presentation this afternoon follows a theme said to on effective communication and transparency I'm going to start us off with a story I feel like I haven't done that in a while I found a story that was interesting a little bit humorous but also shows an analogy of the problems and considerations when we think about effective communication and transparency I read an article about a man last year who was going going to Indonesia he was to be providing a training and a workshop there finished and
025then was ready to come back home to the US he was at the airport and saw that the plane was on the runway he was excited that it would be on time it looked like it was going to be ready to take off he sat with the other passengers boarded the airplane and when he sat down he began to relax and fell asleep fell asleep for a while then woke up because he heard some yelling and he wondered what's happening he took a look around and realized that the plane had not yet taken off he looked at the time and it was 45 minutes past takeoff time I didn't know what was going on the other passengers began to get irate wondering what was wrong what was happening and they were beginning to yell at
026the flight attendants the flight attendants were trying to deescalate the passengers and calm them down assuring them that everything was okay but that was there was a little bit of a delay but they would sure surely soon take off so please remain in your seats keep your seat belts off and of course they did not listen to the flight attendance they got up started to move about the cabin and then they heard the captain make an announcement saying sorry folks we have had a little bit of a medical Emer emergency over here we're taking care of it once that is resolved we will take off that information did not calm Anybody Everybody became even more upset with one M even saying there's a coid Outbreak on this plane get me out of here right now
027sure enough that woman disembarked with her luggage and some other passengers did as well a little bit later the captain made another announcement saying that that medical emergency had been resolved and that they were ready for takeoff and they took off I'll give you a second to think about that what was worse no information or some information I'm not sure but at first no information caused a lot of angst anxiety anger people didn't like being in the dark and then when you only provide some information people start to add on other information it then becomes their reality and that is a great analogy when we think about effective communication and transparency which is what I wanted to talk about this afternoon is our efforts to improve our communication and our transparency we know that effective
028communication and transparency is critical to our agency's culture to our relationships that we have with the community just look at our operating principles accountability collaboration and transparency that transparency component is probably one of the more difficult things for us and then when we look at our board's strategic plan the very first pillar is effective communication and relationships with those two together we have to think about how it is how can we become effective communicators and become more transparent for me as superintendent that has been one of the most challenging parts of my job how how we effectively communicate with the agency with the board with the community how can we be transparent about agency decisions with that last spring as you all are aware Miss Donna Williams our agency on buds person did a series
029of focus groups there were 11 of them in total focusing on communication and she collected a lot of information and feedback and with that she gave us four recommendations the first recommendation was to develop an internal communication strategy the second recommendation was to create meaningful opportunities for staff to provide feedback the the third was to provide more information and access to you the board for our staff and the fourth is that me as superintendent and our two assistant superintendents become more visible we have been working on all four just so happens that last February both before those focus groups we had a steering committee meeting that steering committee is comprised of 5 to70 leaders from across the agency they met together to talk about different topics but at this particular steering committee meeting I asked
030them what do we need to do to improve our communication What specifically can I do better and they provided great feedback we had seven action items one example you know that after each board meeting I write a summary I tell everybody what happened throughout the agency what has been happening at the board meeting in a summary and I've been doing that thus far I'm trying to keep my commitments to improve my communications with the agency so that's the first recommendation from Donna the second is to make meaningful opportunities for our staff and the community as well to provide feedback we just did three town halls those Town Halls were focusing on the different qualities for our Nest assistant superintendent those three town halls were held October 10th 17th and 24th the first in Phoenix Tucson
031and virtual we had a total of 34 participants and we took detailed notes at each Town Hall that we have put into a summary we received feedback from the community about the assistant superintendent qualities that information has been brought to the steering committee we met for the first time in person just like this past Monday it's the first time that we were able to meet in person since the fall of 2019 this has all been online and I am so relieved to be back in person we had 50 people in the room together talking about again some different actions on how and what we can do to improve Communications and not just me or our assistant superintendent but how all of our leaders here within our agency can improve communication I asked them to rank
