ASDB Board Meeting (09/07/2023)

001I okay we will be starting in 5 4 3 2 good afternoon um it is now 4:02 and I'm going to call to order the asdb board meeting and can we go ahead with roll call Mike Gordon present Lynn Davidson pres Linda B not here Z kifil present Colette chman Chapman present yeah Katherine sinko present um oh Britney banan I'm present I think that's it two VES and two vacancies okay um agenda item 1.02 information item presentation a focus on accessibility in the master facility plan Albert Duff director of operations thank you board president kifil um and members of the ASB board as well as uh superintendent rikman and assistant superintendent Cooper and uh catch off I'd like to go ahead and present uh to you some information on the master facility plan and I

002think we have a presentation that can be loaded up uh if you could do that for me now please um so actually we could go to the next slide please I'm actually recovering from a cold so if I sound a bit off or need to clear my throat my apologies uh um so first thing that I wanted to cover because I know we've gone over this many times but I just wanted to make sure that we notate kind of the five main goals of the master facility plan the first one we've addressed in many meetings beforehand which is addressing our Antiquated buildings um so many of these buildings let me adjust this many of these buildings uh are reaching the end of their useful life the amount of maintenance cost as well as utility cost

003to keep them up and running is quite expensive whenever you consider our overall popul base the next it item which is kind of the focus for today or part of the focus is improve accessibility um these buildings were not designed with today's technology nor the need of what our students truly require for their education purposes um the other aspect of it as we move into the next goal would be improved spatialization which would be actually mostly for the Tucson campus which is actually reducing from 326,000 Ft down to approximately 180,000 sare ft we'll review a little bit more of that as we go through the presentation uh and you can see how we'll actually separate the campus out and some of the very critical decisions that the board will have uh moving forward um fourth

004one is energy conser conservation and ongoing maintenance energy conservation is actually uh not just a goal for us but it's a goal for uh Governor Hobbs uh who was just recently elected to try to reduce our water usage across the state as well as improve our energy utilization so this is things such as renewable energies as well as water reduction and then finally um and this is not in any particular order all of these are primary is also the creation of new programs to ensure that we have 22nd century kind of thought process of what we're delivering to our students that we are making sure that we have up-to-date CTE programs up-to-date science labs those kinds of programmatic aspects are included into our uh m facility plan and that we're not uh neglecting those as

005part of our goals uh next slide please this is the Phoenix campus of a general highlevel layout of what would be intended to um be accomplished this one's pretty clearcut there's no major changes to the footprint of the campus um but it is somewhat of the order that we would like to achieve I would like to note that this is in cooperation with l architecture and some of their recommendations on the best utilization of our campuses and also looking at programmatically what would work to shift things around and construction timelines so when we look at this there's been a few hands in the pot this hasn't been just my soul creation um so we definitely relied on subject matter experts to give that information of what they think would be best uh also looking at

006the fact of uh brought up in previous meetings of do we just buy new do we just build new new versus renovating what we have most of these buildings are either solid block construction uh have solid foundations the bones are good it's the rest of what I would call the arteries the hearts the uh the kidneys that need to be replaced out um but the bones are good on all of these buildings um and we've been able to keep those uh up and running with building renewal funds so there isn't any major concern with the actual structural Integrity of the buildings it's those internal components and kind of updating to meet the other five goals that we talked about just at the last slide so we'll move forward um I do encourage anybody that's watching

007online or here in the me uh the meeting today is If you go to board docs you can actually see this full presentation I highly encourage you to go ahead and find this look at this information uh and be able to kind of digest it in whole um so we're going to go ahead and go to the next slide to kind of look over what is the step process here for the Phoenix campus we are looking at doing this in a three fiscal year that doesn't mean construction would be done in three years this means that we would start fiscal preparations every year for the next three years construction on each one of these could last between 3 to four years so essentially what you're really looking at here is a 10-year plan with a

008three-year uh process or plan for each individual building uh the first and the only new construction that we would have within this plan is actually a new birth 5 center for the Phoenix campus the M building is a modular building on the Phoenix campus does not meet the needs for the education of our students in the Phoenix campus it's definitely Antiquated and would need to be replaced and the tctc building uh was also a modular building those are the I'd say the only two that don't have good bones uh so those are the two buildings that would be demolished and we would make way for a new larger facility that would accommodate also different kinds of disabilities to ensure that we have a full range of services in that partnership that we have elsewhere throughout

009the Phoenix metropolitan area um moving on from there the S Building is already vacant and we already have plans done this would become a new de Center um or a de Program Center building so um essentially where most of our educational as well as staff interpreters would reside as well as uh the de Mentor program within the Phoenix region would have centralized office there uh P building renovation that was designed originally as a vocational building we'd want to update that to a new CTE building uh so lots of new programs that could be housed inside of there yet to be determined uh but definitely gives us more of a opportunity to grow in those uh those areas of programmatic aspects uh the track and field currently if you've ever been on the Phoenix campus does

010not complete a circle so I don't know how we call it a track but it's it's kind of a a U-shaped that dead ends into a parking lot so we plan to address that by actually creating a four-lane track with a shot put with high jump with all of the athletic aspects that would be required to keep make sure that we meet healthy bodies healthy Minds within our students so this is where we're able to uh facilitate that it would not be AIA compliant doesn't have the room for that so we wouldn't be able to host track meets there isn't the room to do that when you overlay a AIA track we would have to demo the entire campus it would take over every building on there their their much larger in capacity than what

011you think for that full eight Lane track and everything that's needed but this would be a very solid practice field that our students could practice on then be able to go to AIA size tracks to be able to compete and not be behind their peers because right now they don't even have a full track to play on um in addition the track that's there now is not even lined it's just an asphalt kind of Road it was put in after the fact um during construction it was just something they had a little bit of extra Road material so they poured it into a track uh so this was something that was not student focused in the past that we would hope to rectify um next slide please ebuilding renovation so this is actually just more

012of an uplift uh making sure also that we have opportunities for uh flexible classroom space flexible office space as well as a student recre uh Recreation Center a lot of that's already in there but we would just be refreshing that building Northwest building uh would just receive a refreshing of that building once again giving it a kidney transplant um an L building renovation uh we've already done half of that building the other half we would go ahead and complete which would be the it section uh of that building and then uh we would also look at doing a transportation renovation in FY 26 or the proposal for FY 26 uh that would allow us to go ahead and actually put in um a renovation of true offices for all of our payroll staff and transportation

013staff if you go in there now it's there's a lot of cubicles that are not very conducive to private working environment that is critical as we work with student confidentiality so we'd be hoping to address that in that uh renovation next slide please W building renovation um this is very similar giving it a facelift I'm going to move through a little quickly here on this section cafeteria would be a facelift just general renovation maintenance and Warehouse there's currently not a warehouse on the campus so what we would be looking at doing here would be actually uh building a warehouse into the the actual maintenance section of that building um Spa would receive a renovation uh and building similar renovation and eventually middle school high school building that's the newest building on that campus would receive

014a renovation um so that's it for the Phoenix campus as you can see it's pretty straightforward and clean cut it's mostly Renovations nothing too controversial next slide please oh go ahead S I do have a question quickly um for the demolition of the M building and the TC TC preschool um where would those be relocated during that Demolition and so the new building it would be a single building to replace two so it actually we would demo tctc put it in the place where tctc is at and a portion of the playground then after that is completed we would go ahead and demo the M building and build a new playground gotcha so the office staff that will be in tctc could be relocated either to work from home work out of one of our

015Regional Offices there's opportunities to be able to flex those spaces gotcha okay thank you no problem um and we can go ahead and move back to the presentation for the Tucson campus so the Tucson campus is where we're going to have the reduction in space as we know this is 326,000 ft and moving it down to 180,000 ft would be comparable in size to the Phoenix campus so you're essentially mirroring what the Phoenix campus has um working with the architectural and engineering firm they had made the recommendation of utilizing the east side of our campus as the primary section of our campus mostly because of the high cost of rebuilding a gymnasium as well as food service buildings would be cost prohibitive in comparison to just renovating them and so being able to utilize those

