ASDB Board Meeting (11/04/2021)

001four three two one uh good afternoon everyone um welcome now is the time set for the uh board meeting of the arizona state schools for the deaf and the blind um just uh we're in person today in phoenix just a few ground rules to go over we're mostly distance here on the on the stage so if folks feel comfortable they can take off their masks while you're speaking that's really up to you unless you have any kind of issue with that and also when you're speaking if you can do two things and these are ground rules that we go over all the time one if you can state your name before you start speaking that helps uh the interpreters uh and then two if there's a a change in speaker just pause for you know

002a beat uh a second or two um so the interpreters can catch up and uh turn their attention to the to the next speaker other than that uh we'll be ready to go to 1.01 call to order and roll call and uh for the roll call sue k brittany buchanan here linda bove here lynn davison here mike gordon i'm here dean howard i'm here pb chance david nigro present aaron wonders president and myself sue k caneifel all right thank you sue k uh we can move on sorry uh we can move on to uh item 1.02 call to the public on agendized items as we've done for the last year and a half as opposed to having people physically appear you've been able to email in emails of certain length uh and fill out a

003form online uh to submit those comments and suitcase we have any for the agenda items i don't think so yeah they're all gonna be coming up later today so we don't have any to read so the next item is going to be 1.03 information item superintendents report superintendent reichman hello everyone i'm happy to see everyone present today i am superintendent annette reichman hello president nigro assistant superintendent rex assistant superintendent cooper and members of the board and the asdb community as well those of you who are here and those of you who are watching on our live stream welcome to our november 4th 2021 board meeting i'm happy to see you all here it happens that november is my favorite month of the year because it's thanksgiving that is one holiday that i think is very

004unique to us in the united states we take the time to gather together with our family and our friends and we express our appreciation and our gratitude for the gifts that have been given to us and to each other so i want to say thank you to the board of the dr of directors for your time for your efforts for your energy your commitment and your support to asdb i truly appreciate you i also appreciate the asdb community our educators our staff and members of the community as well for their commitment motivation effort energy and support in providing the best possible education we can to our students i am truly grateful for all of that thank you i want to start with the story of asdb you know that asdb was founded back in 1912.

005i'm not gonna go back that far in my history i'm only going to go back to the last five and a half years i have been superintendent during that time so i want to share my perspective of asdb's story and i'm sure each of you have your own perspective of asdb's story as well our teachers our professional staff our leadership team each have their own perspective of the asdb story and the outside community also would have their own perspective of the asdb story i'm sure our students and our parents have theirs as well i'm not going to go into all of those perspectives i will simply share my own view of the asdb story when i started here five and a half years ago that first year i'm sure you all remember i didn't do

006a whole lot in that first year you may have wondered what i was doing i was taking the time to travel around the state to meet and visit with and talk to all of our stakeholders i wanted to know who we were as asdb what our purpose was our history our present our future i wanted to understand asdb thoroughly so that first year i took the time to listen and to understand at that time as i met so many people i saw a great deal of dedication motivation and heart in our people and our staff they were working incredibly hard to provide a great education and supports to our students of asdb the commitment and the motivation were astounding i also saw that they were doing that work without a lot of data they did

007not have a lot of data to use in making their decisions i saw that there was not a very effective support system at the agency level we were not providing adequate support to our teachers and to our professional staff so what do you do when you don't have the support at a systemic level you create your own supports right that's the rational thing to do and that's what our staff had done they made teams where they were and each of those teams was an island within their own island or their silos they were working together and doing the best they could to provide supports and education high quality education and support to our students that was the logical thing to do at that time and if i was on one of those teams i would

008have made the same decision i realized early on that we had to figure out a way for each of those isolated islands to be bridged to each other so in the fall of i led a steering committee and we had our very first meeting we brought in agency leaders from all over the agency and across the state into one room there were about 55 people at the time if i remember correctly from that first meeting you might have thought that that number of people in a room would have been noisy but it was dead silent people were looking at each other and wondering who they were they didn't know each other they didn't work together so from then on twice a year and still to this day we bring in leaders across the agency into

009one room so to speak it had been in person previously and more lately it's been virtual but we are still giving those people the opportunity to see each other and hear each other and try to understand each other so that we are not living on islands alone we are one agency but we also had to get better we needed to provide data and we needed an effective system so we started to make some systemic changes and if you recall early on that very first systemic systemic change started with asking the advanced ed team to come in and take a look at us to evaluate us and give us an agency level accreditation did that because we needed a plan we needed a framework to guide us we hadn't had a framework and advanced ed was

010able to come in and give us that framework toward accreditation we were able to use that to evaluate our systems and find a starting point to make changes that was 2017 and 2018. the other first thing that we did was work with the arizona department of education to get additional funding so that we could be involved in the school improvement process some of you may not remember that we did a fairly thorough assessment we did a gap analysis to try to determine where to start and how to improve our schools both tucson campus and phoenix campus the answer of where to start was with our curriculum at that time we did not have a formula formal curriculum in our schools so we started with english language arts and the board approved an ela curriculum for