032which of their action items were the most important that we could focus on to improve communication we have that information today it is now being compiled and will be developed into our internal communication strategy we will use that as a guide for specific actions that all of us can take responsibility for for effective communication so during that steering committee we also provided information about the master facility plan if you can remember at the last board meeting our director of operations Albert Duff provided an informational session about the master facilities plan he again presented to the leaders within the agency and we opened it up to feedback we want to hear from them about what needs to be included and thought through with the master facilities plan we also talked about the office of civil rights
033resolution agreement that we are currently in with OCR and some of the work that we've been doing as pertains to that we shared that information with the agency leadership and got some feedback about some out outstanding confusion and how we can make some better decisions moving forward so we have that third information about and access to the board we have begun that process my last Vlog to the agency focused on our board I talked about the state constitution the state laws what they say about what kind of representation is on the board what the governor does to appoint and select people on the board and then your roles and responsibility as the governing agency of asdb is to make and establish policies to evaluate programs evaluate me as the superintendent and so on we will
034continue to provide that information to our agency and Community about the work that you do and who you are so that's number three checked off number four visibility October was the jackpot I was incredibly V busy and more visible than I think I've ever been since 2019 the first week of October I flew to Kentucky for CB conference the Council of school administrators for the blind that's a national level conference that I attended they told me that I had disappeared and that's true I had disappeared for about 4 years but my presence was felt that week later I went to Rochester New York to ntid for the national Advisory Group meeting I was there for that and then we had our three town halls in October we had the board work study session we met
035with some of our teachers who are members of the asdb educational Association and then I went to the Arizona Association of the deaf conference which was all day and saw some of you there some of us from ASV were there and I didn't coordinate any of it I just showed up and bumped into Jill Voit and bumped into Paul Saunders our two principles for our sites found out that Jill brought six or seven students from pdsd high school students there were several other staff members I think Sarah was there I'm going to I'm not going to name all of the names but we were well represented at the Arizona Association for the deaf conference it was very neat that that happened like I said the town halls in October and then at the very end
036of October just 2 days AG go was Halloween and I was in Tucson meeting two state legislators they came to tour the Tucson campus and that was Arizona state senator Gowan and Arizona state representative cook they have an interest in our Master facilities plan and they wanted to tour the Tucson campus that gave us an opportunity to discuss with the two of them about what it is that we need to do with our Master facility and our Capital renewal of our Tucson campus but while we were there of course we had to introduce them to our students who were wearing their costumes we brought them to the cafeteria all of our students had costumes on and so they were passing out candy and interacting with our students there it just so happened that our principal
037was dressed up in costume and his two assistant principls were matching they had snow white themed costumes it was very cool we had a lot of fun on Halloween it was a great opportunity for the state legislators to become connected with our students and to see who we are educating and serving on the Tucson campus it was phenomenal so again visibility October just so happened to be the perfect month so we know that it is critical to have effective communication and transparency we understand that for all of us that sense of stability and connectedness we can only get that when we have effective communication and transparency so to have that stability and connectedness that will improve our agency's culture and climate I want to try to quote Steven cvy he talks about trust trust is
038the glue in life it is essential it's an essential ingredient in effective communication it is also the fundamental principle that holds together all of our relationships thank you I'll take any questions any questions from the board I have a comment um I just like that quote a lot superintendent rikman thank you okay seeing no other comments or questions we'll move on to agenda item 1.05 information item um from assistant superintendent attendent of curriculum instruction um your report Orin good afternoon excuse me good afternoon board president kifl members of the board superintendent rikan assistant superintendent kooper and the asdb community for my report I want to focus on three things the first being about eating frogs the second about our tinant programs and the third about our new sped director and the duties under the new
039sped director so let's start with talking about eating frogs in 2017 Brian Tracy wrote a book titled eat that frog and I do want to thank Marilyn Brooks an asdb itinerant teacher for sharing that book with me the basic premise of that book is that it is important to tackle your most challenging tasks first and to not procrastinate on the parts of your work that might be hard or painful so his analogy is that if you hurry up and eat that frog AKA take care of the most difficult task then the rest of your day week or year will have nowhere to go but up uh so we're we're currently eating some frogs um a current frog that we're eating is the Fallout from our teacher shortage both in the day schools and our itinerant
