001okay [Music] at 4 pm Leticia could I have you do attendance okay thank you here Morton I'm here okay thank you moving on to 1.02 call to the public for agendized items I currently have one oh I currently have two we could have Elizabeth browse come to the podium hello my name is Elizabeth browse thank you for allowing me to be here today I am currently a preschool teacher at pdsd and I've previously been an itinerant teacher with Region 2 DVR my comment today is connected to the finance report agenda item 4.01 I've been seeing headlines as we all have about education not just Nationwide and not just about the teacher shortage Nationwide but in Arizona as well and some of those headlines that I'm seeing are things like five years ago teachers fought for
002more investment in K-12 funding in Arizona with the red-fed initiative there are currently over 3 000 open positions across the state teaching positions Arizona is in a critical shortage one in five positions are an unfilled and then I see headlines like districts like the Florence Unified School District just agreed to involved their Educators Association and staff in decisions through a meet and confer process so that's their staff meeting with leadership and with the board and jointly making decisions I've heard news of school districts like Cartwright and Creighton offering sign-on bonuses to teachers five thousand dollars to sign their contract for next year and if they stay in District an additional five thousand dollars so then I asked myself what is asdb doing well what we have done is offered teachers a contract for next year
003with no additional pay so I accept that I made that decision to sign my contract to return next year and I did that knowing that I will not be making any more money than I'm currently making because the board has not yet approved a step increase or a base salary increase so when we look at the teacher shortage and we ask ourselves what is our district doing to keep these highly qualified teachers in such a specialized field offering more money is not one of them offering a step increase for additional years of of work and knowledge and building an experience has not been approved yet so my recommendation to the board and to leadership would be this time next year before contracts come out for teachers please make that decision to increase our pay please
004have that discussion in looking at finances to approve a step increase before I am asked to sign another contract to continue working I know several of my colleagues did not sign their contract because of pay and in the email that we received about our contracts it stated the board could approve a step increase it just hasn't happened yet and I was already asked to sign a contract thank you for your consideration thank you um next we have Marcy barenberg um I'm talking about the policy changes in 7.02 and asking that you pull them from the consent items to discuss for both the jii and Keb changes for both they're stating a 30-day time limit to get the responses and investigations completed however if you're not already aware there are three policies regarding the jiiea Complaint
005Form those are jii 3600 which is the one they're putting the 30-day limit on there is jii 3611 that already has timelines in place and this one way further extends it by two to three times if it's during the school year it's supposed to be completed within 10 days and if it's outside of the school year 15. it also has timelines as to when you're supposed to speak to students and stuff like that from who complained about it there's multiple on Keb as well and in the Keb Dash R it states the timeline that again is inconsistent with the policies being proposed today if they're going to approve new policies or the board here is going to approve them we should be consistent within the other policies that are currently written and or be planning
006to edit those policies as well also if there's going to be three policies for one form that's extremely confusing especially for the the people filling them out from the community because people don't know how much they're supposed to be looking up on the website so it would be nice to just have them all condensed into one policy per Complaint Form that way that can be handled appropriately with the community thank you thank you okay moving on to agenda item 1.03 the superintendent's report good afternoon president neifle members of the asdb board of directors assistant superintendent catch off an assistant superintendent Cooper and members of the board urgency and the asdb community Welcome to our May 11th 2023 board meeting before I begin my presentation I have five announcements to make that I would like to
007share with you all the first announcement is to introduce our newest board member Catherine Cinco Katie As She Goes By is here representing acdhh and she has been on the acdhh board for about six years now so she is here replacing former member PV jams so welcome to the board of directors I just learned that she filled out her oath of office so she can vote just so you are all aware thank you we have two more vacancies on the board of directors and we haven't heard back from the board commission about those two vacancies yet hopefully soon they will make two additional selections next I wanted to introduce our acting assistant superintendent Oren ketchup his contract is presented to you the board for appointment as interim assistant superintendent we will be working with you
008all as well as the deaf community and the blind community and other stakeholders to set up a process for selecting the next permanent assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction so more information will be coming third we also have on the agenda offering a contract to Sarah sotile to become our new special education director as we all know all of our students have IEPs and each IEP has individualized goals that we must satisfy and so Sarah as the new special education director will help us to focus on our efforts in doing that to be compliant with those requirements next as you already are aware the principle for Tucson campus Trisha Waddell has decided to submit her resignation from the position as principal of Tucson campus after one year of working with us we are already actively
009searching for a new principle and I think next week Monday we have interviews is that correct Leticia we have interviews for the principal position so we are moving forward very quickly because we do need to be ready for the fall semester and finally you all are invited to both of our school graduations we just had two seniors here that beat me to make that invitation for you all to graduation before the meeting began so I hope that you can also attend the Tucson graduation as well we would love to have board member representation there Tucson campus graduation is May 22nd PTSD is May 23rd so those are my five announcements that I would like to make moving on to my presentation my report I would like to talk about accountability I'll start with a short
010story there were four people the first person is named everybody the second person is named somebody the third person is named anybody and the fourth person is named nobody do I need to go over those again for you so we have everybody anybody and nobody so those four people were assigned a very important task a project if you will anybody thought that everybody would do it so anybody could have done it but they didn't so nobody actually did the work so what happened is somebody found that anybody didn't do the work and they became very upset because nobody was not supposed to do the work they also found out that anybody gave the work to everybody when really it was supposed to be anybody's job but it turned out that nobody took the job and
011finally did the work is that confusing it is for me too but really the point of the story is the culture of accountability for asdb that's been our Focus to build that culture of accountability if you all remember our three operating principles are accountability collaboration and transparency and that first one accountability is our priority we have been focusing on that focusing on how we can become accountable for our work you all developed a strategic plan and we had four we have four pillars excellent communication and relationships outstanding student development Supreme organizational culture an effective resource management so how do you as the board know that we are accountable for these well you know because of the metrics we use so when you're looking at outstanding student development what measures can we look at or you