011math in the sec for ela in the first year and math in the second year and then science and we are still working our way through curriculum selection every year we are reviewing and choosing our curriculum and finding how to provide a better education for our students and that was a huge systemic change the other systemic change was our early learning program you may recall that we've had early intervention for birth to three-year-olds that was an island and then we had another little island of three to five year olds our preschool programs on both tucson and phoenix campuses they were not working together was not a smooth transition from birth to three into our preschool program so we put them together and it became a zero to five program again reason being we all agreed

012that those first five years are absolutely critical for a child's development and language acquisition and independent living skills those foundations must be strong in order to build their capabilities to enter kindergarten and succeed in k-12 school we are continuing to make changes and we have been working hard on our regional cooperatives and we did have five regional cooperatives that were operating as five islands within the state each had their own process their own way of doing things their own definition of specialized instruction there was not consistency or standardization within those co-ops we did not have that so we we created a statewide system and we pulled together those five regional cooperatives and that is something that we are still working on and you will hear more about that later in our public comments there have

013been a lot of changes happening and i'm hoping that you all will decide to have a work-study session in the beginning of 2022 so that we have the opportunity to talk more about our leadership at itinerant services and you will become more familiar with that process and that progress of all of the changes that have been occurring then of course in 2020 the kovid 19 pandemic caused everything to shut down and through many things into chaos so we had to pivot very quickly we had to figure out how we could continue to provide education and support to our students virtually most of our teachers had never done that before so we made that transition and i'm sure you will recall that that what that process looked like and then during the pandemic you all surprised

014me you wanted to do a strategic plan yes we need a clear path and clear guidance from our board historically we have developed in a given direction and each of those islands would try to navigate or shift toward the direction that we were all trying to go in but we didn't have a clear plan we didn't have clear strategic planning and direction and the board created that you had a great deal of discussion and conversation around that and created our strategic plan i'd like to talk about the strategic plan just for a moment looking at the four pillars we have excellence in communication and relationships and what does that mean that means internally as well as externally we have to be able to effectively communicate we have to have those critical conversations and discussions without

015communication and without those relationships there is no trust if there is no trust then we cannot work together we cannot collaborate we cannot problem solve we cannot be creative and innovative we must have trust as our foundation the second pillar is outstanding student development that is the heart of our work our students are at the heart of everything we do it's interesting this sign development is similar to the sign for thrive so we don't just want to see our students develop we want to see them thrive and how we do that is by having a clear heart a clear purpose and a vision for what we're doing that is our second pillar and then our third pillar is superb organizational culture if we want our students to develop and thrive we must have high quality

016instructors and professional staff we have to be able to draw them in and keep them with us and the way to do that is to have a healthy and strong organizational culture that supports each other that is our third pillar and our fourth pillar is effective resource management and that is our people our facilities our vehicles our technology and our finances none of our other three pillars could happen without the resources necessary and without those resources being effectively managed so all of those tie together and that creates our vision that gives us our direction for the future that is the future of asdb i am inspired i am excited i am motivated and i am ready to go i want to make asdb the best agency in the country and i believe we can do

017that and i believe it even more now because of all of your support and your actions in supporting our efforts so thank you thank you superintendent are there any questions for a superintendent okay hearing none we can go on to 1.04 information item assistant superintendent of curriculum instruction dr rex good afternoon president nigro and board members this is kristin rex and i'm here to update you on pillar 2. pillar 2.1 developing strategies and measurements to ensure early language acquisition for all asdb students is the focus of my report today working with elp our campus programs as well as the statewide regional centers directors and principals have aligned their smart goals to the asdb strategic plan here is an update for the outstanding student development to ensure student development through early language acquisition and skill development

018social and emotional learning and high academic achievement for all learners our directors and principals have begun to develop a framework for the elp objectives the campus objectives and the statewide itinerant objectives the framework that has been developed is in three main sections section one pillar two which is outcome measures this is listing our best estimated completion year in which we have the data that we will be able to share with the board we found that trying to manage 31 different strategies output measures and efficiency measures for pillar two gets a little bit daunting by attaching a year for completion it has helped us wrap our heads around the work that needs to be done and when each of the measures are completed we'll be able to share such information with you the directors and principals

019have set goals for completion and when things will be fully completed by year not all the objectives are fully implemented this year as some of the data is not available yet some of the systems to meet the objectives have not been developed yet some of this work is ongoing but the directors principals supervising teachers teacher leaders have all made it part of their smart goals so everyone is developing and having accountability directors and principals did develop a calendar which they submitted to superintendent regman as well as maria murphy at the end of october to help keep our focus on the tasks that need to be completed and to meet the objectives the second section of our pillar 2 outcome plan measures by month for this year academic 2021 and 2022 this will help us further

020wrap our heads around what needs to be done in a timely manner and what needs to be started for each of the measures we have timelined out actions and tasks by month the goal here is to help narrow that focus on what work needs to be done this year and the third section of pillar two is who's responsible for all those nitty-gritty details on each outcome measure each strategy each output each efficiency measure this is the on the ground view for our staff that are doing the work day in and day out as we gather information and the data in elp or the statewide itinerant regions or the campus programs we will then provide that information to maria murphy who has been tasked to update the strategic plan a few examples of what is being