040programs today I'm going to focus just on the itinerant programs so about 36 years ago asdb started its itinerant program since then the itinerant programs has grown and currently makes up over half of the total number of students that asdb serves so again over half the students we serve are in the itinerant programs in comparison our ber the 3 Program makes up about 25% of the students and our two day schools and the preschools make up a little under the final 25% due to our teacher shortage we have had to stop accepting new districts as itinerant partners and are focusing on just serving the current contracted districts that we have each of these conversations is a frog and we currently have about eight districts who want to partner with us and are currently on a
041waiting list also in Region 2 we've had to share with many sped directors that based on our shortages uh what we can provide their students um we might be able to meet all the minutes and in some cases we might not be able to we have started a minute tracker so we are fully aware of what's happening and are being transparent with our sped directors um as to what's going on again these conversations have been eating frogs and I do want to say I appreciate everyone's professionalism during these hard conversations we appreciate all the brainstorming sessions that we're having with our our partnering districts to try and navigate these issues I do need to commend Rosetta Hicks the director of Region 2 as well as her staff especially Pam Kelk and Morgan Stenson on how
042they are handling these tough conversations Rosie and her team are showing up prepared with a lot of information on every single student to discuss what this shortage means in regards to what we can do now and what it might look like in the future I also want to commend how Jason Lily the director of Region 3 and Greer Paris the director of region 1 have collaborated with Rosie to see how their staff can assist with some of the teacher shortages that we're seeing here in Maricopa County this year these three directors have been functioning as a team and I really couldn't be prouder of all three of them I also want to commend Sarah satii our new sped director on the work that she's been tackling since starting at asdb this summer uh her welcome
043to asdb was pretty much us saying welcome to asdb here are two gigantic frogs that you need to eat these two really big frogs were our Student Health Center on the Tucson campus and the second one was trying to create consistency in our IEP processes which includes trying to find consistency between both campuses as far as referrals to the day schools consistencies in how we run IEP meetings and consistency in the roles of related service providers in these meetings the student health center in Tucson had major turnover this summer and Sarah was handed over a situation where we didn't even know if we would have a functioning Health Center for the first day of school due to her hard work the tooths Health Center was ready for the first day and she continues to work
044with Staffing challenges to ensure that we have a program there that meets all of our students needs in regards to the IEP processes asdb has never had a district sped director before or at least as far as I know um this means that Sarah's had to start with simple things like creating IEP Norms uh to harder things like having discussions as to how do we work with students who have very complex needs and do it consistently so again I want to thank Sarah I want to thank everybody at the Tucson campus who came up and was transparent about the needs that we had for the Student Health Center I want to thank our IEP Specialists um we have one in the ELP marine guchi and our two at the campuses Kim Akens and Abby Wagner
045uh for helping us eat these frogs as we move forward to create a a more productive tomorrow so as we enter the last months of 2023 I've been focusing my efforts on how we strengthen communication and systems between the various parts of the educational side of the agency I am trying to include the principles and the directors in more meetings and provide opportunities for them to be collaborative and hopefully this will lead to having a true team um that I can proudly turn over to whoever replaces me in July so in conclusion the phrase the whole is greater than the sum of its parts is Loosely attributed to Aristotle uh as I continue to have a greater understanding of each part of the agency and the great people working within those parts the more excited
046I get about the endless possibilities of this agency as we continue to get the parts to work together as a whole I do believe that as the staff leadership and this board continue to work together the next few years can lead to something special and historical for this agency thank you any questions I do have one Orin in regards to the minute tracking um how does that impact I'm just going to be direct about this revenues from those um contracted schools so that is a complex question um Rosie and our team did look at every single student looked at who were getting the voucher for the different levels of the voucher the fee for service and the different levels of fee for service and try to do um the best possible to where it does
047not affect Revenue um Again by doing the minute tracking we are kind of minute by minute seeing where we are and again being transparent with everybody so um you know it's relatively new we're only a couple months in um but right now I think it would be I I'm hesitant to say how it's going to affect Revenue because at this point I think it is kind of waiting to see where it will affect future revenue is we we can't with our current teachers we have we cannot not continue to expand and get new districts um we can't we we lost a lot of teachers last year and the refrain was kind of the same is they're they were being overworked and the minutes were too high so and thank you I would I would agree
048with that I think we need to make sure that we're maintaining um high quality step and not burning them at you know the candle at both ends so to speak so I appreciate that feedback um any thoughts on how um like how are you determining whether or not so if we have a current contract how are you determining whether or not you can take in another student from that contract um I understand not creating new contracts but if we're in a contract how do you make sure that we can serve equitably I guess is the word I'm looking for so for every te feature that we have in the itinerant setting we do have their case loads and their minutes uh we include their travel time and their prep time so depending on where they