012as the board look at for example state standards and assessments you can look at Benchmark testing right now we are negotiating with the State Board of Education to develop um level grade model oh excuse me layer oh excuse me letter grade excuse interpreter error a letter grade model so each Lea must have a letter grade assigned to it and that comes from SBE so right now the acting assistant superintendent catchov is working with the SBE to figure out the appropriate measurements that are following federal and state requirements that show the work we're doing with our students when you're looking at Supreme organizational culture you could look at our recruitment efforts you could look at our retention metrics you could look at our employee satisfaction survey you could listen to our ombuds person report of her
013work with our community and effective Resource Management can be measured by the financial reports you receive every two months you know that we just completed the 2022 Sunset audit and that audit was very in-depth of our programming and finances and the Arizona auditor general only had one finding eight recommendations and they presented that to the state legislature and to be honest I think we got four years continuation funds because we have been so accountable up until now if we had not been accountable we probably would have gotten one or two years at most so I do want to have an emphasis on accountability we have data-driven decisions and that is helping us at the State Legislature and they were will continue to help us as we move forward so now the acting assistant superintendent ketchoff
014and assistant superintendent Cooper will expand more on our accountability efforts but I did want to emphasize to you the board and with the community that we are taking accountability very seriously thank you come on I have a question for superintendent Reitman this is Linda both I have a question for superintendent reichman you said that you've hired a new director of special ed can you tell me more about that person um why you chose them at this time and not previously yes so for a long time we I mean you know since the start of the agency all of our students have been on IEPs and each of our principles and our directors have a responsibility to make sure that every student has appropriate goals within their IEPs and that our itinerant services are working with
015school districts to meet their IEP goals for their students as well what we found especially during the time of the covid pandemic that is that we were not standardized some of our expertise varied from Principal to director sometimes there were different interpretations of requirements of the law so we decided that the best way to lead the agency in a common Direction was to have one person who would take over the responsibility for the special education component of the students education not just deaf education not on our campuses not the deaf education that we provide in our preschools or early intervention but focus on IEPs and our legal obligations that we have through idea that we must follow so we have not done the best job following idea requirements so we decided we needed to improve
016and be better in that area so we hired a special education director she agreed and she's starting started her career oh and turns out that she started her career do you want to guess where at PTSD as a deaf education teacher she is fluent in American Sign Language and she decided to transfer to Kyrene School District and was working there for a while and then she became the assistant principal and then she was looking for a way to come back to asdb she saw that we had advertised for the position of special education director she applied and we did select her so she's coming back to us thank you hear me there we are Okay add just a little bit to that um what the special ed director will also help us with our teachers
017are well educated in teaching deaf kids but many of our kids are not just deaf they have other disability areas and she'll be able to support our teachers to be able to help our kids in the maximum way because sometimes we miss those other areas thank you any other concert questions superintendent seeing none we will move on to 1.04 the assistant superintendent of curriculum and instructions report all right good afternoon board secretary caniffel superintendent reichmann assistant superintendent Cooper members of the board members of the community who came out when we're talking about accountability I'll start with some of the easy items that we've been doing um starting next year we will have instructional coaches at both of the day schools as well as in the preschool that's our way of being accountable to the teachers
018that we're going to have somebody there to support them as the superintendent mentioned we have had initial meetings um with some staff members from the State Board of Education regarding the a2f accountability model assisting me in that has been Patricia Waddell Lisa ancarelli as well as Christina Boyer who used to be the deaf Mentor program director um the convert it's the start of a conversation for us to find out more about the background of the a through F accountability model what areas we might be able to tweak and what areas are pretty much set in stone by state statute we do we have embraced getting a letter grade but we are concerned that there are some things in the current models um which will be a constraint to us we're all for it being fair
019we think the model should allow us to get an F but the model should also allow us to get an A and those are some of the areas that we're looking at right now is to make sure is there a model in place that based on what we do we could get an F if we deserve an F but we could get an A if we truly deserve an a we continue to work with the BGC the bilingual grammar curriculum making sure that that is in both of the campuses so we do have a curriculum in place that holds us accountability that holds us accountable to the parents that holds us accountable to the teachers that we're giving them a curriculum that they can use and the materials as we've mentioned in the past a
020lot of the materials that we use in the school some somebody has to make them and we want to make sure that that responsibility does not fall to nobody um we have three curriculum Specialists who are busting their tail to get it done we could triple that number and still not complete all the curriculum that's needed at the schools okay so I think those are some of the big systematic things that we've taken care of in the last three weeks that I've been in this role as the acting assistant superintendent which will be a temporary stop for me when we move forward with a plan I I have no intent on applying for it I do not believe that I am have the skills needed for the person who needs to be in this seat
021I do feel like I have the skills to to keep the seat warm and keep keep the academics moving um I've always been a strong believer that every system is only as good as the teachers that you have the average adult is going to spend 90 000 hours working we're going to spend about one-fourth of our life working somewhere we need to be accountable to our teachers that this is a place that they want to spend a quarter of their life in the last three weeks I've spent a lot of time just talking to people um so please have me some Grace if you have any questions about the assistant superintendent report I've only been in here for three weeks I've spent a lot of time meeting with people um I see a vicious cycle
022that we need to break soon to where everybody I'm talking to they feel like they're being stretched too thin in the duties that they're asked to do and they feel like communication is lacking and I see that being a chicken or an egg issue so we did send out a survey today that should be going out to all the teachers in the agency and all the support staff asking them for their ideas on what can we do to take things off the plate we have great teachers here we have nationally board certified teachers here we have teachers that are winning Awards we need to make sure that we're not putting more and more on them during this teacher shortage I love the cliche that every system is perfectly aligned for the outcomes that it gets
023um right now that the outcomes we're getting is that we're overwhelming our teachers and our support staff who are working with the kids um so we have long terms and long-term items in place but I think in the short term we need to be looking at things of how do we support the teachers that are here so we can retain them and as people are looking from the outside in at asdb they can start saying wow this is a place I want to be part of and spend one-fourth of my life so with that if there's any questions any questions all right thank you moving on to agenda item 1.05 assistant superintendent of agency operations and Support Services report thank you good afternoon board secretary caniffel superintendent reichmann assistant superintendent kachoff members of the board