021developed implemented or completed i have the following to report to you the early learning program has trained all hi and vi teachers to help gather data and adjust educational programming in the birth to three and campus-based preschool programs the dhh and deaf-blind teachers have partic participated in the national outcomes and developmental data assistance center for the eddie programs in partnership with the university of colorado we call this odyssey for short it is being implemented by staff and i currently had the opportunity to see some assessing of students and i know that it is happening right now since there was not an equivalent checklist for our blind visually impaired and deaf-blind students our vi staff along with low vision experts developed an in-house version to mirror odyssey they have named their work project bibio and it

022stands for project blind visually impaired outcomes it is also a checklist and it was mirrored to align with the odyssey checklist the timeline for collecting the data in both checklists is the same and staff will then review the checklist and that use that information to help meet the outcomes for measurements 2.2.1 and 2.1.2 in both the campus and statewide itinerant programs we are wrapping up our post-school outcomes data that has been finished this data will be added to the graphs 2.2.1 a and 2.2.1 b this is our baseline data and we will continue to provide information about students preparation who's entering the workforce and is college and career ready within the campus programs we're using a our comprehensive needs assessment through our school improvement to gather data as well this is a developmental stage for

023the objective 2.3.1 our statewide itinerant regional directors are developing a process and remember they have to work with over 122 different school districts and they are working on ways to gather request and align information from the schools that they serve to gather cte information we'll find out what schools have students that participate in cte how many certifications were awarded to these students how many actually finished the whole program and this will be an ongoing process for each of the directors to develop they also work with each of the separate schools not just the districts so now they need to work with each school gather the information and as you can guess it gets pretty involved and they will be working with a lot of stakeholders this pers this whole procedure is in the development and

024beginning and implementation phase the statewide regional directors are also committed committed to communicating with each partner district as they are going to be requesting ela and math student data from those students that participate in the statewide assessments so in summary as a team eop campus programs and the statewide itinerant regional centers are using the current data that they're collecting they are implementing systems that they have developed and we use our weekly meetings for updates and ongoing information that we will be sharing with you are there any questions for dr rex yes president niagara this is linda both okay hello this is linda both and i do have a question for you dr rex two questions actually first of all i appreciate how much work has been involved in getting everything standardized on an agency level

025with data collection and i know that must have been a significant challenge when you're working with school districts i know that the school districts have a lot of other staff involved as well and and those schools that are under each of those districts so i'm wondering how people are responding to that request for data are they overwhelmed are they able to meet deadlines um how is that process going just wondering how everyone's responding to that demand as it were for um for data and timelines that is in the implement implementation phase and they will be working with the sped directors first we'll have to work with our teachers who serve the students in the specific schools we'll have to partner with the principals so we're kind of timelining when we're going to roll out the

026information how we're going to try to gather the information what do we do when a district or school says we're not going to share that information with you we're going to have to document everything and hopefully have um have success in doing so this is a this is definitely a pilot year yes absolutely and that's what i'm wondering i think it's easy for us as a board to put all of this on paper but getting it to actually happen and be successful after implementation is the real challenge so i was just wondering so far how folks are responding if they're feeling like it's too much if we're going to have to maybe modify our expectations can and can we do that i think when i first rolled it out honestly to the principals and directors

027their eyes got pretty big it's a lot a lot of stuff we're already doing though it's just a matter of how we're going to gather that data that communication piece with our internal stakeholders as well as the external stakeholders is going to be put to the test for sure we're going to learn we're going to grow and if we have recommend we're going to try we're going for it but if we have recommendations or we need to share more information with you we will let you know along the way if we hit any barriers i do appreciate that yes i think it's important for the board to be kept abreast of any challenges that you may face and then my second question is about the people who have graduated and gone out into the workforce

028how are you keeping track of them and what's your plan to track any of that data i do think that's a very important part of our strategic plan seeing how successful our kiddos are after they graduate how do they progress are they thriving i think that's an important thing for a thing for us to take back and then apply to our kiddos all the way from birth you know all the way through so do you understand what i'm saying that's my question how are you tracking that data after they've left us the arizona department of education does post school outcomes and they are done by doing interviews with the actual students or the families so they get that first-hand data what is your child doing right now and they they have they've gathered it for

029this year and so we have that information that we have compiled and we will be getting that to maria to put in one of the graphs i think it's 2.1.1 a and b okay that sounds good thank you very much all right are there any other questions for dr rex okay hearing done well we can move on to 1.05 information item assistant superintendent of agency operations and support assistant superintendent cooper good afternoon shayna cooper board president niagara superintendent reichman assistant superintendent rex members of the board and asdb community each of the directors have provided their departmental reports which i will provide a summary on and add to based on additional information that has come forth since the reports were provided last week the it department staff have worked on a number of initiatives and projects

030to include the completion of the proxy access system installation which was funded through the us department of justice cops grant with the exception of one building designated doors on campus buildings now have an access control reader requiring a swipe card to gain access the staff also installed 53 environmental centers on both tucson and phoenix campuses in i.t areas and the designated classroom labs these sensors monitor eight environmental areas such as temperature humidity volatile organ organic compounds and noise our operations department more specifically transportation has been working diligently to continue to address the transformation transportation needs for our students resulting from house bill which recognizes our site-based programs as the local education agencies responsible for providing a free and appropriate public education for our enrolled students as of last week there has been an increase of