049are in the valley um the number of hours in the day and the students they have then it really is up to the director and their team to decide can we take on another student or does it is it just not going to happen okay thank you I appreciate that any other questions okay moving on agenda item 1.06 assistant superintendent of agency operations and Support Services report assistant superintendent Cooper good afternoon board president kifil superintendent rikman acting assistant superintendent catch off members of the board asdb community and staff members each of the directors have provided to you their departmental reports as an opportunity to communicate on how we are effectively utilizing our resources and ensuring our systems are in place to support the learning teaching as well as the agency operations the information technology department
050continues to work on numerous activities enhancing our technical infrastructure and supporting staff with their various needs of setting up equipment and electronic devices as a transportation team continues to monitor the utilization and overall health of the agency Fleet we will be ordering eight more UVS this year to replace the fleet's older sedans using the annual special line item funding that we have of $369,000 you continuously hear about the designs of the master facility plan as you're aware they have already started site walkthroughs with the Mechanical plumbing and electrical engineering teams for both campuses have been completed as well as a stakeholder survey was completed where we received 104 for responses which has revealed a lot to Albert as our director of operations as well as to the rest of the agency on how important it
051is to our teachers and students and how we can operate and support everyone within our campuses while we prepare for the master facility plan Renovations we continue to seek funding um from the state which includes building renewal funds this year asdb was awarded over $2.7 million this year These funds will be used to replace carpets in various areas on both campuses replace old in air conditioning units on the Tucson campus upgrade electrical for the Tucson Campus Elementary building install new Energy Management systems on both campuses to reduce our carbon footprint and conserve energy as well as replace ing the spa Dome here on the Phoenix campus for business services the budget and financial report for September 23 and 2022 will be provided separately under agenda item 4.01 and all in all the team continues to
052work hard making sure that we're purchasing goods and services receiving and delivering ordered items as well as processing vendor payments travel claims and payroll for staff we have not not yet received an update from the State Office of strategic planning and budgeting yet on the 2025 budget package which we submitted various funding issues in September and to ensure that our budgetary needs are being met for this fiscal year the team continues to monitor our budgets to actuals frequently especially considering the costs we continue to incur for contracted transportation and nursing services in which our vendor rates have increased in comparison to last year primarily due to inflation we have also been recently informed effective with the November 1st preschool Services contract renewal with the foundation for blind children they are requesting an increase in their
053rates for transportation by about 10% nursing Services by 87% and psychologist evaluations by 133% FBC have indicated these rate adjustments are due primarily to an increased demand for nursing and transportation services provider shortages as well as economic factors we have not yet had an opportunity to thoroughly review and discuss the requests with FBC or the state procurement office so we will be requesting an extension the media team has several projects that they have been working on which includes updating the agency website creating new agency brochures with updated program information content and Graphics as well as creating a braille request system to better process our bail Braille requests they also worked with the superintendent on the town hall meetings creating an ASD policy complaint portal that includes applicable web forms and routing to ensure that they
054are fully accessible the human resources team along with the media team is actively addressing the ongoing Recruitment and Retention challenges that we continue to face salary increased recommendations and or salary schedule adjustments are still being identified and will be brought to the board in January for approval last but not least today in included in the consent item 6.01 is the approval of several salary schedule updates to address the minimum wage increase effective January 1st the State of Arizona minimum wage will increase from $13.85 to $14.35 we're requesting approval to adjust the noted salary schedules by 75 which will bring the starting rate to $475 from the current rate of $14 so we are above the minimum wage as a reminder and as an agency under the state we are not required to follow the minimum
055wage increase however we try to do so whenever possible to ensure we remain remain competitive with other employers and if approved effective January 6 all staff members on the classified salary schedule will receive the 75 increase for grades 1 through 22 except any staff member that is making over $100,000 per year annually will not be receiving the increase to ensure efficient and effective management of our resources it is my ongo goinging commitment to ensure that I provide transparent communication to all stakeholders that impact our students staff and families and that really wraps up my report for the evening thank you any questions from the board hearing and seeing none I'm moving on to 2.0 um one action item approval of the consent agenda consistent with board policy to include items 5.01 6.01 6.02 and an