016buildings as is or refreshed shall I say gives us a lot more opportunity to save cost rather than doing it on the west side of the campus so this would then uh leave the west side of the campus open for a potential sale or repurpose uh this is something that will be uh up to the board to decide um as far as the process of being able to do that we'll get into that in a little bit later but I do want to go through how we'll be able able to move all of our students onto one side of the campus and generally what that will look like I do want to emphasize though that there is a lot of room for flexibility of what a building would be intended for whereas Phoenix was a

017little bit more set in stone this one is definitely more malleable of we could alter the plant uh next slide please so Kachina uh in order to move everyone onto that side of the campus we need to be able to move building by building that's there over into something else so we would start with the Kachina building that was originally the elementary school building it's I would say mostly vacant we do have a couple of offices that are utilized in there um but it's Antiquated definitely needs a refresh we would change that into our business services uh building uh an IT building which currently is in the Apache dormatory so we would completely renovate that and be able to move this those staff in there uh the a that would leave our Apache dormatory open

018which then would be able to be renovated into an education building the overall design and footprint of it would actually work really well as an education building especially if you changed out some windows and did some uh major cosmetic changes to the design of the outside of the building as well as the inside but the square footage of it could either work as our high school or our elementary school um we have it here notated that it would be our elementary school but that could be changed if needed uh moving forward we'd be able to go ahead and take a look at our uh consolidating all of our dormatory aspects into one building the largest of the dormitories that currently exist is the pador that one's 14,000 square ft give or take and we would

019be able to separate that building into essentially four sections it's already split into three currently so we would have to just split the center section into a four uh double section that way we could have uh a blending of of different aspects but we'd be able to separate uh genders we'd be able bble to separate um uh as well as different disabilities and needs um so that would be how we would be able to make that work there's also a beautiful section in the back that could work very well for Courtyard and play area for students in that area to kind of keep it more manageable with labor as well um moving forward next slide please this then uh allows us to also um Remodel and change the the purpose of the too building this

020building could then become our blind programs just as Phoenix had the de programs tucon would have blind programs there uh this would house um also uh probably our Region 3 staff we'd have to work this in see what this looks like we might have to see what this will be but the hope would be and with the square footage be Region 3 staff for Tucson as well as the blind programs an AP program so all of that would be able to exist out of OKO giving them a solid home it's centrally located in the back of of the campus kind of in the center back right now it's really convenient for an AP aspect to be able to ship material in and out as a loading zone for those uh those areas that's why that

021building was particularly chosen um mechanic shop driveway this is just something that in the back area there that has been requested by ADOT who we partner with uh we would actually uh build in a new driveway for for our shop and our buses uh yua Soro dorm conversion this would be uh this one still needs some reworking but this would become our birth to five Center just kind of mirroring the design of of what would be in Phoenix in Tucson the backside of the campus would have a birth to five Center that would have its own loading and drop off zone so Phoenix and Tucson would mirror in their programmatic uh physical components uh we would have to build a new bus lot so there's a section for the new bus lot and then the

022elementary building conversion into middle school high school or it could stay as it currently is with Elementary Middle um and then we could build the high school out of Apache so there's still some room there of what we would do um as we work through this master facility process uh let's see uh next slide please uh gym renovation this would allow us to have multiple purposes uh as well as being able to renovate the gym as a whole maintenance and transportation I would consolidate all of my staff into the maintenance building for maintenance and Transportation uh we would end up having to build a new fence line uh going on number four C te OT PT Student Health Center would remain essentially the same but we'd be able to expand the CTE program we could

023possibly put the science lab in that location uh we could also put the science lab in a few other locations as well as we just built one uh and it's a beautiful science lab but we'd be able to repurpose all of that equipment all of it is able to come right out of there be moved into a new section if needed so there's still some room there um as we work through this process Food Service could also house a library it's large enough um so we could end up consolidating a library uh so far in our survey of this library is much needed and heavily used so it's definitely something that we want to have a dedicated home for the library that is fresh and purpose built for our students uh Administration and administration Annex

024Building are very last on the list I like to put our admin Folks at the bottom of the barrel um anyone will tell you that that if uh you come to me and you say you want the the nicest car and you're the admin I'll give you an Impala um so I I I'm not always nice about that um next slide please uh next item is energy and utility conservation benefits um so obviously we would be planning for Zero Escape or very low water usage uh in order to meet the governor's um uh goals and try to support her goals as we move through this process um and then we would end up also looking at having uh an evaluation of our HVAC systems uh lowf flow water fixtures uh installation of new updated Energy

025Management Systems which we may actually already be getting from the state of Arizona so there's some items here that are already coming into play uh and then we'd want to obviously maximize solar panels where we could um and that's kind of an interesting one either over covered parking or even creating breezeways and walkways of shade as we know our omm students spend a lot of time outside and going around in the sun is not ideal but building walkways that would be able to provide shade for that accessibility of uh and use that shade to generate energy is something that we would try to accomplish so there's a lot of work to do in there as well uh and then just Naturally by reducing the campus in half on the Tucson campus you'll have energy uh

026and conservation benefits from that as well uh next slide please uh the primary focus for today is is the accessibility um so we did get the accessibility uh report from the accessibility committee these are a few highlevel notations that were notated in that report that was given over to me uh this is obviously given over to our architectural engineering firm as well there's a lot more work to be done in this area take a breath okay give them guys I can I can go I'm sorry slow down a little bit um sorry about that uh even sick I can move faster than most people um so looking at the door access and egress um this is one area that we would definitely want to have uh a high level of focus as if you walk

027arus on campus it is a nightmare for anyone in the vi Community um and it is not friendly so we would definitely want to be able to make that a high priority as we focus of any outdoor area that it is accessible to anyone in a wheelchair anyone in a non-motorized wheelchair motorized wheelchair VI as well as our deaf uh individuals and how they communicate and walk and have to be able to have focus on two areas at one time so it is a complex aspect there uh there is a lot of ADA law and Rule but that doesn't always translate into best practice and so this is where some research will have to be done of bringing in the members from our deaa and blind community and asking them Point Blank does this design

028work for you and what do we need to change and so that's where we'll have a lot of partnership and collaboration whenever it comes to Ada accessibility that rolls into way points and signage so I am a cited and hearing person and I get lost in my campuses where is room 302 I can't tell you um so so I don't know who did the design for the the numbers or how that was worked out as well as way points and signage and where you're able to find where you need to go but it is not friendly um I don't know if it was done on purpose it almost feels that way uh so we definitely want to change that and that is something that is actually in the architectural and Engineering plan specifically spelled out

029to be able to hyper focus on how that Waypoint and signage will work uh improv sound system in key areas that meet the needs of our population so this is many aspects but in key areas such as the uh Spa which is the sports and Performing Art Center really hope we can change the name of that one day um as I think it it deserves a better name um there's uh the playgrounds which a lot of our students are Mobility challenged um anyone that works in the the playground field will tell you that the wood chips are accessible they are not and I can see uh board member Buchanan who's had experience with these wood chips that are supposedly wheelchair accessible they're not U so por and play is a great option Po and play

030is very expensive and so this is one of those things where it's definitely a priority for us but it's also something that we'll have to make sure is in there as the dollar value that it truly is accessible for those students on the playground we have our little ones in preschool five out of the kids can go play that sixth one can't and that's not fair nor is it okay and so hopefully with por and play surfacing we'll be able to address that so that's one of the major aspects um ADA Compliant seating for all types of bodies we're not all built the same so we need to make sure that as we build our spaces and where we're at we're actually have seating that accommodates different kinds of bodies and different kinds of Mobility