031about 30 percent which comes to approximately 115 students added to the transportation workload asdb has continued to contact each affected district and we are either continuing our partnerships using internal staff to transport the students or are utilizing third-party contractors to meet the additional demand with the assistance of hr we have been looking at various methods to increase the compensation and recruitment efforts for our cdl drivers currently asdb is running at a 63 percent staffing level for our cdl drivers on the tucson campus and 53 percent on the phoenix campus asdb is currently experiencing similar to other states a driver shortage and we've approached this problem by creating non-cdl driver positions to address the students affected by house bill 2863 as of this past week pdsd has had only one internal candidate promoted into the position

032the tucson campus has had one internal promotion and one external hire for food services if you recall asdb finalized the contract with k-12 by elior and began to implement the transition from in-house staff to contracted staff which became became effective july 1st of 2021 in under 30 days k-12 was able to hire train and implement their program for the first day of school they successfully served breakfast and lunch each day with positive feedback from students and staff and our director of operations and our food services manager along with the k through k-12 staff continue to meet and refine the food service program internally as part of these discussions we are excited to begin the implementation of the following programs in the near future the first being global bites to explore food from around the world

033the second is conducting satisfaction surveys to ensure that students are enjoying their food three doing the stu student food council to explore a more in-depth review of the food and four doing the fresh picks which would explore new kinds of fruits and vegetables asdb and k-12 are continuing to work through the transition regarding meal claiming reimbursements and invoicing due to this transition asdb has asked abe school staff an additional extension for the august claim in order for us to verify accuracy overall we are satisfied with our partnership with k-12 and our optimistic for what is to become of the food services program as it relates to the master facilities plan a decision has been made to postpone the start date of the planning to another year or two and this is due to the need

034for analyzing the agency's workforce and reducing the ratio of staff to students allowing more resources to be allocated to instruction and instruction improvement and other resources within the agency in addition we need to work on addressing the impacts of house bill once these items have been completed then the agency can work on developing a plan for the long term development and maintenance of our facilities for business services the financial report will be provided separately under agenda item 4.01 and if you recall i mentioned that the department had three vacant positions two of those three positions have now been filled our new warehouse clerk on the ptsd campus jonathan wilson began working with the team on september 20th the second position is our new director of business services kim bitrich the intent to offer the new

035higher employment contract for her has began um or excuse me has been included in the consent agenda item today her first day was this past monday november 1st and her office location is on the tucson campus interviews were conducted recently for our student accounts clerk vacant position we hope to be able to select a candidate with an anticipated start date beginning in late november all in all the team continues to work hard processing vendor payments travel claims and payroll for staff receiving and delivering ordered items and to ensure we meet budgetary needs the staff continue to budget and review our actuals for accuracy especially considering we are still not sure if the projections for the total transportation costs will meet the projected amount of the million dollars which was budgeted for this current year in

036addition most recently there is an initial unprojected amount of about three hundred thousand dollars needed to continue with our contract pricing for the preschool services that the foundation for blind children is providing for our preschool students that contract was recently signed and began on november 1st although we are in month four of the year these financial needs within the agency are very significant and i'm working with the budget team to forecast our year in obligations and cash flows last but not least the hr department has also been working on a number of initiatives and projects the staff sent out two surveys one of them being a way to understand how prevalent sexual harassment is at asdb and if the resources we have available as an employer provides staff with enough options to address harassment and

037act on complaints an update on the survey will be provided to the board in january the other say survey was to supervisors to get feedback on employment related topics that would be helpful in their role human resources will be providing virtual informational meetings twice a month to cover those topics in addition to the work the four departments are doing i have been actively working with several of the staff to analyze the current compensation structure to ensure internal equity and external competitiveness we have been reviewing all of the various additional compensation that is above and beyond the base pay for staff which are primarily stipends we are also looking at recommendations to modify salary schedules including but not limiting to eliminating compression issues for the entry-level positions that come from the minimum wage changes and reviewing

038the pay rates for various positions based upon market studies included in today's consent agenda item is the approval of the minimum wage pay schedule changes which would increase the hourly rates from 12 dollars and 15 cents which is the state's minimum wage to 12.80 effective january 1 2022. we received information this past week that the tucson proposition 206 was approved which would increase the city's minimum wage from and fifteen cents to fifteen dollars by january 1 2025 and increasing it every year thereafter by the rate of inflation the first increment would be thirteen dollars which will become effective april first twenty twenty two at this time the agency has not had a chance to review the budgetary impacts or the details as such no decision has been made on whether or not we will increase

039the minimum wage for the tucson staff members and as a reminder as an agency under the state of arizona asdb is not required to follow the minimum wage increase for arizona or its cities however in order to remain competitive with other employers who are required to increase their minimum wage we have implemented the increases in order to keep up with those changes and to retain our staff members i hope to be able to provide more information on the decision within the next few months so that it can go to the board for more information and approval in either the january or march 22 board meeting if the agency decides to move forward with the incremental increases which would be in addition to the state's minimum wage increase in my update about the master facilities plan