024asdb community and staff members I want to take the opportunity to announce a new addition to my team Miss Shelly beaudine she was hired as our grant developer which is a new position for the agency her responsibilities include identifying potential new funding sources writing submitting and managing multiple funding proposals to support all of our agency initiatives her first day with us was this past Monday welcome Shelley and we look forward to you securing our green opportunities and donations for both our staff and students where we know funding is limited in support of asdb's priorities most of the work that the agency operations and support services team does is tied to as assistant super as superintendent reichman mentioned is tied to pillar 3 superb organizational culture and pillar 4 effective Resource Management each of the directors
025have provided to you their Department reports and for all of us this year has not come without its challenges some of the most difficult challenges facing the agency as we strive to provide the highest quality education for our students includes managing those resources and that includes our facilities our Personnel our technology and our finances we've established quite a bit of new processes and procedures as we look at continuous Improvement opportunities and we're still working through the implementation of those changes we're making every effort to carefully manage those resources and are putting in place the necessary structure and accountability needed to ensure the agency operates in a fiscally sound manner I mean we all know that we will need to continue to tighten that belt as we move forward with those increased checks and balances to
026implement that quality education for our staff and students um again as acting assistant superintendent katjov mentioned we can continue to face considerable challenges in recruiting and retaining staff and the team has been working with an external consultant to increase those efforts as we address this to put things into perspective with a count of over 2100 students and having over 700 staff we have over 170 staff vacancies new teaching and support positions are being created and being added to meet those pressing needs of our students and staff however a number of those vacancies remain and a lot of our staff of having to take on a lot more responsibilities including myself um and again we know that that has increased levels of stress low morale in some instances burnout due to those number of vacancies that
027we have and we realize that compensation continues to be an issue with attracting and retaining those qualified staff and so in a lot of instances we've had to actually contract workers to help maintain some of those critical Staffing levels more specifically within our certified and related services staff to ensure that the continuity of the education for our services for our students continue to be ongoing and that is a challenge especially as we work through the state procurement office and getting those changes addressed so the HR Business Services team have been working on phase two of our compensation or restructure project and to address Ms bross's comments about bringing forth to the board compensation adjustments before staff are designed contracts we've actually had those discussions and so we are looking at changing some of those timelines
028so that they are brought forth before the May or July board meeting this year's compensation adjustments as I know a lot of Staff have been asking we plan on proposing to the board at the July 20th meeting one eliminating the certified salary schedule and staff would be either moved to the related services or teaching salary schedule two we're also looking at eliminating the educational audiologists and school psychologists salary schedules and moving those staff to the related Services salary schedule we're also looking at ensuring there's consistency among all of the salary schedules that we have so we're looking at consolidating some of them as I've mentioned staff would be granted up to 20 years of certified experience and be capped at a doctoral educational level we will also be recommending those staff that are paid from
029the classified salary schedule in grades 10 through 22. a percentage increase for each year that they have worked with the agency and then last but not least we'll also propose that eligible teachers receive their step increase and all other staff and attempt that are not in a temporary status would receive a two percent cost of living adjustment any of those compensation changes that result from the the restructure project would become effective in August 2023 again contingent upon board approval so again the impact of inflation and the surging costs of fuel instructional materials and supplies is continuing to compound our operational challenges we consistently hear that salaries are not competitive but I do want to remind everybody that as a state agency we do have funding constraints um and with payroll making up our greatest portion
030of our budget we need to just be mindful of our staffing levels aligning that with our student accounts as well well as looking at our facilities ensuring that we have ongoing and operational Capital needs so again it's looking at the entire benefit package that we offer such as our flexible working schedules remote work training and development opportunities as well as career advancement that need to be considered so we are continuing to increase those efforts to ensure that our compensation is comparable to the market rates and the economy but again that continues to be a challenge for us as conditions consistently change so another update that I like to provide is on our performance audit and our Sunset review that was conducted by the office of the auditor general as superintendent reichman mentioned the audit report
031was completed in September and as outlined in the response we had the one finding and eight recommendations the auditor general did let us know that they would in six months do an assessment of where we are with implementing that finding and recommendation and believe it or not that six months has already come and gone um so this last month the team has been working on addressing um those findings excuse me the finding and recommendations and almost all of them have been implemented completely we're still working on implementing the master facility plan reviewing the appropriateness of our tenorrent program fees looking at those reimbursement amounts that we provide to these schools and also looking at the cost of the services that we provide we're also addressing the recommendation as it relates to how we as an
032agency investigate and resolve complaints from the staff students parents and the public but that also included looking at time frames and implementing and making sure that those complaints have been addressed so we are still in the information gathering stage as we look at addressing that recommendation we've actually been working with the team to identify a complaint management software that will let the student staff and other students um and others actually submit complaints and that'll assist us with tracking recording and resolving those complaints in a more timely manner our goal is to have all of the finding and recommendations fully implemented before the Auditors begin their 18-month follow-up test work which will be around March 2024. so I do want to remind everybody that the auditor General's performance audit and sunset review is not the only
033audit that we as an agency undergo we do have other external private state and federal organizations and agencies that come in and periodically review and audit our programmatic fiscal and operational management so that it consists of looking at our policies and procedures ensuring that we are in compliance with State Statute Ade and adoa requirements as well as best practices so a lot of the work that those organizations do to ensure that we're compliant is Select judgmental as well as random samples of Financial and operational transactions and so that actually helps them see if there's any risk or if there's any elevated risks that need to be addressed so with all of that being said again tying back to um superintendent reichmann's comments it goes back to our accountability our operating principles priorities and more specifically
034ensuring that our resources are effectively managed which again I take ownership for and am responsible for overseeing with the within the agency strategic plan um so that continues to be a challenge as I've mentioned but although these this past year even so more of these last few months we're trying to do the best that we can we've had a lot of challenges we're looking at new opportunities trying to think how we can approach things a little different so together again we respond to the best that we can in the best interest of our students so we don't want to continue to lose sight that we are here for our students and to the team and I continue to address how we can effectively manage those resources so as we come to an end with this