031tools for them to be able to work in um and then this is just the beginning we have had some initial designs that have come out from the Texas school from the deaf when they did their Master facility planning for design for Deaf individuals and how their best uh design criteria is I've taken that information and given it over to the accessibility committee to review to ensure that it's still relevant as well as some best practices on the vi side of what works for design criteria so we can build that into the master facility plan that way we can move that information into the design actual aspects when we're doing each individual floor plan uh next slide please so next steps uh we have a stakeholder survey up uh superintendent rikman announced that I would

032say about 10 days ago maybe less we already have over 90 responses um I really hope anyone listening here today please go to as. a.gov log on to the website you will see stakeholder survey for master facility plan please take that survey the information you provide there will give us Insight not necessarily of design criteria yet uh we'll get to there in the next step which is the open house but it will give us some good information on what is important for us to consider as we move forward these questions were taken from other Master facility planning processes so that way we can mirror that process that we've seen at other schools um go ahead is that something you could share with um like one of our stakeholders like acdhh to put in their e

033newsletter to go absolutely awesome absolutely and um letia I'm sure we could get together and develop a list of other stakeholders and be able to put that together so I'll work with letis on that one and we'll make sure that we send out an email of let's get as much information as we can uh it's designed to be able to work towards uh you to left a category if you're a student a parent a teacher and other and so that way we can go ahead and tailor those questions because questions for a student are very different for what they want out of their campus than say a teacher um so those are tailored to each one of those demographics to ensure that we captured that information um openhouse and initial review of the plans so

034between now and November December more than likely December we will be working with the architectural and engineering firm they will come up with essentially floor plans of each one of these buildings now they're going off the information that we've given them on demographic information intended purpose it is a rough draft and we will be hosting those the internal idea is is a massive cardboard display of the the building as well as a Braille version of it sitting right next to it you'll be able to go through the galley way at your own pace so that way it's not for forc and then at the end of that galy way you'll have the opportunity to be able to sit in front of a camera and be able to sign if that's your primary language or if

035you would like to speak uh if you feel that passionate as well as take just a regular written survey if that's what you feel is best for you so we have that accommodation for all of our our stakeholders we'll be able to walk through the Phoenix campus be able to walk through Tucson campus provide that feedback that will be captured given back to the architectural engineering firm doesn't mean that every opinion will be worked into it but it definitely will allow us to gather that information collect it and document it uh and then they'll be able to revise that information over the months of January through May um we do currently have right now the appraisal of surplus land but we're having that appraisal evaluated by our brokerage firm the appraised value of the land

036does not mean that's what it could actually sell for that's just what it's worth as class or as a comparison to the sale of other schools but as we know it may not be sold for the intended purpose of being a school so jll who is the state brokerage firm is evaluating that information and we hope to have that back in October so that way we know the actual value of what we think we could get for that land if the intended purpose was to sell uh I would like to note you won't be able to sell that land until after the construction of all those other buildings or Renovations are completed so we need upfront money which is what we're currently working on with decision packages that have moved forward we've also worked with

037the capital Improvement plan process as well as I think we're also running a bill in order to support this so there's a lot of work that we're trying to do in order to get this funding um all of this also was presented to jlbc and OPB in the capital Improvement plan and they notated the amount of work and effort that we've put towards this and are advocating for it um once that is done uh the master facility facility plan or sorry number four board discussion and action item of approval revise building layouts November through January hopefully January you know we'll be able to get together have those final layout plans you'll be able to see those I can come to you answer any questions you have about those plans and then once that is solidified

038then we can start building the final document with the rest of the information uh there's a lot of other aspects that we' already notated like way point finding that would be in that document um and then we'll work on that through December through May a finalized plan hopefully June 30th and then uh per board policy and implementation every year so you can hold me accountable of where are you at Albert what have you done and what are you doing next so with that um board president kif I know I speak really fast so any questions and I will try to slow down I I do have questions so so what I'm hearing is um we will have to make a decision on moving forward with the building um layout and Renovations hopefully by um October

039with monies based on the current budget submission okay um and then the idea of possibly selling off land would not happen until after the new building renovation and all of that is completed correct am I understanding that correctly potentially potentially okay so if that were to occur we would make sure that we would have something similar to these open houses that you're doing with the the revisions um to make sure that there was some kind of stakeholder involvement and feedback before anything would be decided uh we can accomplish that in two ways one way is that we could set up a separate town hall or I can make that a focus of this town hall now and I think that can be discussed within the executive team I don't think that has to be our

040decision but I do think it's important that we get some feedback from our stakeholders on that I I don't want that decision to be made um without some input from them my intent was to actually include that in this um this one but it if we wanted to separate it we could but my intent would to be to here's the whole plan tell us what you think tell us what you like and don't like I just want to make sure that we do get feedback on that specifically I don't want them to feel that we are doing this without having their input in this correct and the the reason I say depends about whether or not you'd have to make a decision on selling uh or potentially selling off a portion of the campus or

041not is that uh if the um legislature came back and said yes we will give you X number of dollars to facilitate this plan but only if this is part of the deal kind of it could force that decision a little quicker okay and that's something that um is outside of my control sure um I would like to see those as two board decisions then come to us as two requests absolutely that was all of my questions does anybody else have questions yeah I do um thank you Albert uh looking at the uh the map for Tucson it looks like the parcel for sale is tell me if this is I'm interpreting is correctly 12.6 Acres correct and what is the total acreage of the Tucson campus the total acreage of the Tucson campus that

042we own is 64 Aces ACR now what you see here in this map is not everything we own on this property there is roughly another six to seven acres up to the northwest of our campus that we use right here as our overflow lot for the burger Performing Art Center for individuals to park and then we lease out the remaining land that runs along the Santa Cruz River and goes to the northeast of us is actually least to the city of tucon and is currently a park oh okay where the FR frisbee uh courses correct and that one is I believe it's a 20 or 25 year lease that we have for a dollar and the agreement is is that they have a park maintain it take care of everything for us and then we

043um uh we don't have to worry about maintaining that section of that property uh so that lease uh was just renewed I think about 2 to 3 years ago so it takes some time to be able to cancel that lease if that was something that was desired um but uh overall we sit right on about 30 35 acres worth of land where our primary function is so sorry if this seems even redundant because you've mentioned this um 30 what 20,000 Square fet reduced to 180 MH it's about a 40% reduction 12 acres for sale where where is the rest of that reduction where're I mean it looks like the the infrastructure remains somewhat the same so I mean how where do where is that additional uh consolidation coming from well the the buildings that sit

044on that 12.6 Acres I know it's a little yellowed out but that is that consolidation there so what we would be consolidating in that area would be um let me see if I have that full list in front of me um um we have the Clifford building which is currently the preschool and and uh birth to five Center we have the Clifford uh oh sorry the high school building that is 21,000 Square ft that would be part of that sale we have uh the old vocational building the vocational Annex Building we would have the current middle well it's the current High School building that we're using it as but it's by definition the Middle School building would also be part of that sale uh Maricopa man Anita pal vocational Annex uh as well as trying

045to remember I can't see very clearly through this map oh the uh living apartments would be part of that that these are all buildings that are within that 12 12 acres correct okay um thank you uh very different question but I think worth asking is in this last uh legislative season there was a lot of contention and question about the possibility of asdv coming a multi uh disciplinary or disabled type of agency uh I know that may arise again probably with a uh with further detail and further thought out approach with all this architecture and planning going on with that possibly in the uh in the wings has that discussion come into to all the renovation and you know all the planning that I mean this is a lot of work you guys have already

046done I mean tons and tons of work and I commend you on that I mean hours and hours you know hard hard decision hard thinking to make these uh make all these pieces fit however with Senator wad sack's plan and if that's going to come back on the table uh this campus would be very different with with uh different uh student body and constituency so I'm just wondering how I you know the proverbial cart before the horse and uh and is that something that has come into discussion because that it seemingly is something that would really change business as we know it I think it absolutely would change business as we know it um and I don't know if I'm the right person to maybe comment on whether or not that's the best interest for