040i mentioned a workforce analysis this analysis is a project that i'm leading with the assistance of various leadership staff to review and analyze staffing levels so that it can align with our student enrollment primarily using the ratio metric of student to staff ftes the analysis is also needed within our personnel expenses often exceeding over 80 percent of our operating budget this overexpending relative to the budget may mean that there's an increase in staffing levels it could be less vacancies and or expected more than expected higher salaries we are trying to determine a more appropriate percentage by using metrics that include reviewing historical and budgeted actual expenditures as well as reviewing fte counts and reviewing salary data for relative degrees and experience levels so a lot is going on within our agency operations and support services

041areas if there are no questions this concludes my assistant superintendent report thank you thank you are there any questions i think linda has her hand up yes hello this is linda bove i did want to mention that um i and i'm hoping that the board agrees with me have seen these three presentations and i have found them so wonderful you have provided fantastic information with a great deal of updates and we can see that your efforts have been extraordinary and you have made a great deal of progress especially in your department miss cooper you gave us a lot of information with a lot of detail and i feel very good about the direction that we are going right now so first i want to applaud the three of you for all of that information i

042have a question regarding transportation can you go back to what you were saying about transportation um the increased number of students that were having to serve how many students did you say that increase was yes shayna cooper it's about 115 students approximately 30 percent of an increase okay and how are we managing that budget for transportation with these unexpected additional responsibilities am i correct that this was unexpected as of last week um at the time the house bill did pass we did anticipate some expenditures that would incur right now i'm hoping that with the number of vacancies that we have within our staff the staff vacancies will hopefully be able to offset the increased expenditures that we have for contractual obligations for both the school districts for reimbursement and for the contracted services that's what

043i'm hoping okay so where i'm sorry where did those students come from i'm trying to understand that transportation issue that you're facing right now these are students from the school districts that districts decided to send their students to asdb for services here so that caused the increase am i correct no they have already been our enrolled students but because we are now the lea we are primarily responsible for the transportation for those students okay so can you tell me more about that process of we became an lea and now we're responsible for that additional cost where did that information come from was it ade i'm not entirely clear on how all of that happened so um we we we became an lea and suddenly we became responsible for these 115 students was that a decision

044from the districts i'm not understanding why that happened or why why that increase occurred can you clarify for me please i know you mentioned it in the past but i'm not quite understanding why that happened uh linda this is this is david um i think the uh you know the primary issue here is uh because the agency became an lea one of the responsibilities of the lea is to provide transportation previously the sending school districts were paying for transportation so that's not a cost that we bore directly in in many cases so uh once the statute changed and we became responsible for that that was not a cost that was uh anticipated earlier in the process you you've recalled uh the you know the lea circumstances from earlier in the year so that wasn't planned

045for in in the budget or or calculated for so once that passed uh that's that was that's the new cost that we have to uh have to face this year um in our work study session uh over the summer you may recall that we talked about the institutional vouchers section of the statutes and they provide uh it's i think it's a fifth i think it's a hundred dollar capital outlay and fifty dollars per student per year so again it's probably an older statute um but we were getting you know 150 um as part of the institutional voucher for transportation which is uh you know not nearly adequate anymore in today's dollars uh so that's why we have to pay for more transportation you'll see later in the meeting uh you know we will uh as

046is on the agenda we will be discussing uh some potential statutory changes to try to fix this issue uh for next school year yes absolutely that's necessary yeah that's obviously concerning um because with that additional unexpected expenditure that yeah i i would definitely appreciate um learning more about that later in the meeting thank you thank you and thank you president thank you thank you um are there any other questions uh for ms cooper no okay seeing none we will move on to section 2.01 action item approval of the consent agenda consistent with board policy to include items 3.01 5.01 6.01 6.02 7.04 7.05 and 7.06 is there any board member that would like to remove one or more of those items from the consent agenda okay and hearing none on the phone either i think

047at this point we'd want to have a motion or we'd entertain a motion to pass the or to approve the consent agenda this is sue k i will um move that we accept the consent agenda as listed in the agenda items 3.01 5.01 6.01 6.02 7.04 7.05 and 7.06 uh thank you uh sue k is there a second okay linda seconds uh all in in favor say aye aye aye any opposed uh then the motion passes thank you uh we go on to 3.02 action item approval of new district agreements this assistant superintendent dr rex the board likes to have information when we have our agreement renewals as you can see the regional directors have been very busy working on getting all the renewals as well as our new agreements up and ready so we

048can serve students thank you dr rex are there any uh questions for dr x regarding this item okay uh seeing none we can entertain a motion to approve the new contracts this is uk again i move that we accept the new district agreement contracts that have been presented is there a second oh second thank you um we can take a vote all in favor say aye aye aye aye any opposed uh president will be abstaining okay um we will note that uh uh mr wonders is abstaining and uh none opposed so that motion passes and those are approved we can move on to 4.01 information item finance report assistant superintendent cooper shayna cooper our most recent finance committee meeting was held last thursday october 28th with board members gordon chance and wanders superintendent reichman and