056Omission which it'll also include 7.02 one moment please 7.01 is that there as well 7.02 not 7.01 oh two okay okay uh so can you please repeat that uh sure um it that's just the agenda item I would need to have a motion to approve the consent agenda items to include 5.01 6 .01 and 6 6.02 and 7.02 okay do I have a motion oh do you have a question Linda yes this is Linda Bo I do have a question can we hold on 7.02 um I'd like to hear a bit more information about that one from Maria Murphy so you mentioned 7.02 included in the consent agenda and I'm wondering it it's supposed to be if you look at the agenda it is listed as a consent agenda item it just wasn't placed under
057um 2.01 if you look at the agenda item it is it is labeled a consent agenda item it was just omitted under 2.01 um if I may add can I I can see why uh Miss Bo is confused because when we review this it shows 5.01 6.02 and 6.03 there's nothing saying 7.02 in that section right under 2.01 but if you look at 7.01 it or 7.02 it is listed as a consent a agenda item so I will I will entertain a motion to hold on 7.02 if you want to um make a motion including everything other than 7.02 so we can move forward with those I'm fine with that I will make a motion to hold 7.02 so that the board can have a little bit more time to review that I can you
058rephrase your motion to approve the consent agenda items that are that that we are looking at sure I would like to move forward with a motion to approve 5.01 6.01 and 6.02 and to hold on 7.02 for further discussion I have a motion do I have a second I'll second I have a motion and a second all in favor please say I I I I I any opposition motion carries for consent agenda items 5 .01 6.01 and 6.02 um I'd like to stay in 2.01 and Maria Murphy could you maybe come up and talk about 7.02 so that we could um move forward on this if possible L um good afternoon um board members superintendent rikman assistant superintendent members of the public um you have before you the policies in uh agenda item 7.02 policies
059GCA and gdfa they were brought for first read in at the September board meeting no um questions or concerns at that time I have not received any additional questions or concerns in regards to those policies so we're we're just seeking to approve um Maria just for clarification um for gck are is that um recommended language from either statute or from asba um this was actually requested language from um internal staff uh to make sure that we are being consistent with other state agencies they're no longer using the term telecommuting they're using the term remote work and then for policy I I believe I asked you a question on gdfa um that's being stricken because we have a duplicate policy is that correct that is correct um it was causing confusion and uh in consultation with
060um director payatt we determined that it would really just make more sense to have one policy any other questions no you asked the questions I was going to ask so I have my answers thank you okay I I would still will entertain a um I move to approve 702 7.2 7.02 I I have a motion in a second all those in favor say I I I I opposed I motion carries moving on to 4.01 information item Finance report Kimberly bitr Director of Business Services good afternoon board president kifil superintendent reichman assistant superintendent Cooper assistant superintendent tchop and members of the board and ASB Community you have been provided our most recent board report that covers the financial data for September 2022 in September 2023 this data was covered in more DET more detail at our
061most recent finance committee meeting that was held last Thursday October 26 with board president kifo and board member Mike Gordon also intendance were superintendent rikman and assistant superintendent Cooper and former board member PV Johns the total student count report provided in the board report report is for July 1st 2023 asdb has transitioned to a new student information system Synergy from the old system power school there have been delays with getting the students input with staff learning the new system and new registrars to asdb learning the process as of October 1st we had about 491 FTE which includes 8.5 FTE at FBC at that time we employed 713 staff only 154 are full-time with 1.0 FTE there were currently 183 vacancies across the agency the highlight of the September 23 financial report shows a collected revenue
062of 630,000 was 370,000 lower than September 2022 revenue of 1.0 million the major difference is the decrease in receipt of the institutional voucher because of the implementation of the new student information system and a decrease in the classroom site fund due to a delay in receiving September's distribution the budget fiscal year 2023 obligated expenses of 14.7 million were 7 million lower than budget fiscal year 2022 obligated expenses of 15.4 million the decrease is primarily due to a decrease in the equipment expenditures in budget fiscal year 2022 we purchased the Chromebooks for the students and installed the notification system our ending cash balance is 2.5 million higher than it was at this time last year the main increases are the classroom site fund of 1.6 million and the Cooperative Services fund of 2.1 million offset by
063a reduction in the federal grants fund of $889,000 if there are no questions of the information presented this concludes my board report any questions from the board this was just a comment to the interpreters to um please not use acronyms um because I'm not in the school system and so I don't know the acronym so um please be respectful of the deaf members of the board and refrain from using acronyms in your interpretation no questions for Kim hearing none we'll move on to 6.03 information and discussion item uh the grievance pursuant to asdb policy um and an Arizona EOC complaint and a notice of claim filed by Dr George Martin against asdb and superintendent rikman um pursuant to ar ar 38- 43103 A3 three the board may vot vote to go into executive session which