047ASB but I would like to know um regardless of any possible change whether it's today or 25 years from now if you look at the map just north of the athletic complex there is a red dotted line that says future expansion area that also could be extended to that entire field area so if the legislative body decided it would be the best interest to have asdb serve different types of students or for another purpose could be anything there is room for growth and opportunity there there's also room in growth for ASB if we offer different different programmatic options to be able to build and construct on that at a future point I truly believe that we would be able to consolidate into this space and be able to flex as needed whatever the legislative body

048decided for us Albert just kind of a followup to Mike technical if we were to sell off this parcel of land with the buildings technically that could be bought by somebody to utilize as a school correct um and we've already seen other sales of schools uh specifically to Charter Schools and private schools uh mostly in the Maricopa region thank you any other questions for Albert I have a bunch of questions no not right now no it's it's uh this is good work uh it's a little unusual to to go through this much design without determining what you're going to do with that extra land beforehand particularly just for the sake of of uh raising Capital but um but then again as a agency school/ institution it's uh I see that we do have different uh

049flexibility so thank you though this is this is really interesting and good thank you sir yeah I don't think I have a specific question but as far as like kind of pigy backing off Mike Gordon's comment I feel like part of what happened with the legislature too with that whole becoming a school with multiple disabilities or accepting multiple disabilities above and beyond what we have was partially when they looked at a lot of our financials we are spending a lot per student here on the Tucson campus and correct me if I'm wrong Albert a lot of what we're spinning per student or maybe this goes over to Sheena um is because of what we're sinking into currently a lot of our um facilities it's a portion I mean to give an example the water bill

050on this campus is $134,000 a year the electricity bill runs just about $500,000 a year so when you start to take the size of the campus and do that but with regards to the cost per student that's a very complicated aspect that obviously oversimplified yes yeah so so and and um if I may be so bold to say that um the financial decision for these students it can't just be financially based it has to be what's in the best interest of these students absolutely and we we as conversely we as stewards of taxpayer money also have to Steward that with responsibility and respect and it can be done both absolutely and so one way of doing that is to consolidate the campus into a much more reasonable size whether the sale the land is there

051or not it doesn't really not that it doesn't matter that's probably a poor choice of words but it's not a determining factor to the plan of consolidating the campus as a whole into this smaller space so we are more respectful of taxpayer dollars uh excuse me Britney uh this is Shaina I do want to add that it's not just a facilities but when they're comparing us to other traditional schools we have specialized Educational Services that we provide so that is not a good comparison so it as Albert mentioned is a complicated Factor when we're looking at the cost per student but our cost per student here on the Tucson campus is significantly different than our cost per student on our Phoenix campus correct yes and a lot of that is because of some of the

052differences for example when it comes to facilities we also have the uh the dorms the residential the dorms um program um when when looking at that as well so there are some other costs um the pbsd campus does not have that the Tucson campus does yes I didn't mean to imply that all of it is obviously our facilities but I do know that that does play when we look at yes what we're doing here what decisions that are coming down you know that we have to decide as a board um for our families that we serve our students that we serve our community that we serve here um and after coming through that spring with the legislature and everything that happened there obviously us as the board I'm I'm sure I speak for everybody we

053want to make the best decision we can for our community um and I'm sure honestly we would like to skirt around some of those issues that we did encounter with the legislature um as well as obviously giving our students out here a much more efficient campus um and serve our community and like you said the tax pairs with that so and and if I may add one other aspect as as uh superintendent assistant superintendent Cooper mentioned is um with that cost is also we have the vi component here that's a very different educational aspect than say just the def campus and those components there but also I would like to note um one of the reasons that this plan is also so imperative uh as we move forward and we move uh what may feel

054like quite quickly um is that it is part of the auditor General's findings we do need to have a robust plan for our Capital needs a way to fund it and a way to implement it and so this as we work towards that legislature of different intents um and different desires from the legislature um in four years if we do not show that we have met this and that we're making substantial progress towards it uh that is my primary concern as I look at this is how do we ensure that we have a space that is functioning well for our students for the future so they have a place that's meeting their needs I cannot tell you how many times I hear stories of a student in a general ed school getting left in the

055corner and how horrible that is whereas here they don't and um I'm proud to say that with some of the work from media we had our Capital Improvement plan meeting with the state uh osbb and jlbc we had a wonderful preview video from the seniors and I presented that video of why asdb is special and I had everyone in the room going you're really trying to pull out our heartstrings aren't you and I said oh absolutely I have every intent to pull out your heartstrings I got a phone call about two weeks later from a project manager who said apparently you made people cry and now you have millions of dollars coming your way and so we may not have all of our Capital funding guaranteed yet but we have been told that we're getting

056approximately a couple million dollars in additional building renewal funds now we'll see what actually comes through because that gets worked out over the next couple months but that includes a lot of work for hvac's carpet as well as what we're going to see in electrical components as we know is already a problem um we have a switch gear system that's on the elementary school building that if it fails it is 18 months before we have a new one and there is no building and no power so we have potentially have few million dollars to help deal with that situation as well as well as doing lighting upgrades for the spa so it is being invested into um there are people that do see the benefit of ASB I think there are more that see the

057benefit than those that don't uh and they are advocating very hard to get us the funding needed uh in order to support our students so I think this plan and our our approach is working uh and I think that as we move forward we'll be able to show that ASB is willing to do even hard things itself and as potentially selling parts of its own land to be able to do that um and so I think as we move forward with that it it shows that we're all in this together to make a good place so with that I I'll get off my my soap box but I think you hit on a very good point I think that was part of it with the legislature we have to do a better job of showing

058them why this school is different and why you know they're trying to compare apples to oranges and why why it is different why it is important and why these students need to be taught as apples and not oranges correct and I saw board membo yes hello thank you so much good uh good information first of all I would like to say that the work you have done is beautiful I do have a question I'd like to ask as well what would you say is the most challenging part of doing this project just out of curiosity from your standpoint what has been most challenging um and you're right about one thing that asdb is a very unique environment and it has a very rich history um for my understanding this land was a gift and I

059think that we should make better use of it so I I think the one thing that this is going to be be kind of a double-edged sword here the one thing that has been the most difficult is one of the things that has been the the best advocation for this process and that is the passion of asdb everyone here is passionate about this place I I don't think anyone sits up here and and does what we do here because we're just here for a paycheck I think everyone's very passionate with passion obviously comes some some heated ideas um and so we have to work col collect ly to realize that we're all on that same team that the goal is is that we're all here for those students and and that passion is something that

060I is like I said is not really the challenge to get over I'm glad we have that passion because without it we wouldn't have people advocating and champing the way that they are um but that also means that it takes extra time to go through all of those details and work with everyone in order to get that understanding um some of this was initially coming through with regards to you know potentially selling off to campus and we had leaders in our our team that were very upset um because you know I've been here 30 years how could you do this how could you make this recommendation um and I do it for the same reason that they're filling that passion I want it to be here for another 30 thank you appreciate you other comments

061or questions for albertt Leticia did we have any public comments for agendized items okay then we will move on to 1.04 information item superintendent report good afternoon president Nel members of the asdb board of directors assistant superintendent ketov assistant superintendent Cooper and the ascb community Welcome to our board meeting this afternoon I really appreciate the recent discussion that you all just had with Albert Duff it is quite an important discussion that we are currently having I wrote um a presentation talking about collaboration but I think I'm going to throw that most of it out the window this afternoon because of the recent discussion that I just heard you all have I will emphasize collaboration I will focus on that in my report but I do want to let you know that this this summer and