049principal creasy from the tucson campus the formats as well as more detailed information pertaining to the agency's fiscal update was provided and discussed with the committee in summary we reviewed detail and discussed the budget fiscal year 2022 budget to actual comparison reports would be based on data as of september 30th 2021 in comparison to 2020. we also reviewed the second quarter financial statements the available cash balance student teacher ratios and filled full-time equivalents as well as the grant revenue and expenditure reports we also spent quite a bit of time with principal creasy describing the current student enrollment population on the tucson campus and we hope to be able to have the same discussion for the ptsd campus with principal ecapnetis provided to each of you is most of the same financial data that was provided

050to the finance committee but in a more condensed summarized version as referenced on page one of the financial report as of october 1st we had 2116 enrolled students which is an increase of 56 students from last year's student enrollment of 2060. the increase from last year to this year is primarily within the itinerant cooperative k-12 and birth to age 3 programs offset by the decrease in the site-based k-12 students when reviewing the current school year 21-22 enrollment you will see that as of august 1st we had 2078 students and as i mentioned the october first count is 2116. this shows a current school year increase of 38 students on page two you will see that as of october 1st there were approximately 506 filled full-time equivalents and 740 staff members there were approximately 112 vacancies

051that we are actively recruiting for which include teachers instructional assistants interpreters bus drivers and other various positions page three begins the financial summary for the month ending september 30 which is our third month of the 2022 fiscal year collected revenues are at about 227 thousand dollars versus last year's amount of 187 most of the current year revenues are from the land endowment of about 138 000 as well as 52 000 from a private donation that we did receive this year current year obligated expenses excusing expenses are 13.6 million dollars versus expenses last year at 16 million most of the 2.4 million dollar decrease results from the extra pay period we had last year if you recall i mentioned that last fiscal year there were 27 pay periods versus our normal 26 pay periods so this

052time last year through september 30th there were seven pay periods whereas this year we had six pay periods paid out through the end of september and as a side note our average cost per pay period is about 1.6 million dollars most of the 13.6 million in current year obligated expenditures is mostly made up of 9.5 million in payroll 2.5 million for rent external communication charges janitorial repair maintenance as well as utilities and an additional 927 000 in obligations for our contracted services which would include the one-to-one nursing services birth to three preschool services being provided by the foundation for the blind children as well as services being provided by previous staff members that have come back to the agency working with a vendor to continue providing education to our students because their positions are hard

053to fill we also have about four hundred and seventy six thousand dollars obligated for the work being done on the ptsd campus for the campus l building renovations as well as the science lab on the tucson campus on page nine you'll see as of september 30th we have spent 58 percent of our expenditures on instruction and instruction support on student support and shared services and 11 on agency administration on page 12 it does show that we have a seven million dollar deficit when you compare actual revenues of approximately five million dollars which again includes what we've received and expended from our general fund appropriations to actual expenditures of 12 million last year at this time though we had a deficit of 7.5 million revenues at that time were 5.1 million and expenditures were 12.6 million

054and as again this deficit is not of any particular concern as it is typical for the start of the fiscal and budget year because we do not usually begin receiving the site-based campus and itinerant cooperative student vouchers from ade until mid to late september as such we continue to monitor our available use of the cash balance from other funding sources that are not restricted until the voucher revenues are received as a matter of fact we just received 3.8 million dollars in revenues this past month from ade which covers the july through september voucher claims and it should be noted that there was a delay in receiving the claim because the we actually didn't receive that until october and it covers three months which usually covers one month and that is due to issues at ade

055where we were not able to voucher our students until september also included in the months reports are the second quarter basic financial statements beginning on page 12. and as a reminder the basic financial statements show our balance sheet our income statement as well as our statement of cash flows our available cash balance of september 30th 2021 is 9 million i do want to point out though that although we have cash available for use this amount is comprised of cash collected from various funding sources which most of them are restricted for specific purposes this would also include cash that we would receive mostly in our telecommunication fund our federal and non-federal grant funds the classroom site fund which we call the prop 301 and our trust funds which are utilized for the purposes of our students

056primarily that totals about 5 million of the 9 million the remaining four million dollars excuse me four million dollars that is available in cash is to be used specifically for our site-based campus programs and for the itinerants it is not as if we can use the available cash balance for any immediate or general agency purposes that's what we use the general fund appropriations for and that's to cover our operational needs so i know there has been a little scuttle bundle about how much cash we have but again i just want to point out that it's not specifically just there available for use for any designated purpose if there are no questions or concerns on the information i presented this concludes my report uh thank you ms cooper are there any questions for ms cooper um

057i i had one this is david in the strategic plan um four four four has an average cost per student or expenditure per student by program uh you know the tucson campus and ptsd for example um do we have that information yet or projected number i mentioned in the finance committee that i will be providing that at the next meeting um which will i i believe will be expected in january with that data okay i mean if i wanted to ballpark that today we have a the number of students enrolled on those campuses on page two and on page six of this report we have uh the the the the budget uh for the campuses is one for ptsd and one for the tucson campus if i were to do that division would i be

058somewhere near where the value of 4.4.4 would be somewhat but keep in mind uh we only do that at the end of the year because we would need to incorporate all incurred expenses which is why it's only done once a year so it would not be as accurate but it would be a rough gauge to be able to estimate those numbers yes right we'd be somewhere in the ballpark and we'd be excluding you know if we look at the what you're calling you know expenditures by program we're excluding administration um you know kind of the overall because i if i'm you know because i did that division um and it looks like in ptsd we're somewhere around 55 000 per student and on the tucson campus we're somewhere a little over ninety thousand dollars now