035this challenging school year I think some of us are trying to take a deep breath I do want to say thank you to everybody I mean we're pulling together to rethink how we can operate and provide the best opportunity for the work that we do so that goes to instruction to human resources to media and Technology to the business services staff to everybody um thank you I don't think we say that enough as we look at how we can continue to pull together so that really wraps up my report I know that was quite a bit but um just wanted to express some of the the challenges that we continue to face I mean I'm open to answer any questions that any of you may have at this time are there any questions from the
036board I do want to say first and foremost thank you for addressing the public comment I appreciate you taking that bull by the horns and giving us some feedback on that um and I do want to make a little bit of a plug here to the rest of the board saying we do need another member for the finance committee and so I I will tell you very honestly I learned a ton in this last meeting they are wonderful about going down literally line by line and explaining the differences so I would encourage you to reach out to Shayna if you are interested to serve on that committee thank you all right um we're moving to agenda item 2.01 approval of the consent agenda consistent with board policy to include items 3.01 5.01 5.02 6.01 6.02
0376.03 7.02 and 7.03 this is Linda both Linda here I would like to move to poll 7.02 I have a request to pull 7.02 do I have a second on that second okay all in paper for polling 7.02 from the consent agenda any opposed hearing none do I have a motion for the rest of the consent agenda items I would like to pull 5.02 from the agenda okay do I have a second for Five Points a second okay all those in favor to pull also 5.02 say aye aye aye any opposed hearing none now do I have a motion for the rest of the consented agenda items I'll make a motion to approve the rest so it would be uh 3.01 5.01 6.01 6.02 6.03 7.03 do I have a second a second all those
038in favor please say aye aye okay any opposed do we still have Mike on the phone we might have lost him okay then moving on to 4.01 4.01 the finance report from the Director of Business Services Kimberly Bitcoin Sue I'm sorry can we uh check mike really fast with Mike Gordon Mike are you on can you hear me now I I hear something but I'm not sure where it's coming from to be very honest um so he can hear you but for some reason we're not hearing him so I'm going to be working on that okay so just keep going all right we'll go but you're we can't hear you I was trying okay good afternoon boy president knifel superintendent reichmann assistant superintendent Cooper assistant superintendent ketchoff members of the board and asdb community our
039most recent finance committee meeting was held last Thursday May 3rd with board president kennefo and board member Mike Gordon also in attendance for superintendent reichmann and assistant superintendent Cooper we discussed the March 23rd and 20 March 2023 and 2022 budget to actual and finance reports provided to each of you is the same financial data in the more condensed form the total student count for April 1st 2023 is 2146 a decrease of 40 students when compared to the April 1st 2022 count of 21.86. the site-based student accounts increased by five The cooperatives increased by seven however the preschool decreased by 36 students and birth to three programs decreased by 16. as of April 1st we had about 491 FTE which includes 8.5 FTE at FBC at that time we employed 715 staff only 138 are full
040time with the 1.0 FTE there are currently 173 vacancies across the agency the increase in the vacancies is due to the fact that postings are being held open until filled the highlights of the March 2023 Financial reports show the revenues of 42.3 million was 1.2 million higher than March 2022 revenues of 41.1 million the major difference is the increase in general funds offset by a reduction in the institutional vouchers and the classroom site fund Revenue the per pupil amount for the classroom site fund Revenue last fiscal year was 733 while in this fiscal year is 708. the budget fiscal year 2023 obligated expenditures of 46 million were 4.5 million higher than the budget fiscal year 2022 obligated expenses of 41.5 the increases are in salaries professional and outside services including contract to Transportation FBC one-to-one
041nurses and other operating expenses including the new student information system and billing software agency Fleet Management and Fuel and an increase in utilities the 770 000 transfers out to adoa for Budget fiscal year 2023 are for Food Service food service equipment Capital Improvements for both Tucson and Phoenix and security upgrades on the Phoenix campus the third quarter Financial reports reflect an increase in cash on deposit with the state Treasure of 3.9 million the major differences is the increase in prop 301 funds of 2.1 million and Cooperative Services funds of 1.9 million if there are no questions this concludes my presentation but I'm open to any questions any questions thank you thank you to 5.02 use of State trust lands do we have Alberta here I do have a question yes um I have a question
042on how you got the number that of 21 593 that would be coming to asdb at um the math doesn't work out for me if you have 25 acres and and given the price per acre that's actually determined by the state land trust we don't actually determine that number that is for the easement not necessarily for 25 acres of land so they're actually going to be building on the land but they're not owning the land it's a matter of an easement process yeah yeah I understand that and I still don't understand the math so I can definitely go back to the state land trust and ask them for a more detailed report of that information historically they've been the one calculating that information and then we'd pass that on to the board as part of
043whether or not they would recommend or not recommend board approval okay and I'm not certain if they want us to to sign this like if right now but I I guess I feel uncomfortable signing an approximate amount so I completely understand that that feeling and understand that process this would be up to whether or not board approval from my understanding correct me if I'm wrong but board approval is on based on majority so if you didn't feel comfortable that's obviously something that could be abstained or you don't agree with and then if the board does not agree with that term then it goes back to the state land trust but we also have a legal counsel here just in case I may be incorrect on that but this is kind of a unexpected so I
044don't think Deborah or I had any previous information other than that okay thank you any other questions in regards to this I do this is Brittany can oh sorry trying to gather my thoughts like can you just like very easily explain what this does so the high level the State of Arizona has lots of state land we are part of that state land we have lots of land throughout the State of Arizona as part of the full trust it's not necessarily readily available for us to use but when that land is sold or is uh part of a an agreement for for this case an easement for them to build this high voltage power line across the State of Arizona the state land trust charges that and that obviously that comes back to us into
045our individual coffers many other state agencies participate or have land within the state land trust and so then that money comes back into the taxpayers dollars essentially so what happens is they will they're proposing to build on our section of the state land trust it's not our land it's not like say Tucson campus or Phoenix campus where I could go and say build another school um it's just a matter of aggregate land that the state owns and we are part of that trust of a whole uh so kind of imagine you know the four of you sitting at that table all of you own a home that's collectively within a trust if one were to sell a portion of it all four of you would receive a portion of those proceeds do you know what