062fall for as DB has been the most collaborative time that I have seen since I've been superintendent I started in 2016 as superintendent and we have done a lot since then you might remember some of the work that we've done you might also remember some of the challenges we've encountered especially the co 19 pandemic um the closing of schools and then last year returning to uh quote unquote normal back to normal learning for our students and getting their lives back on track after they were so disrupted with the pandemic students didn't know how to behave in the classroom in the hallways because of the disruption they experienced over the two years so this past school year we faced many challenges for both of our campuses trying to figure out how we could provide support to

063our students for their social and emotional learning and growth and we also had some challenges and realized that we need to make changes to our leadership team last spring and summer we made those changes we added new leaders and we are moving forward and we are already seeing the impact of their leadership skills and the changes that are happening and the collaboration that's been going on throughout the agency Albert and his work with the master facilities plan really is a collaborative effort he is not doing that in a silo he is working with the AR Architecture Firm he's working with us the administrative team he just designed a survey to send out agency wide to collect feedback and we will have openhouse Town Halls at both Tucson and Phoenix to involve our stakeholders so I've

064had conversations and I will also be reaching out to you board members to let you know what is happening because we have important decisions coming towards us in the future that will impact the agency for many years to come we were just talking about the state legislature and I just want to say that Maria Murphy our director of policies and government relations for the last seven or eight years has been going to the state legislature every session she is there she is networking she's meeting with the Senators and the representatives she's talking with them about the unique situation that asdb is she's inviting them to come on campus to meet our students one of our she's one of our earliest advocates representative laer oh one of our earliest Advocates was representative Boer now he is

065Senator Boer and he became our advocate he came to pdsd campus he met with our students he himself is an educator and what he saw on our campus we had the opportunity to sit with him and talk and he saw how unique we are and how unique our students are and he became one of our biggest Champions and Maria Murphy was the reason that that happened because of her networking with the state legislature and then the last um session we did get a 4year renewal because of the connections that she has developed with the state legislatures who are willing to Advocate and go to bat for us without them we would have been stuck with a one or twoyear renewal so the collaboration that has been happening we are going to continue to work on

066we're going to continue it will not stop we are all about um strategizing for the next executive session and she is in Phoenix right now networking meeting and talking with people and getting ready for the next session so collaboration is happening and we are making the effort to look at the future to plan and to figure out how to make the best use of our resources we have amazing people here you just heard from Albert and I wish you could hear from all of our staff who are working with us because we have amazing new leaders coming into the agency taking on responsibility people like Michael [Music] Olivier who is our new director of the OD replacing assistant superintendent katov Mike is already working and networking with directors principes and figuring out professional development opportunities

067for teachers and staff and providing those opportunities to them we have the new C director Scott Madson and he is working on how to get both campuses to expand and develop better CTE programming for our students so we have a new uh special education director as well Sarah SOI and she has taken on the special education part of asdb and one of her first challenges is right here on the Tucson campus with our Student Health Center this summer some of our nurses resigned looking at other opportunities some were on leave and that meant at the beginning of the school year we had no nurses on staff and Sarah had a Mad Dash trying to figure out how we could get nurses and CNAs to cover our Student Health Center and that meant she had to

068collaborate with the Tucson campus staff she had to work with business services with HR and with a Contracting agency um the name of that I believe is Acro that agency she had to convince them to provide nurses for the Tucson campus and was successful she did that with the collaboration from all these departments and individuals so these are some of the leaders we bring are bringing into the agency internally we are also growing leaders as well as bringing external leaders in so this past summer and fall as I look out I am seeing that we are moving forward we are making progress and we are finally meeting our students needs for their social and emotional learning we are supporting them and we are implementing PBIS on both of our campuses and making it clear to

069our teachers and staff that they need to take that training they need to apply these strategies in the classroom we have clear expectations for the students in terms of their behavior and we are moving forward so there is a lot of really positive collaboration activity happening and I think I'm going to mention one more thing and then I will stop because I could keep going on I do apologize for those whose eyes are glazing over but I did mention uh this summer in July Dr Jennifer Scarboro hosted a 3-day interpreter Summit and I went the f first morning and there were 80 interpreters in the room from all over the State of Arizona and it was the first time that they had gathered in one room in 17 years so that was about 10 years

070before my time and the energy and excitement in that room was palpable the practice they provided for those interpreters for our educational interpreters about their roles and responsibil abilities about the cultural and linguistic needs that they needed to provide for their students and the students out in the public schools those that three-day Summit we could tell the interpreters we're so excited and also exhausted after that but they are going to host a summit again next year they've already been getting requests for that and we have other groups who are planning Summits as well so we really are uh we did start this school year in a way that we have not been able to do for a long time there are a lot of really good things happening here the last two board meetings I

071talked with you all about accountability I talked about how you know we are doing what we are supposed to be doing and now I'm talking about collaboration we working on act our operating principles and I really do believe that so this collaboration does depend on trust and relationships without trust and relationships we cannot collaborate and we are collaborating and I wish I could keep on with my list of more examples um but if you do want more I'm happy to provide that uh I'm sure the two assistant superintendant will also give more examples in their reports as well thank you thank you and I do have a couple of just a followup um I want to say thank you because I do appreciate the board updates that you provide for us um that has been

072very helpful um and I I just want to say keep them coming cuz that's been I think really good information for us and and I feel um that kind of keeps us connected between our meetings and our work studies and I really have liked um the videos that we receive when new staff are hired that kind of introduces us to staff um that's been a great way to at least have a name and a face and a little bit of background of who they've been who they are and where they're coming from that's I've really enjoyed that and this is kind of to Albert and you but when the open houses um happen I'd really like to make sure that the board is invited to those so that we can see those um plans as

073well I think that would be really great and that was all I wanted to just add does anybody else have questions or comments for Anette okay moving on to 1.05 um assister assistant superintendent um catch up all right excuse me good afternoon uh board president kifil members of the board superintendent rikman assistant superintendent Cooper and the asdb community for my report first I would like to thank Dr Kendra Benedict and our ELP team and teachers for putting together a phenomenal conference in Flag Staff superintendent rikman and I joined them on August 17th as the ELP was working on a mission statement it was amazing to see how many veteran asdb staff have settled in with newer staff within the the ELP and I want to commend Kendra and her leaders in creating a wonderful culture

074and Community within the ELP which is easier said than done cu the majority of that staff is spread out across the State of Arizona also the ELP does have now has an assistant director Michelle Ahern who's a veteran here at asdb so welcome to the team Michelle uh as promised as an addendum to the board report uh you do have our 90-day plans this is something we're going to continue to focus on and we'll continue to make these transparent as they're updated these won't be used for anything punitive but it is a way to keep everybody focused as we move through the year at this point the school year is about one8 of the way completed which is scary uh but it it proves why we need these 90day plans time is moving no matter

075if we want to be proactive or if we want to be reactive we need to remember that every year matters to our students our families and our staff so we need to have a plan and make sure we're doing what we're planned on doing as mentioned we are about 1/8 way through the school year uh both campuses and our itin programs do continue to have Staffing shortages I want to publicly thank the principes and directors as well as their teachers and staff for being creative and working together uh to make sure that we continue to provide a quality education to our students while we deal with these Staffing shortages superintendent rikan mentioned PBIS it was really fun at the beginning of the school year to walk around pdsd and see all the teachers practicing PBIS

076and routines be it if it was in the high school the middle school I ran across campus in record-breaking heat because I wanted to see is it also happening in the elementary school and it was um again easier when you look at it it it looks easy but the the amount of work that their team did and putting together the lesson plans and making sure that everybody was doing it out of the gate was impressive we start the PBIS Grant on on Monday with the Tucson campus uh and that's a three-year Grant pdsd is currently in year two of that Grant on August 16th we had our first curriculum and instructional uh our first curric curriculum and instruction leadership meeting so that included the principls the regional directors our sped director the CTE director director