064will not be open to the public for discussion and consultation for legal advice with the board's attorney as it relates to this item so can we make a motion for executive session yes we can make a motion for executive session so so moved I move that we go into executive session uh do I have a second I'll second all those in favor say I I I I I I we will um adjourn to Executive session at 5:14 p.m. I don't we going over I don't have a again where we okay all right we are adjourning for executive session e for for legal advice with the board's attorneys for pending or contemplated potential litigation now we will adjourn to Executive session thank you I cry yes yes yes saying you have to vote oh all right
065I will I will could could we move again to yes okay yes I move to go into executive session on the agenda items oh gosh 6.03 was it 6.03 thank you Lynn yes 6.03 all second all those in favor say I I I I now we will adjourn to Executive session we'll get this right okay thought it was ahead e for e all for what's up was Wonder a for I okay yeah just put in Mr Martin something to that effect I don't ever write more than two so you know this one just maybe will'll be set when Sue is ready you don't have to put anything here only read here and then just that you're good that's good yeah and that has to go in the envelope and back probably to Debbie Z okay
066there she is I was I don't know if anyone else was him but I was you're welome just waiting for Lynn to come back will you count it down or should we just begin media are you all set Aaron okay we go in 5 4 3 2 1 Welcome Back everybody we will resume with agenda item 7.01 information and discussion item introduction and possible discussion of policies DB gbb a ibab and IBD Maria Murphy director of policy and government relations good evening uh board member kifil members of the board superintendent rikan assistant superintendent staff and members of the public you have before you the red lines for the um above mentioned policies they were posted to the public we have not received any um questions or uh public comment and at this time I would
067just like to make myself available for any questions or discussion that you may have three um this is 2K I'm just wondering with uh DB um does that just the changes just indicate the governance of the agency more accurately uh yes that is correct and that is in response to one of the um uh findings from the office of the auditor General's report and then gbba is that a brand new policy uh yes um yes it [Music] is I'm going to follow up with ibab um is that in regards to the finding that we received uh that is actually not in response to the finding that we received and um uh in consultation with our Council and with superintendent rikman uh We've determined that that policy is going to need a little bit more attention
068and a little bit more work so um we had this discussion after the uh policies were already posted excuse me Suk can you please repeat which policy you were just talking about yes that would have been um IB a so we'll see another um draft of this we we may be seeing another draft okay no decision has been made at this time and then I'm just assuming that this is an updated ihbd so uh yes um board member kifil um ihbd actually was a part of the asdb policy manual prior to um the decision that ad made uh regarding us being an institution and when we became an institution it was not appropriate for us to have this policy in our manual anymore so it was removed but now that we are a local educational
069agency again it's appropriate to place this back into the policy manual so that's why that is here excellent thank you you're welcome any other questions for Maria this is Linda just give me a moment I'd like to look back I would like to mention gbba have we talked about that already I'm a little bit behind we we kind of looked at it it's a brand new policy if you have questions or comments please go ahead now I do have a question first of all I would like to say thank you to the committee that worked so hard on this policy I know that it is a brand new policy regarding access to communication and I read through it and I found it very impressive there were a couple of things that I'm curious about but
070I think since this is a first read for us I would just like to say thank you to the people that were on that committee and I applaud your work I would like to ask superintendent reikan a question about the new person who was just hired Dr B I'm so sorry I'm bad with names who is going to be the new uh ASL administrator um that individual I believe is going to start with the agency in January 2024 is that correct superintendent rikman would you please give us that name I'm bad with names Dr Mara Boaz b o e z I believe the last name is um the first name is es first name is Mara I believe Mara yes that is correct I did remember her first name so I is it correct that
071she's a new member of the agency to be starting in January of 2024 I would like if possible to have her um review that policy I would like to have her eyes on it um and see what questions or comments she might have about it does that make sense sure that is possible that is something we could do that would then mean this would be postponed from uh to discuss this not in January but in March for a final approval correct I would like to see that happen I would like to know what her feedback will be and that might help us to um fine-tune it and make sure that um we are all uh happy with any revisions that need to be made Etc before it's approved so that was what I wanted to
072get at um I guess that was the point of my question so uh that's a fair point okay um so do I need to do anything more then Su not at the moment nope not at the moment if there uh this is commissioner Seno I have this is Orin uh Mike has confirmed for me that um Mara britz if I'm saying that correctly has seen it and has been involved so that's already uh taken place oh that's great I wasn't aware of that that's wonderful thank you for sharing that very good thank you ktie had a comment well I guess Orin actually answered my question I was planning to ask after it was reviewed could I could I borrow that paper let's see I thought everything looked good but there was one thing that gave