046happens if we say no to this I don't believe we've ever said no to my knowledge so I don't know what happens but I would assume that it would go back to the state land trust to review and then determine next steps so they have recommended uh that they that we proceed forward but obviously that's just their recommendation the board can make its own decisions okay thank you can I ask a follow-up question absolutely am I coming through okay I can't tell um so if we went ahead and passed this for example could you still go back and ask for clarification on how that calculation was made and I guess I'm going back and forth because what is the impact um to us I mean if I'm I'm going to assume that you're thinking that
047the number is too low yes okay um so if that would be found to be true and we've approved it would they've then reimburse us for the amount that might be a corrected amount uh to be honest I am not sure so but can we have further explanation or am I able to go back to the state land trust and ask for that further information absolutely and I would go as far as ask them to even come and give a presentation to the board to give more clarity on how the whole process works as a proxy unfortunately I'm not as intimate in the details of that but if it were to be found that the number was incorrect then that would obviously I'm sure have a process to it but this is determined as this
048land here this is our percentage of it so even though it may be 55 acres 100 acres plus we may be only three percent of that and so that's based off of the agency calculations from my understanding so I'm we've never had a moment where we had to question that number as it was just part of the aggregate hole but I have no problem asking that question of them so my follow-up to that is um assistant superintendent Cooper do you know what our percentages of that is that something that they readily okay that's what that that helps me um so if we were to table this until July to get that information before we made a decision how would that impact you uh I'd have to look at the agreement again but it may hold
049up the sale of that property and thus have other repercussions that I'm not sure what those would be so um I wish I had more information for you but unfortunately I do not have that information of what would happen as we've never had this question come up before okay okay go ahead this is Linda both I would feel comfortable if we table that to get more information okay if we can talk about it over can we talk about it at the next board meeting in a few months and will we know the information by then my other kind of follow-up to that would be would it be something that we could um between this meeting and the July meeting do a a phone meeting as a special meeting to get more information in regards to
050this and then make a decision in that meeting yes okay then um I would need a motion for that okay I would say to table it for this meeting and then host a special meeting between this is Linda I move to table that until we get more information through the next meeting but I would like to make sure that we add into your motion that we hold a special meeting before the July meeting to address it okay okay thank you I have a motion to table this agenda item and hold a special meeting between before the July regular board meeting to gather more information and make an educated decision on this and I have a second all those in favor say aye opposed hearing none motion carries thank you no problem going down to 7.01
051legislative update um director of policy and government relations Maria Murphy good afternoon members of the board superintendent reichmann assistant superintendents and our honor guests for the record Maria Murphy director of policy and government relations so here we are it has been a very eventful couple of months since the last time that we had our most recent board meeting I am pleased to let you know that house bill 2456 did finally pass out of the Senate um and it went to a final read over at the house and was signed by Governor Hobbs about a week week and a half ago now and we have been continued for a period of four years so I am not going to lie I am a little bit disappointed that we were not continued for the full eight years
052but I am also very relieved that we are not looking at a continuation of one or two years which is what was originally being contemplated I have been contacted by multiple legislators since Governor Hobbs signed uh the bill and they have already indicated to me that they are very interested in running another bill next year to try to get asdb's continuation extended out for the full eight years so I I believe that we will probably back be back here again come November December asking for your permission to go ahead and and run that bill come January 2024. in the meantime um I already let uh board member can iifel know that I'm just going to take a few minutes here because there's a lot of people that I have to thank in regards to everything
053that happened with 2456 so please don't get the big hook out to pull me off stage I appreciate it um first of all I just want to make sure that we thank um first and foremost Governor Hobbs and her staff over at the governor's office celiana Chang and Rebecca Bibi who were instrumental on their part to try to get this bill across the Finish Line over in the Senate Senator Ken Bennett was was uh the poor man is probably sick of seeing me walking in and out of his office I've been in there so many times Senator David Gowan was also instrumental in his assistance on the Democratic side Senator Christine Marsh was such a champion for asdb um on the house side David Cook representative cook actually gave up one of his bills to
054do a substitute bill for five years that was heard in House Education and he's always been a huge Champion for asdb so we he deserves our thanks on the Democratic side ranking member Jennifer Pollock was just always um in close contact with us trying to see what she could do to to assist um and actually I would really like to thank both of both the Democratic and the Republican caucus in both of the houses um the vast majority of whom were very supportive of asdb um and you know unfortunately it was one small minority that that kind of held everything up for us but the vast majority were extremely supportive and acknowledged the amazing work that asdb does um and as for people who are out of the legislature um former senator Paul Boyer who
055has been a huge Champion for us in the past who has sponsored many bills for asdb even though he's out of the legislature right now he still continues to be in close contact with me to give me um advice and strategies so I'm very grateful to him um I would be remiss if I didn't think the superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horn who came out to actually testify on behalf of asdb and say that we needed that eight year continuation so please extend our deepest gratitude to superintendent horn Melissa Taylor over at uh at 80e she's probably sick of taking my phone calls and she's going to put me on block for the next couple of months that's okay um I would like to thank the staff particularly at the Senate Courtney Acosta and Michael
056Hans who were critical in giving us a lot of that inside information to help us make sure that we could change strategy on a dime I'd also like to take this opportunity to really thank Our Community Partners acdhh the governor's Council on blindness and visual impairment I'd also like to thank Azad who was absolutely phenomenal at mobilizing the community nfb Savvy um AZ case the Arizona school boards Association the rural school boards Association the Arizona Educators Association um hands and voices the ear Foundation we even had the ACLU come out so so it was absolutely just the the outpouring of support was just unbelievable from our partner organizations um I'd be remiss if we didn't thank our alumni in particular Troy katzer our most famous Alum at the moment and his family he actually came
057out from California to come and testify uh so that that was just absolutely unbelievable um I'd like to thank our board members all of you were just so incredibly supportive and so many of you came to me and said Maria what can I do to help and you dropped everything and you helped and I I'm just so grateful for that I'm incredibly um appreciative of our staff who advocated on behalf of 2456 and they did it on their own time and they did it with their own resources on evenings and weekends making emails um making phone calls and and really just passing along encouragement to me because there were a lot of days when it was very difficult for me I felt like I wasn't making any progress and they were so encouraging to me
058and then finally our parents and our students who even jumped in to make those phone calls make those appointments send those emails the entire community's advocacy was tireless and everybody here shown a light on the important work that asdb does and I want to make it very clear that because of all of you everybody in this room and all of the people who are watching at home we got coverage from all not only all over the state we got news coverage from all over the nation social media television print media and because of that we have our four-year continuation we have lived to fight another day and I just want to say that it has been an absolute honor to work with this community and all of these wonderful and amazing partners and I just