059that that includes tucson residential and non-resident that's correct okay so that but that's in the ballpark of where we are somewhere in the low 50s and somewhere in the low 90s you know per campus that sounds about right without me going back and looking at the data i think it may be a little bit lower if i were to go back and look but it's not too far off okay yeah i mean that was the the simple division take the enrollment from i always have a disclaimer uh sure i took the that from page two and i divided by the um uh by the budgets that we have here on page six so i i think that's about where it would be but um as long as it's a ballpark so we know that those

060those are two numbers that we would expect to see yeah and like i said i'll be able to provide more data in the next coming month or two okay uh great are there any other questions uh for ms cooper no okay great thank you thank you yeah uh we are down to 6.03 action item and tend to offer fiscal year 2022 new higher employment contract kimberly bit rich director of business services superintendent reichman yes you have been provided with her bio if you have any questions now is the time uh this is david does anyone have any questions about the intent to offer or the contract itself no um is there a motion to approve of the contract uh i i i moved that we approved the contract as proposed in 6.03 this is uk

061can i fly i second that motion uh all we can vote now all in favor uh any opposed or any abstentions all right that passes uh next we're on 6.04 action item approval of superintendents performance evaluation um so you know we do this every year we do uh two things with uh respect to superintendent rickman's performance i mean the first is to set performance goals for the coming year um you know we've we've kind of already done that with the strategic plan so you know we're we're adopting the the goals the strategic plan to be the superintendent's goals because they're the agency goals and it wouldn't make sense to have them be different so um that's the first part of it uh the second part of it is uh you know we conducted a board

062survey uh the results of which are uh in the board docks uh that the board has access to um it's a fairly comprehensive survey of different aspects of uh superintendent raymond's child performance um where there's it's both numeric it's quantitative it's also qualitative we have uh certain comments about her performance in the last year uh she did very well um [Music] better than in prior years in fact uh we also got a better board turnout we had all nine members uh this time uh last year we we had five so i'm quite pleased that everyone was able to to fill up that survey we collect all of the uh the input there if there's any uh if there's any discussion on that we can take that discussion uh if not i think we just and

063i'll pause if anyone wants to discuss that no um seeing none i think we just need a motion to uh you know a proof of evaluation um and accept it this is linda both i move to accept pr superintendent and that reichmann's evaluation as proposed this is sue k i i second uh all in favor aye aye aye aye all right any opposed and any abstentions no okay um so thank you and and thank you superintendent reichman for all the work that you do um i we we probably don't thank you enough but i guess we have an agenda item on on here once a year to formally thank you uh for all the hard work that you do we know you uh uh you know work very hard at engaging the guy in the

064agency in the right direction next up is 7.01 information and discussion item strategic plan update superintendent rickman yes thank you i've asked maria murphy to provide a brief presentation to go into a little bit more detail about our implementation of the strategic plan good afternoon board president nigro members of the board maria murphy director of policy and government relations and i'm here to speak to you today in regards to the management of the data regarding the strategic plan so as mentioned in my report in august uh 2021 superintendent reichman approached me to request that i become the gatekeeper of the data collection for the strategic plan i accepted with trepidation simply because of the importance of the project as well as the scale of the project soon afterwards superintendent reichman and i met to create

065a data management plan and we figured that the logical place to start was with pillar one since superintendent reichman is responsible for the data collection in pillar one so there are six um outcomes output measures in pillar one and she and i were able to sit down and figure out how are we going to reverse engineer each of the tasks for all of the output and outcome measures and plug it into a calendar so we did the heavy lifting and we were able to come up with six calendars for pillar one and at that point we were able to take a deep breath and say okay we can do this so throughout the months of september and october i had the opportunity to meet with those who were responsible for pillars two three and four

066um respectively assistant superintendent rex director piatt and assistant superintendent cooper as well as their teams and we set a deadline of october 31st to have each of the people who are responsible for each data output measure to send me a proposed task calendar so that i could make sure that i was keeping on top of the data collection so as of last week i'm pleased to say that i have the data points for all 36 output outcome measures so as you can imagine um trying to collect data for 36 different output measures is a little bit of a challenge and so information technology director paul creasy was kind enough to reach out to me and say maria i think that we may need to consider automating this process to make it as easy as possible

067to collect the data so we the information technology department is currently using a cloud-based software program for data management and we actually had a presentation today to see if we think that this is software that we can use to manage the collection of the data and i believe that it will be able to work and we are going to start that process of collecting the data with the idea of being able to provide you an updated strategic management report strategic plan report at the july 2022 board meeting of course with the understanding that we are still collecting a lot of data and for some of the output measures we will be required to collect data for three years to make sure that we're setting the appropriate data points but we will be able to have

068something initially to you by july 2022 and i'd like to make myself available for any questions uh are there are there any questions for miss murphy on this uh sitting down i hope uh the board members have been able to see the kind of the the beta of the dashboard um it's uh it's pretty good looking so far um so that's good eventually you know we hope to have that available to the public once we've you know ironed out a few things but i think it is looking pretty good so far at least from from my perspective yes if i could interject president nigro this is superintendent reichman and you do have a link to that dashboard available that only you as the board members have at this time so if you look in board