077of De program director of blind programs and the OD director uh superintendent rikman mentioned that we have a great team and we do I think I did the least talking and presenting at that meeting it was wonderful to see just naturally how everybody started collaborating and coming up with ideas to make the agency better uh there's a gentleman named Edward demings who's kind of known as the master of continual Improvement of quality and one of his quotes is the greatest waste in America is the failure to use the abilities of people I'm really just trying to figure out in the year that I'm in this position how to continue to put these people in the best position to shine uh they are the ones that will continue to move asdb in the right direction in

078conclusion I do want to acknowledge the hard work of our interpreters both public and instructional I rely on them every day to help me do my job and many families and public school teachers rely on our interpreters to make education accessible uh for that I want to acknowledge them and say thank you you all have a copy of my report if there's any questions any questions for okay moving on to 1.06 um assistant superintendent of agency operations and support services um assistant superintendent Cooper good afternoon board president kifil superintendent rikan acting assistant superintendent katof members of the board asdb community and staff members these last few weeks have been an exciting time of the year for the operations and support services team as we all welcome the students staff and their families back to our

079schools the team have been working diligently to support the instructional staff so that all students have what they need to be successful Learners this new school year the information technology team has been busy setting up equipment and electronic devices working on cleaning up our Network reports and completing the copper cabling project the media team has been working on various agency-wide products such as updating our agency websites recording and posting the superintendent blog creating a new agency brochure and planning for the upcoming town halls and open houses we still have many vacant positions open so our human resources team continues to work on addressing the ongoing recru Recruitment and Retention challenges as ASB competes with other agencies and school districts for teachers and support staff it's essential we offer a great compensation package uh the HR

080team has already begun phase three of the compensation restructure project to address salary competitiveness compression and pay Equity our time frame as you've heard has been bumped up so that we can ensure any salary increase recommendations and or salary schedule adjustments are brought to the board in January before the staff are issued contracts and leave on summer break and that any pay increases be reflected on their following year employment contracts you also just heard about the ongoing work our director of operations is doing with the development of the master facilities plan to improve the safety and efficiency of our buildings across the two campuses and although we're Limited in Staffing the transportation team continues to work on ensuring the safe and efficient daily transportation of our students the budget team completed and submitted the agency's

0812025 budget submission package to the state's office of strategic planning and budgeting this past week uh the proposed budget of 66.3 million reflects our ongoing commitment to support a strong and diversified educational program for our students at the same time maintaining our fiscal responsibilities to the community um as part of the agency's long-term strategic plan we continue to work on the overarching goals of um ensuring we have a strong curriculum instruction and assessment practices and effective and efficient operations um included within the budget sub submission package were four funding issue requests totaling $24.8 million the first one included ongoing Transportation support to help pay for contracted costs we continue to incur resulting from our laa status we also asked to use the available cash balance of about $561,000 in our telecommunications fund um which was

082the leftover funding we received in 2019 to expand our ELP birth to three program and our third funding issue was tied to the preschool contract we have with the foundation for blind children as you've heard on numerous occasions our daily rate for the institutional vouchers forh our visually impaired students is less than the daily contracted rate that we have with FBC the fourth funding issue was to seek funds for the implementation of the master facility plan as you've heard from Albert not only did we ask for these four funding issues based on the projected fiscal needs for 2025 we all also asked for supplemental funding for this current year for ongoing Transportation costs since the funding we received last year was one time we hope to be able to receive most if not all the

083funding that we've requested and and as we heard um Albert mention we're exploring different Alternatives whether that be through running a bill through the um decision packages and other mechanisms and also with the help and support of our um our new Grant developer looking at other alternative funding as well through grants um whether that be federal state or private as well as donations as you can see through the report um we've we are committed to taking a holistic and strategic approach to ensure that the ever evolving needs of our students whether that be academically socially physically mentally and emotionally um with that being said we've had a number of ongoing changes to to our environments and our work processes um and not everybody has been receptive to the change and I know it's difficult to

084accept and embrace um for example through the centralized services that we've done within the team and in full transparency I know we as leaders are sometimes struggling to find creative ways to involve staff in the changes that we make having them better understand why they change and then what the change is is that we're looking to happen um so as that continues to be a work in progress and as we build the trust and improve our effective lines of communication and transparency I do want to say I'm grateful and appreciative of the continued support my team does to ensure that we have collaboration amongst all agency um staff resources they are the ones and the drivers to ensure we reinforce the need for the change and and um making sure that we have effective management

085of our resources um so that really wraps up my report today and I'm open to any questions that any have I do have a question um in regards to um some of these open positions and and I'm just kind of throwing this out there this is sort of a spitball um have we looked at whether or not some of these positions would fall under some of the categories that students are um looking at for CTE certification that these could possibly become an internship or a student employment position I believe so I'm looking at our um Executive Director of Human Resources and she's nodding her head um as she walks up good afternoon Anita the payatt here yes we are um currently working on some things for example we've hired uh former uh ASB students into

086roles um for teaching that have so we're working on that as well um we also working on looking at our instructional assistant program to bring people on that may not have the the parpro or the uh AA degree um in preparing them to take that so giving them the work experience and then letting them have the opportunity to take the parpro to be certified as an instructional assistant I'm even thinking of some of the um kids that are are are going to some of the CTE programs um either here Tucson or up on the PD SD campus um where they're going for a certificate program that they can then start work once they have that certificate that maybe they could work you know 10 hours a week as a student employee or something like that

087while they are doing their CTE program even just a thought are you referring to students that work in um I know we've had some that work in human resources and it and business services as well as other programs um within the agency I'm just thinking even I'm trying to think of what some of the CTE programs currently are at like westm and some of those places that um they could possibly some of them are in Food Services some of them are in um I can't pull them out right now excuse me president can I fly do want to mention that um acting assistant superintendent catch off just mentioned maybe we might want to have um our new CTE director speak a little bit more about that and some opportunities um that he may have um

088to help support the vacancies that we have have within the agency not to put you on the spot even in some of the it things I would think some of the tech kinds of things can you see me okay okay hello everyone um thank you for having me my name is Scott Madson and I am the new CTE director yes that is one of my longterm aims to set up a program in which students can get training on campus in collaboration with um potentially partner high schools as well give them opportunities to um work when they graduate a lot of our students don't know what to do after they they um graduate we do have many departments on campus that are screaming for additional help um maintenance is always a need Transportation there's always a

089need so we are working currently to identify and develop those programs so that the moment those students graduate they already have a job we can um recruit students and parents feel really good about sending their students here because they will have built-in opportunities with us so yes thank you thank you that's all I have thank you thank you okay we are on 2.01 approval of the consent agenda for items 3.01 3.02 4.02 5.01 6.01 6.02 7.03 and 7.04 I think it's safe to say that we all need more [Laughter] coffee yes I will entertain a motion I make a motion that we approve items 3.01 3.02 4.02 5.01 6.01 6.02 7.03 and 7.04 seconded all those in favor say I I I any opposed seeing and hearing none motion carries I'm going to say since

090we are so close to the 90 minute Mark that we go ahead and break now before um the review of the business services and let's take a 10-minute break and come back at 5:35 we did that for you guys e there's aot exactly okay like I'm concerned about that oh yeah m media will be ready to start pretty soon yep I have 534 so [Music] so Reuben pleas please hold we're having a lighting issue for anette's interpreter so give us a minute please okay in sorry if it dies it dies for me it's thank you for the reminder guys I appreciate that about what How will I know when you guys are ready okay C we're waiting for a ring light so we are still holding for light yep we're waiting for a ring light

091okay couldn't we take that one you're right sorry I was trying to be efficient okay what do we need a ring light for one of the interpreters oh they could have this bright one that's shining straight in next I would be really okay like the I I get that but it feels like it's like we can take that off sorry we don't have the light that we thought we did so the we have like a lamp we can put in front of her I can also dim the light that's on your face too I don't know if you're getting some glare on that inter back T Dy okay okay all right we are back um we not live yet oh we're not live yet you tell me when we're live okay um Sean are we