059feel like I'm just the luckiest director of government relations in the state of Arizona because because I as difficult as it was I have an amazing Community helping me out where I where they say what can I do to help and when I asked they did it so I just I'd like to take the opportunity to say thank you and express my gratitude for that thank you Maria I want to say thank you Maria also because I got the chance to run around from office to office between the two committee meetings to see kind of what your days look like and bless you my dear I I give you a lot of kudos for all the work that you do for the agency and especially in this case it really really showed and we're very
060appreciative as well thank you thank you any questions from Maria in regards to the legislative update we're going to keep you right there okay um we pulled from the consent agenda I um the approval of policies um I know Linda had one in particular she wanted some clarification on correct thank you hi Maria um we could get this mic move so I can see you hi the policy was BCB that I wanted to talk about specifically board member conflict of interest is the topic could you show us or elaborate to us what the old policy stated and the new policy proposed statement is um I just want to clarify and have you clarify what exactly we're changing here so that we can ask more questions if need be I'd be very happy to do that
061board member both so um you have before you a copy of the red line version and so whenever you see language that is in red and is in and is underlined that is new language everything else that is in there was previously in the policy so the only changes are what are in red and are underlined and what was added to that particular policy is that we are going to be requiring annual board training to ensure that all board members know what the conflict of interest policies are and that board members are going to be signing the conflict of interest form upon their appointment and that they're going to update it whenever circumstances change okay okay interesting to hear that um for the last five years I don't think I've ever gotten anything like that
062so uh why are we doing this now and never before was there an incident that happened can you explain what was the impetus for this change and I'm sorry I don't have access to the redline copy that's quite all right it was actually something that was a recommendation in the auditor General's Sunset audit report so they they stated that we we had some gaps uh in conflict of interest training for board members as well as for staff members and so we made this change to reflect um to adopt the recommendations that the auditor general suggested okay do you mind giving me I'm unable to find the red line where is that exactly um where would it be that it's it's for example so I'm looking it's hard to use this and read at the same
063time so asdb spouse um kennel not hold a member be on the board can you clarify where we are oh here one one moment please while she's reviewing that I I do want to touch on that um I'm still concerned and you and I have talked about this Maria that by Banning any spouse of an asdb um employee as a board member we are really limiting our community of of individuals that we can pull from who have an understanding of not only services to deaf students but services to Blind and Visually Impaired students as well and I would I would like to see us address that in policy that um that the training and the conflict of interest statement could be um used to support somebody in participating but then not voting for specific things
064like contracts and things like that and uh I would be happy to remove that if the board would like to make that motion to say please remove that specific line and then approve it I can go ahead and strike that line and and we can get that done I'll make a motion this is Linda oh keep going okay then I'll second your motion but I do want to talk more about the specific point and the rationale and the concern for it because again the deaf Community is a small community um and so our hiring pool is limited already which means that those who maybe spouses either can't work for the school or can't serve on the board even though they are on different departments or in different serving in different capacities I've spoken with board
065members of gallaudet University and other schools for the deaf and this policy does not exist in those instances it is rather the board member's responsibility when they sign that conflict of interest form to know to abstain and recuse themselves from items on the agenda that may be perceived as a conflict of interest so I I do think it's important that we be able to have folks who are on the board who are intelligent mature people know when they should or should not abstain from an item so that's why I wanted to bring attention to this and to have that stricken the general hearing world is a large pool that you could pull from however those who have expertise in this very specific field is limited and we want high achievement this is board member Cinco
066I wanted to piggyback on Linda's comments in the deaf and blind and visually impaired communities we're a small community and what I have come to learn in my professional experience is that the idea of a dual role often benefits the community it doesn't hurt the community research has proven that when you have that dual role it often benefits when you're in a very small underserved Community like Linda said we're mature professional people and when we recognize that a situation for example teacher contract issues when a board member has a personal connection to a staff member or a teacher whose contract is up for Renewal then they would abstain from that that's pretty common practice for gallaudet boards other boards of education and for the Arizona commission for the deaf and hard of hearing as well
067so again it's important to keep this in mind that we're here to sue to serve our students thank you so I do have a motion to remove that language from this policy and a second do I have any further discussion before calling for a vote okay all those in favor say aye opposed any abstentions all right that motion carries so we we will see this again okay were there any other policies from 7.02 that you wanted to have addressed yeah um lb where we're striking the um if a bench should arise in which the administration of asdb is considering unilaterally terminating or failing to renew a contract with a third party that delivers direct services to our children at the board would vote to approve that termination I was wondering why that's being strippen yes
068board member Davison it was my understanding that there was conversation at the previous board meeting that um that that it was the sense of the board that uh the board wanted to go back to what the policy was previous to the changes that had occurred um in May of last year and uh because this policy was on the agenda previously I believe for March I went ahead and I made the additional changes and so it's back now for consent agenda but did did I misinterpret the sense of the board from my perspective no you did not we we had some discussion that any contracts have to go through the state procurement process and that was enough of oversight I do know that um there are still things within the board control as far as approving
069some of those contracts once the RFP process as far as continuing those Services once the RFP process has been developed but I'm open to discussion I I think my concern is us knowing just the communication process um I went through this before when contracts were not continued um and just again the communication and and knowing what's what's going on within the organization could that be something that would was brought as part of a consent agenda item when those contracts are executed or when they are coming up for Renewal that we have like it could be a consent agenda or a possible action item for discussion with that that would help be as a board member I've there have been different situations where members in the public in you I'm in education and know a lot