073me a little bit of pause I was taken aback by this one piece that uses the term um Sim simcom or simultaneous communication um that threw me off a little bit I'm I went to a school for the deaf and I graduated from gadet and we we were very L ASL Centric school so I was planning to ask if you had already received feedback from deaf staff regarding this piece uh I'm wondering I was wondering just about what the the that perspective was on this piece this is Linda I had a similar question to what Katie said um because simultaneous communication is a is a thing of the past um there is research to indicate that it is not effective um one language or the other will suffer when simultaneous communication is used so I
074was surprised to see it there and to reinforce what Linda was saying simcom or total communication is is a tool Pardon The Interpreter it is a tool it is not a language it's code switching sometimes is necessary when you're signing more than speaking or some people will speak more than they're signing um but either way that will impact the deaf and heart of hearing DEA or heart of hearing students um acquisition of a full language and their access to information so for example when uh when we graduated from the school for the de the model did focus on total communication which is simcom and for some students it was fine but it didn't succeed for other students and those of us who it did work for were lucky um when we went to galet and
075were immersed in a full language and culture um that brought us to where we are today so it's very important to just be mindful of that I would like to see uh DEA and heart of hearing staff staring sharing their perspective Ives on that piece and this is Linda um with that in mind I do have a suggestion that we hold this um to find out why that component simultaneous communication is in this policy yes I I I'm happy to answer that question um so simultaneous communication is there as part of a definition for people to understand people who are not ASL fluent to understand what simultaneous communication is and then also in their it is noted that if a person is not if a staff member is not fluent in sign language you should
076always try to get an interpreter however sometimes there may be occasional times when an interpreter might not be available and so simcom might be an option but it does specifically state in the policy that it's only supposed to be used as a last resort in an unplanned spontaneous and momentary communication so it is not to become the default it's only supposed to be spontaneous and momentary and only when there are no other options that are available Maria can I I I've had a conversation with Maria about this I asked very similar questions um and I think where we what we need to look at this as this is really talking about making sure that there is equivalent access to everything that's going on on campus so again if someone is um needing to have a
077private conversation instead of putting down their hands and starting to speak they need to move to another room and be in private to have that conversation um there we want to make sure that Def and hearing kids on campuses or wherever the asdb staff are have the same access to what is going on around them um as a hearing student in their classroom always would have so if there are two teachers talking and walking down a hallway in a general education school that other people can overhear that that access needs to be afforded to the de and heart of hearing kids so I think that is the intent from my understanding of the policy in general um I don't think and maybe some of the Committee Member could speak to this as well I don't
078think the intent is to rely on um simultaneous communication because again as Katie said it is not a language um so but maybe some of the committee might want to Maria before we move forward uh Maria I but thank you I just want to say that you did a great job writing this it's beautiful it's beautiful work you all did great um there is just one line that might be considered revising where it says it's number one here at the bottom it says asdb is committed to American Sign Language ASL and English access for sta ASL and English are recognized as two distinct languages in their own right with equal respect and simultaneous communication or simcon is generally [Music] non is a communication strategy for non- ASL fluent individuals and I think that phrasing is
079a little bit um it doesn't work I think it's a bit misleading to say if an interpreter is not available or if in Arizona and also nationally we're experiencing an interpreter shortage so um it's not fair to student students to say there's not an interpreter available how are the students going to get access to information if there is not an interpreter available um to resort to say resorting to simcom as a last resort might be impacting students ability to learn so that's just one thing I wanted to bring to your attention that last statement all over all reading the entire policy it's wonderful you've created um you've covered all of the bases simcom communication everything it's just that one phrasing that bothers me but other than that it's beautiful work thank you um board member
080seeno and what I was trying to get across in the policy is to state that simcom is a nonpreferred communication approach it's not something that we should be using on a regular basis because there are difficulties in trying to do both at the same time and and that's what I was trying to get across and that's why I was saying here are all of the other Alternatives um you always want to try to get an interpreter if an interpreter is not available you Sim come only in the moment in passing as a last resort um because ASL or English is these These are the preferred communication modalities and maybe I didn't Express that well I understand did did the did the committee I appreciate that effort thank you Maria did either of the committee members