092ready okay let's start now okay we're back now um moving on to item 3.03 action item approval of 301 performance-based plan for um 2023 2024 um assistant superintendent um catch off no it doesn't it doesn't have a it doesn't have a little star by it all right uh good afternoon board president kifil members of of the board superintendent rikman assistant superintendent Cooper uh the information has been provided on that item if you have any questions does this need a vote yeah it does need okay so I would entertain um a motion on this I just have a really quick question so just as I I read this teachers voted this is what they want we Institute this as a board it's pretty cut and dry uh correct and it's following the procedures and the law

093on the policies that we've done every single year um the only if there's a big change it's that we have one list for people to choose from where in the past we had a list for itinerate we had a list for um our classroom teachers we've been able to consolidate that uh just to make it easier on everybody the teachers did vote um so it the last step is a board approval so it's standard now across both the co-ops and the campus space correct okay fantas okay uh I can make a motion that we will adopt a performance Spas compensation system to allocate funding from the classroom site fund I second I have a motion in a second all those in favor say I I I any opposed hearing and seeing none this motion is

094approved moving on to 4.01 information item Finance report Kim bitr director good afternoon board president kifo superintendent rikman assistant superintendent Cooper and tchop members of the board and ASD Comm Community you have been provided our most recent board report that covers the financial data for June 2022 and 2023 the data was covered in more detail at our most recent finance committee meeting held last Thursday August 31st with board president kipo and board member Mike Gordon also in attendance were superintendent rikman and assistant superintendent Cooper in addition to reviewing the June budget to actual reports we discussed the budget funing issues for 25 that was submitted on August 31st to the ospb and jlbc um assistant superintendent Cooper over went already went over those funding issues and the full budget is available on our website under

095the information section for your review the total student count for July 1st 2023 is 2,178 a decrease of 38 student students when compared to the July 1st 2022 student count of 226 there is an increase of one in the site based students and the de and excuse me and the corate Cooperative students increased by 13 while preschool decreased by 38 36 and birth to three programs decreased by 16 as of July 1st we had 465 FTE which includes 8.5 FTE at FBC at that time we employed 672 staff only 136 are full-time with a 1.0 FTE there are currently 219 vacancies across the agency vacant positions are posted until filled in additionally many staff start at the beginning of the school year the highlight of the June 2023 financial report rep shows the revenue of

09662.9 million was 3.6 million higher than the June 2022 revenue of 59.3 million the major difference is the increase in general funds of 3.9 million for the capital Improvement salary increases and the one-time funding for transportation the budget fiscal year 2023 obligated expenditures of 64 million were 7 million higher than budget fiscal year 2022 obligated expenditures of 57 million the increases are in salaries of 4 million professional and outside Services of 642 th000 and other operating expenses of 2 million mostly from the ISA with the ad do Arizona Department of Transportation for the agency Fleet Maintenance and Fuel and transfers out for Capital Improvement of 438,000 our agency cash balance is 3.4 million higher than it was at this time last year the main increases are in the classroom site fund of 1.8 million and

097the Cooperative Services fund of 2 million offset offset by a reduction in the non-federal grants fund of 264,000 this concludes my report of the agency financial status and I'm open for any questions any questions thank you thank you all right I'm moving on to agenda item 7.01 information and discussion item introduction and possible discussion of policies G cka and gdfa Maria Murphy director of policy and government relations think do we have her on on the phone Maria are you there the phone oh hello yeah there you are thank you uh okay I beg your pardon uh good good evening board president Kel members of the board um it's a pleasure to be with you this evening uh so I all of you have the red lines in front of you they were posted to the

098website we have not received any questions or comments um but at this time I would like to make myself available for any questions from you just are there any questions for Maria on these okay no questions on these Maria moving on to 7.02 um urgent approval of revised policy BCB yes um so you all have the red line in front of you and I would like to request respectfully that this be approved in one urgent reading rather than in two reads and based on our um part of our what we learned in our discussion um during the work study this um this reflects those changes yes this does reflect those changes board member Kel it ensures that we have the uh correct statutory citation okay and then the only other question um I had in

099regard to this hold on um under the employment limitation it says no relative as defined in section 39-52 of an asdb board member may be employed by asdb except by consent of the asdb board so just to make sure I'm understanding this clearly um if the governor appoints someone who has a relative that is a staff member they would then also need approval consent approval by the asdb current sitting board so the prospective board member would report that okay uh sign the conflict of interest form okay so it's essentially just making the ACB board aware okay and saying yes we're okay with it okay so it wouldn't require a vote they would just need to we would just need to say okay we're aware of that and that's okay I I I don't interpret it

100as needing a vote okay thank you that's all I need that was all the questions I have um does anyone else have have questions for Maria regarding this if not I would entertain a motion uh I'll make a motion to adopt uh BCB Asis I have a motion do I have a second I'll second I have a motion a second all those in favor please say I I I hi hi any opposed seeing and hearing none the motion carries thank you Maria thank you thank you moving on to agenda item 7.05 information item um budsman report uh Donna Williams okay Donna Williams here ASD BM buts person board president Nal board member superintendent rikman and assistant superintendent scooper and checkov and the asdb community I am honored to be here to present my second now

101semiannual um buds person report um I submitted two documents for your consideration one of those items is the um focus group executive summary and recommendations I'm not going to be presenting from that document I will summarize the highlights um in my utsman report so um if we could run the slides if if possible otherwise I'll just present from the slides that I have in front of me so um basically I've been engaged in the same activities um that I started with back in July of 2022 um and that's been r ranging from information providing information to staff and those that reach out to me um to facilitating focus groups which I'll talk a little bit more about later to conducting mediations um I've included the Continuum of available Services um diagram in my presentation because

102I can comfortably say that I have engaged in Services across the continuum so that would be from the information which is kind of the least involved of what I do all the way to mediation which is probably the most involvement that I have with um ASB staff um and others so just to give you a sense of the aggregate data from my last reporting point which would have been now from January of this year to June um the the users have not really decrease but I think the way that that people contact me has um but you can see from the pie chart that um there were 12 request forms submitted so in the beginning of this process we wanted to create a way for people to reach out to me where it would be

103easy for me to catalog that usage and so we created a request form it's it's really a Google doc and it populates a spreadsheet so then I can go back and see you know who it was and what they needed um and then report to you what that activity was so 12 people follow the rules and use that document um and you can see in terms of what those individuals needed um it continues to be the majority of Staff um and um and Personnel at asdb um I had some contact by community members and some administrators as well so the reasons um um have remained fairly consistent with um not surprisingly interpersonal conflict being the highest um among the reasons for the um contact followed by um procedural concerns and policy concerns um and other

104I would say is typically um here's where I am here's where I'm trying to go how do I get there so those three have really tied for kind of the role that I've for the last um 6 months or so and then um followed by formal complaints and um informal complaints so I think as people become familiar with me and my role they also reach out to me in different ways so my phone rang a lot more than it did in the first six months I got a lot more email so direct email and not email from the request form um and um um and those are captured um on page seven of my report so about 30 contacts give or take it's really obviously more difficult to keep track of that because I also

105get email as Donna Williams not the umut person I have two emails accounts and people were emailing me on both so I had to go back through and figure out okay was this person reaching me or the UDS person so I I I believe it's probably about 30 contacts for the reporting period mostly again related to policy questions and or um interpersonal conflict one of the main activities for this past reporting period that I engaged in was the focus group project um I think I covered in my last report that um a summary of the 2022 employee satisfaction survey really landed on three different buckets and one of those was improved communication and so we really needed to take a deeper dive though into what that really means it's such a broad category um and