070of special ed directors and whatever and they'll come to me and say oh did you know this was happening uh no well aren't you on the board yeah but yeah and it's just having the information is critical otherwise we look like we don't know what we're doing so I don't know that we would need a motion to have those added as part of the agenda for just possible discussion um but I I can say that I I do agree with Lynn that we should have at least some knowledge of that and have the ability to discuss it as a board and understand the reasoning why behind it so if that could just be part of best practice I I definitely would appreciate that as well same I agree thank you Mrs Linda that relates to
071my current discussion about all of the different policies and changes I as a board member would like to be informed in advance of time not one or two days prior and there's so much text and things to get through and try to process so being given more time for us as board members to carry out our responsibilities make sure that we are on top of things and we have something to bring to the table if we have questions or need clarifications so a timeline like two weeks in advance or something like that is that a possibility a board member Bove uh Yes actually um board president Kenneth um did approach me about sending out the policies um the red line policies to the board two weeks in advance and so I will be uh doing
072that starting with the the next board meeting because I know that we will have first read policies for July and yeah I'm I'm very happy to do that and I will just reiterate um if you have questions from Maria on those policies when they come out ahead of time please make sure you direct your questions directly to her and not a reply all okay so that we are not stepping on the toes of open meeting law right thank you for that um do you uh do we want to make a up wow motion for lb separately or can we include it in the rest of that we can include it in the rest of it as long as we have that understanding that the board will be notified when there's okay changes I did want
073to follow up with a question based on one of the public comments um in regards to the inconsistency of the timelines within the same policy could you address some of that for us please yes thank you um board member can iifel and I was actually going to to bring that up afterwards so um I believe that what was uh what was cited was actually the regulation and the regulations do not require board approval although the board has the right to review the regulations it does not make sense to revise the regulations before the policy has been officially approved so if the policy is approved then I will go ahead and make the changes to the regulations to make sure that all of the dates and the timelines match up and as for the exhibits meaning
074the forms I can make changes to the forms as well and then um depending on what assistant superintendent Cooper is talking about where we're looking at possibly doing an online Just Master Complaint Form once that gets up and running then all of those exhibits are going to come down anyway so my my follow-up question to that is why the extension of the timeline what what I guess what is the why behind needing the additional time um so essentially in my conversations with the auditor General's office they had stated that it that 30 business days was standard so they they just made the recommendation of 30 days okay um and I know I'm sorry I'm keeping you up there on the hot seat that's okay but I I know that Linda had mentioned you know um
075and it it's in policy too that it's the responsibility of the leadership team to make sure that policies are meeting state and federal regulations and things like that but could you just explain a little bit um just for the edification of the board of how those policy changes sort of get initiated and where they're coming from in most cases not all in most cases they are coming in response to legislative changes from the Arizona State Legislature and we are members of the Arizona school boards Association and several times a year the Arizona School boards Association will issue what are called policy advisories which will recommend certain changes to certain enumerated policies in order to make sure that we are complying with Arizona revised Statute and federal law and when we receive those then I will
076go ahead and I will make those changes I take them to the board we have two reads in some cases if it's an emergency the board can approve a policy in one read but that's typically what happens now the board also because you are an independent board can initiate new policies you can initiate changes to Old policies you can say we don't need this particular policy and we can strike it completely so it it it really um depends so sometimes it's in response to the board's desires sometimes it might be a suggestion made by um you know a staff member or a member of the public most of the time it's in response to policy advisories that are related to Legal changes to comply with Arizona revised Statute um and in sort of a follow-up
077to that is there other than yourself other than the team of one are there other people whether it's in the leadership team or even at the staff front line level a committee that internally to the agency that are reviewing policies to make sure that they are current not so much from a legislative standpoint but is reflective of what we are doing on a day-to-day basis we we have leaders who are very much involved in reviewing policies and saying we need changes here we need some revisions there um so um director Piet has been very involved with that um director Duff um has been involved with with those as well and then whenever there are policies that need changing um before it goes to the board I always try to send it out to our internal
078subject matter experts to make sure that I'm that I'm not missing anything and then after the subject matter experts have their say then I will take it up to superintendent reichmann and get her blessing on it and then after that I will go ahead and move it forward to the board so I do try to have a rigorous review process any other questions from Maria I will entertain a motion for 702 except for policy BCB if someone would like to so move salute I moved to accept the policy except for BCB was that was 7.02 correct I have a motion do I have a second second all those in favor say aye aye all right opposed I any abstentions motion carries will CPC be back in July thank you thank you I would like to
079take um a 10 minute break at this point to allow the interpreters and our card provider to have a little bit of a rest and we will resume at um let's just say 5 40. all right the time is 5 39 the time is 5 39. you don't have light flashing for the we should okay awesome wife I am unmuting your microphones testing foreign testing testing testing okay that's yours I will I won't take that away from you I promise I promise okay um I have 5 40. are we ready to I'm looking up to the window are you guys ready for us thumbs up some okay awesome um we are reconvening it is now 5 40. we're moving on to agenda item 7.04 discussion and action item election of new board president this is
080board member both I would nominate I would move that board member can if I'll become secretary can I vote become foreign president for the remainder of the term I I will accept that nomination do we have any other nominations okay I we have a second nomination all those in favor say aye aye opposed thank you hearing none I will continue until the end of this term however since it wasn't as offices we will need to put secretary on to the July agenda for voting okay moving on to 8.01 call to the public on non-agenda items I think we have two um for the first one we have Marcy brainberg and Marcy looks like you had you submitted two public comments if you if you'd like to talk on both of them that'd be great I
081believe my first one was the one when I was up here earlier on the agendaist items um and then there is one that was also posted online yes but online um that was part of what I was going to talk about here that um I did decide to remove my son from the school as was in my considerations last board meeting and my son mentioned that he was really hoping that wouldn't become the case however in meetings with the principal and her not being timely or diligent even though the superintendent stated she was stating it doesn't make it so without the further communication of how it was done many lies were told directly to my face and other parents faces and it became clear to me that it's negligent to leave my son here and
082he ended up agreeing after those meetings so he was actually fairly excited while saddened to leave the school and we're currently homeschooling until we find a more appropriate option hopefully within an open boundary exception it was interesting to me to hear the superintendent talk about accountability and the lack of it that some of us parents have seen this year the amount of emails that have gone stated with things such as we'll get back to you shortly and no response I got a response because I came in unannounced and said I need to speak to someone but another dad responded to that email chain twice a week later and two weeks later and that superintendent never responded to him after saying she would respond shortly after this is extremely disappointing and not how you show that