081want to add to that please yes I would like to hear from them particularly de um me committee members the def individual please yes this is mik olier thank you everyone and good afternoon I would like to clarify a little bit of background again my name is Mike Olivier this is how you signed my name I the director of OD for ASB and am one of the leads for this particular Committee in creating this policy it has been a 2-year process we um have we already have a policy for instruction ibaa and that was a good starting place but we did not have a policy for staff in general and so we worked very hard over a long period of time and um I'm glad that you brought this up and I'm happy for your
082feedback the committee did talk quite a bit about simcom it was a really hot topic and KN knowing that we needed to address it and figuring out how particularly on our two site-based uh programs our two campuses so with that policy in place we were trying to reframe communication when communication breaks down is simcom acceptable or should we just never ever use it um once that policy is set we are hoping that we will also be able to add some exhibits and scenarios so if an individual you approach someone who doesn't know sign language what do you do um do you speak first to your hearing colleague and sign second to your de colleague or vice versa um once that policy is set we will I'm sure discover some scenarios that are challenging um bottom
083line is that we want to create and establish this policy to enhance communication access on our campuses in order to ensure that all of our staff and particularly students especially those who are learning ASL have full access access wherever they go within our agency um and having that in place is a good reminder for those of us who work here every day I hope that that um brings some clarity yes the simcom issue again was a big one and we did want to indicate that it is not preferred but in some cases we have to think about what our daily communication looks like around campus and around deaf uh communities in general thank you Michael yes thank you any other questions or comments thank you Maria oh go ahead I would just like to make
084the comment um and to acknowledge the ASB language policy committee who did so much research and worked so hard on this and they were just a pleasure to work with and we didn't always agree at times we had some respectful disagreements but we went back and forth and I think that we figured out what the what the good balance is um in terms of ensuring access for all of our ASB employees and our whole community so I would just like to take this opportunity to publicly acknowledge all of their hardwork and to thank them thank you okay okay moving on to 7.03 discussion and action items set the calendar for the 2024 regular board meetings and possible work study sessions give you guys a minute to take a look at this this is Linda so
085we're looking at this is excuse me sorry this is Linda speaking uh looking at January 11th 2024 in Tucson I know that we do make that trip to Tucson um but January is the darkest time of the year and some of us don't want to drive back when it's that dark I personally don't drive at night um and so I was hoping that maybe we could flip those and have March 7th in Tucson rather than um the January so in in springtime it's a little bit lighter outside makes that drive a little bit easier and I feel a little bit safer doing that um or unless I can find someone to carpool with and force my husband to come down with me things like that you know what I mean I'm going to defer to
086an net on this I believe there was a scheduling conflict um in one of our buildings oh okay you are correct March 7th at Tucson's bpack um they are already reserved oh I see so part of that scheduling was figuring out here in Phoenix and in Tucson when we could have March or May March and May in bpac is not available which means for 2025 we're already booking up for March and May in the bpack as well and so we need to start scheduling it seems a year and a half in advance for those meetings instead of coming closer to it in January we have the wsbc tournament which will be happening in Tucson and so that would coincide with that third week we will be doing some live streaming of that event which means
087that all of our equipment will already be on the Tucson campus our media department has asked that the 11 be in Tucson for that reason so that they can establish the live streaming equipment there and then the following week we could easily live stream the wsbc competition thank you okay thank you for that explanation any other concerns otherwise I would entertain a motion to approve the proposed calendar this is Lynn I move that we accept the proposed calendar this is Katie I second all those in favor say I I I I I opposed hearing none motion carries moving on to 7.04 discussion and action item election of 2024 board officers this is Linda I would like to make a motion to um retain Su as president and uh Britney sorry Britney Britney as secretary for
088uh the 2024 uh year I will assume that's a nomination and I will accept I will also assume that's a nomination and I will also accept Okay I second second the motion all right all those in favor say I I I I all those oppose hearing none I think we retain the board as is okay mve moving on to 8.01 call to the public for any non-agenda items we have not received anything so moving on to 8.02 discussion and possible action items for the next regular board meeting um I just want to mention that as as superintendent rikman mentioned we did meet with um some current staff who are part of the Education Association um and I would like us to continue those meetings until um continue acting on those that initial meeting and continue
089our fact finding um so that we can move forward and bring that to the board meeting at some point in the next um calendar year um so that I kind of just would like to sort of be there until we receive the information and can move forward anybody else have any agenda item items you can always reach out to me and or um executive team here um at asdb um before the next meeting otherwise we will move on to 9.01 action item adjournment I move that we adjourn this meeting this is Katie I second all those in favor say I I I I I opposed hearing none the meeting is now adjourned at 6:18 p.m.