106we really wanted more specific actionable data so that we can start to make some changes in that area so I convened the focus group project to gather that information to be able to share that with the superintendent so that we could be more deliberate um in our approach to solving that problem so over the course of about 3 months I facilitated 11 focus groups encompassing about 80 staff in 12 different employee categories so the project goal was to solicit the feedback to capture those responses report on the results prepare a summary which is what was included in my presentation packet today make some recommendations and then share the report and recommendations with the superintendent so just to give you an idea of some of the results that came from that effort there were four themes

107that came out of the focus groups the first one was the need to have a comprehensive communication strategy the second thing was more meaningful opportunities to provide feedback there were a lot of decisions made over the course of the last year where staff felt they weren't included and they should have been and they had valuable things to offer um and that came out over and over again um across employee categories the other thing was more information about and greater access to the board I think there is a lot of confusion about what access should look like for this body um and maybe just educating staff um on what's appropriate might help aay some of those concerns and then greater visibility for um um the superintendent not only superintendent rikman but for the assistant superintendent as

108well so out of that feedback and um superintendent Gman got all the raw data so she got every single state I think it was like 40 something pages of data every single statement that was made in the course of the focus groups the executive summary that I created is six pages because I thought that 40 was a little bit much to be presenting on um but I I attempted to summarize um those 40 pages in the six pages so hopefully you've had a chance to review that so based on the feedback um and the comments that were made during this process one the development of a comprehensive communication strategy seems necessary because communication has varied from very good to not so very good and so in order to have some uniformity across the agency if

109we are working from a communication plan that everyone has access access to and buys into that will create more uniformity and probably more satisfaction in that area one of the other things was um more meaningful opportunities for staff to um provide feedback as I said and so I think we're working on opportunities for staff to weigh in on major decisions particularly those that impact them in the work that they do every day and then um in terms of a solution about um providing more information about the board board I'm happy to work with um the superintendent um and Maria creating a one pager that basically says here's the board here's how the board was created here's what they can do what they can't do here's how you can interact with them I think there's some

110confusion about open meeting laws why can't they just show up well there's a reason um and if we just explain why you just can't show up um I think people will have a better understanding of of your role and how it interacts with uh the agent gency and then finally um Vis visibility for our superintendent and assistant superintendent is about being visible so what does that look like um and so it can be uh listing sessions and town halls and just being visible showing up at events agency events graduations Etc so I think we're working on a host of ways for them to be more Vis visible so um one of the probably the most um um I would say informative part of this process happened on August 25th when the steering committee me met

111talked about the results and really started to lay the groundwork for the communication plan and so um we had a great participation there lots of great ideas really laid the groundwork for what an internal communication strategy should look like for the agency and so that will be one of the things that we move forward with immediately um you know I think it's low hanging fruit something that we can really get a lot of bang right for our buck for by coming up with something um that addresses that concern um and so there's a timeline and a process and that's that's going to be ongoing and so hopefully the next time that I report out I'll have more information on how that's going um and what that roll out looks like so in conclusion um I

112logged over about 200 hours during this reporting period addressing user requests facilitating the focus groups Etc um you know the the general volume of what I'm seeing seems to be appropriate for one person I'm not overwhelmed um there's plenty of time to get the work done in my view um I would say that based on now I have a full year of requests I can say the most prevalent issue and Trend was interpersonal conflict no surprise there which is often rooted in ineffective communication ation so perhaps once we have our our plan our strategy in place um the interpersonal conflict will also decrease I mean that's that's the idea um the focus groups also supported that Trend um I was hearing over and over again about um interpersonal conflict so developing the inter inter the

113internal communication plan will help decrease in personal interpersonal conflict we also um my help us explore training opportunities designed to help people individually manage conflict I can't be the only person on the campus doing that work um I think it's valuable training um just as individuals and as Leaders to have and I just created I just U included a link in my report that has some resources where people can do kind of self um Improvement in that area so I wanted to say um before I um answer questions I want wanted to offer kudos to superintendent rikman and her leadership team for being very bold in this moment and for recognizing The Importance of Being intentional um and moving forward with something valuable and something that will be long lasting in the agency um and

114that will be positive in a sustainable and meaningful way so that concludes my report I'm happy to answer any questions thank you that was a it's a great report very very thorough um thank you the interpersonal conflict um no those would be people that use the request form out of the Dozen that have and so maybe three or four folks are uh did you actually provide mediation um it doesn't always require mediation I did in a few instances but sometimes it's a conversation about how to have the conversation right so I'm hitting a brick wall I have to work with this person give me some strategies that I can use to be a better Communicator um and that falls a little bit short of facilitation and mediation but can be as effective okay and I

115do recognize communication for some reason is becoming more difficult in even with having more modes to communicate it's it's a so I'm not surprised that you'll find that as one of the primary uh goals that people are seeking so appreciate that and it's not can't be done in a vacuum here right so absolutely any other questions I don't have a question I just have a comment I appreciate your energy for this and you seem like you'd be like a really solid person to be able to if I had a conflict to bring my res my conflicts to so I just appreciate the energy you bring to our agency and um what you do to report off to us and I appreciate your PR part very much thank you thank you I do have a followup

116sort of um is there any collaboration or back and forth with HR like is there some at does at some point some of this get referred to HR or at at maybe does some at some point do you say you know this might be better served at the utsman level this really is hasn't reached a level that it's an HR complaint yet is there any of that interchange going on yes All of the Above um typically um when people are asking about process um and personal issues some of that will touch and concern HR but once they know the path and if the if the path involves HR then they know to to take that step I've also gotten referrals from HR from people that that where it's not really an HR issue it's something

117else um go see the UDS person and that's fine too so I think it's both ways and is that mostly within staff or are you getting that even at the community level because I think I I think that's part of some of these issues that we're seeing is that people don't know how to go through this process they don't know where to start sometimes and so sometimes it just becomes this festering I think Anette uses it's the rock that you don't want to turn over because then all the spiders come out right well would say that um my engagement with the community hasn't been what I had anticipated and it might be because their knowledge of my role would come from maybe the website and other things where they're just not engaging in um I

118did get some um Community contact but it was more about what's happening inside the school and not what's happening outside in the community so um most of my um interactions have been with staff inside the agency thank you thank you all right um moving on to agenda item 8.01 call to the public for non-agenda items um we have one public comment on a non- agendized item and it was submitted through our website um so it was it will be it's posted there or it's in board docs awesome okay moving on to agenda item 8.02 um agenda items for the next regular board meeting um I have a couple I have a couple um previously the board would have time um on the agenda after the board meetings started for some information um items and so

119I would like to reinstate that and I am hoping that at the next meeting we could have our Assistant Attorney General um do an information session on open meeting law um I think that would be um a great one to start with I think it's something that um should be reviewed I will wait for Annette and maybe at the meeting after that we could have the utsman do a presentation at the regarding her services at the information session um and then a second agenda item I would like to um have the Assistant Attorney General here to um possibly have a discussion and go into executive session regarding the um case that we have been um provided with sorry the case we were provided with yes the case we were provided with um regarding um the

120Personnel um that has been um with previous superintendent George Martin and I'm not sure if that would be um Michelle or if that would be um Deb probably probably both um and I don't know if Maria is still on the line but I and this is might be something that you could provide information on at the next meeting but have we developed timelines in policy regarding um what we were recommended in the sunset audit as far as timelines when we followed up on something as far as investigations and documentation wasn't that in the sunset audit yes this is Maria Murphy and I am still here and those policies were updated earlier this year okay do what could you just remind me of those timelines so the a basically recommended about 30 business days where possible

121was what we we're we're struggling to hear you so maybe you could just remind us at the next board meeting okay thank you does anybody else have any other agenda items they would like to add if not you can if not now you can always bring it up to me or unet prior to the meeting okay moving on to agenda item 9.01 action item adjournment this is [Music] Lyn yes Lyn I to this meeting do I have a second I'll second that those in favor say I I I any oppose I this meeting is adjourned at 6:13 p.m. thank you everybody and I appreciate everybody in the audience for attending tonight thank you