083you're holding accountability another mention that she said today was on the superb culture and showing it with the satisfaction survey the employee satisfaction survey as the report that came out from the ombuds person and I know that it wasn't public but it was shared with me by many employees it did show that only fifty percent of the staff filled it out that the things that needed to be worked on were improved communication intimidation harassment professional development and trust and cohesion with intimidation and harassment and trust and cohesion on there it's no wonder why only fifty percent of Staff members filled it out they didn't feel comfortable doing so that didn't that email didn't come out until March and the survey was done in May that's a pretty long time to hold that information and not
084act on it and make the staff feel more comfortable especially when we are talking about having critical Staffing shortages um I would agree with the teacher who spoke earlier that it's imperative to make sure that we are compensating staff members appropriately not just the teachers but when I looked online at jobs available there are jobs such as being a deaf Mentor that pays under 20 an hour and requires a bachelor's degree that is not consistent in today's market there is no way you could do fast food employment for that kind of pay with that kind of education there is no incentive to actually bring people in with those hiring scales um I don't think that we can just use lip service in trying to placate the community saying things like we're trying to be more
085accountable or that's a priority you actually need to show it actions speak louder than words and it's not something that the community or parents are feeling that they are seeing it has led to three of us removing our kids just in the last couple months it's been very disappointing and very difficult to work with the current Administration here thank you thank you um lastly I have Belinda Carroll I want to make sure everyone can see me what is my time limit about four to five minutes okay I'll try my best good evening board president superintendent Annette reichmann Oren and Shayna and stakeholders PTSD and Tucson community at Large my name is Belinda Carroll I'm a staff member here at PTSD however I am here representing the Arizona deaf Community tonight I am not only speaking
086as myself as an individual I am here representing the larger voice of the deaf community and I am begging you as a board to please listen with open minds and Open Hearts to see and hear and understand what we are trying and have been trying to tell you the past 12 months have been a disaster and chaotic feels like we're living amongst a storm of dark clouds that won't dissipate we'd like to talk about asdb's mission that we are committed to respect support and the well-being of all superintendent reichmann I'd like to remind you of your statement that was posted all over campuses that act abbreviation accountability collaboration and transparency of which there is none I can't speak for the Tucson campus but for Phoenix we've seen a domino effect that continues to persist since
087the announcement of our assistant principal moving to Tucson the Phoenix campus has gone through heartbreak and shock we understand the rationale Tucson needed Trisha but it was a loss since the fall and throughout the year our principles on Fourth campus former principal Amber and current principal Jill and principal Waddell we've seen all of them struggle our heart breaks because we can't support our principles on both campuses they are overwhelmed with different tasks and responsibilities that they have to carry out but the agency executive team leadership team has said that they will support us that they will give them leadership and guidance but behind the scenes it's not actually happening there have been promises made with no follow-through there's no collaboration no transparency no accountability the situation that we've been dealing with on the Phoenix campus
088since the fall has been ongoing never-ending and that took our leadership team their complete attention has been diverted to one situation and the rest of the campus has been left in neglect it tore apart our staff and our teachers into warring divisions we lost our team spirit and our collaborative nature we had a town hall meeting with assistant superintendent Martin and Annette and we were promised town halls in the future but that seemed to be a one-time thing unfortunately there's no clear way to reach out for suggestions on Improvement or ways to uplist or uplift our team here many of us have sent several emails and gotten no response we've asked for conversation we've asked for more dialogue due to the lack of support many of our teachers and staff and families are leaving in
089droves from PTSD approximately 30 teachers and staff are leaving at the end of this year for better opportunities better Financial opportunities and greener pastures those of us who are left we've got about 20 who are still on the fence have one foot out the door the staff who are still here are worried about the future of PTSD and asdb the future looks grim the legislators are now watching us with a close eye and it's going to get harder our Phoenix leadership team used to have nine members with six admin supports since February we're down to three we have two admin supports and one will be retiring we are barely standing we are trying to stand strong but we're tired we haven't had a school-wide meeting to talk about planning for the future of PTSD at
090all because our principle is simply too busy she's overwhelmed with more tasks that can't be ignored we don't know what next year is going to look like for PTSD last week Tucson had enormous news that their principal Trisha Waddell is leaving and we understand how they feel her resignation has sent shock waves throughout campus and throughout the entire State of Arizona and the deaf Community is devastated that we're losing such a wonderful leader superintendent reichmann you asked us to recruit and find a new principal a new assistant principal and new teachers how are we going to do that how can we with a straight face say come to PTSD and come work in Tucson when we are really ready to leave too people want to stand and lift spirits but we're not given the opportunity
091to rise up in positions promotional advancements are few and far between our enrollment this year has dwindled many families are considering leaving and going elsewhere our deaf Community is watching both near and far and is worried PTSD and asdb Tucson used to be shining beacons in the community but now they're simply distracted when we try to raise school spirit we can't do that without strong leadership in the agency and at both campuses I'm almost done as we get to the end of the year we should all be celebrating graduation is coming soon we have folks who are retiring who should be celebrated and we should be celebrating a year of accomplishment for our colleagues but we don't feel that way that cloud is still there Donna Williams our um buds person fair warning many of
092us will be filing grievances you'll be hearing a lot of us soon in closing I wanted to inform the board thank you for your time thank you for your consideration and if you truly care about the staff the teachers the students and the families and the community we serve you'll listen to our statements we have no confidence in our superintendent it's time for her to step down thank you moving on to 8.02 discussion and possible action items agenda items for the next regular board meeting which is scheduled for July 20th we do want to add the secretary yes add the secretary election to that um and I have discussed this with Annette as well um wanted to have the a media team presentation to kind of give us a heads up about how we make
093our web content not just accessible but also inclusive to the extent possible and what that might look like I don't know if that will be ready for the July meeting or if we might need to postpone that to the fall meeting I'm we're okay with either it will be hello it will be ready Annette here it will be ready okay thank you anything else you can always send those directly to Annette or to myself if there's anything else you want to have on the agenda hearing nothing else moving on to 9.01 I move that we adjourn this meeting in record time if you have a second all those in favor meeting is adjourned at 5 57 p.m thank you so much everyone