069docs under the strategic plan you should see under the materials it says executive content that is closed to the board only if you click on that you should have access to a link that will show you the prototype of that dashboard and that is just for pillar one pillar one is where we have gotten some data so we wanted to show you what that is going to look like and see if that would meet your needs understand that pillars two three and four will not be ready until july 2022 when that data is ready we will upload that onto the home page on the website and anyone will be able to click on that and browse through that data the data will be divided by pillar so we do have a commitment to keeping up

070with that data as we collect it so again you can see the prototype of pillar one and you can see board satisfaction and you can see um you'll be able to see the second pillar i think parents will be reading that i think that the word parent was missing at some point so we will be adding the parent satisfaction survey to that as well special ed director satisfaction [Music] social media so a lot of that will be updated on a monthly basis and it will be quick and easy to scan through and get a broad picture of pillar one thank you superintendent reichman um and again i hope the board doesn't get a chance to look at that it is um you know being able to visualize some of this data easily and quickly is

071important both for for us and to do our job but uh also for uh for the public for parents for students to be able to see this and you'll notice even in board docs we're better incorporating some of those goals on the agenda items so you know again we're kind of integrating the plan into how the agency is is operated and managed and that's all of that is is kind of part of that and it seems to be getting you know better every every meeting as the the staff has time to implement these changes so our next discussion uh or agenda item 7.02 discussion possible action item approval of suggested changes to arizona revised statutes title 15-1204 state institutional voucher and title 15-1306 asdb local education agency maria murphy good afternoon again you have before

072you um draft a language regarding a bill uh two bills actually uh in regards to the institutional voucher as well as the asdb statute we are not requesting any action upon this at this time simply because of the fact that last week we received some additional information that has caused us to rethink the approach that we are taking with these bills in consultation with other members of the education community we very quickly realized that we were not going to be able to proceed without the buy-in and the assistance of the arizona department of education specifically what we are looking to do is to hopefully put in a carve out in 1204 regarding capital outlay and possibly doing a general appropriation in regards to the transportation piece for asdb i'm pleased to report that i had

073a meeting with the arizona department of education this morning and they are ready and eager to assist us in this in this effort that we're looking at come january and uh we are going to be going back and forth regarding some proposed language and it is my hope that the board will agree to possibly doing a special meeting in december so that i can present to you the revised language of what we would like to present to the arizona state legislature in january thank you maria and and just to um you know to clarify for the board um this is the uh kind of the cleanup uh to last year's um exercise uh you know because as we discussed earlier because the agencies in lea with respect to certain students that it serves the agency

074now has to provide transportation also some nursing services which i that was a that's my other question is how are we going to address that through statutory language or through something else but for transportation uh again the institutional vouchers section only allows you know currently about 100 i think it's 50 or 100 of capital outlay and 50 per uh you know per student per year which is not nearly enough so you know we we're trying to figure out how to to change that in a way that uh that makes sense uh the board members can see you know the proposed uh language which is a certain amount for capital outlay per student and then a certain amount per route mile and i think as albert duff had explained to us in a previous meeting the

075you know the route mile is based on the the actual um you know bus route so it's you have two students on a bus that are going five miles it's just gonna be five route miles it's not it's not ten right the bus is going five miles on that on that route to pick up those two students um and of course it gets more complicated as you add in overlay one real life uh and two uh that we have students from you know quite a distance you know it's not a typical school district uh where you know most folks or both students are written you know very close to to their schools this is a you know pulling from all parts of maricopa county uh into ptsd and and very many parts of near tucson

076to uh to the tucson campus so our transportation needs are a bit unique um but again i understand uh that we're working on a way to you know maybe better word this um and uh once maria is ready to uh bring us uh uh a proposal that um you know ade can work with uh and that the you know we think the legislature can work with we may want a special meeting in december to approve that we can do that over zoom we don't need to meet in person um but and that can be very very quick to review that discuss it uh and then take a vote on it or make any changes um ms murphy i did want to ask about the nursing services are we proposing any kind of i know the

077transportation is the biggest chunk of lost funding for us are we we considering some other way to address the the shortfall with respect to nursing services with respect to nursing services i have been working with assistant superintendent cooper and we have put in a request for um to the office of strategic planning and budgeting for additional monies for one-on-one nursing services okay um excellent uh uh linda yes this is linda both thank you president nigro i am a little bit upset if as it were about that transportation issue and that significant chunk of additional funding that we're having to provide so i would like to say that i liked for this process to be transparent i know that i board members myself and others included i'm sure do not like those surprises there have been

078a lot of those over the last couple of years so i'd like to make it um clear to our partner agencies and i'd say specifically ade that there needs to be crystal clear communication between ade and asdb without dropping any of these bombs on us we value this school both campuses are very important to us and obviously we want the best education that we can possibly provide um to our students we want it to be the best in the state and ade has responsibility to that it is part of their accountability to make sure that that can happen so i just want to make sure that we have clear communication so that when we get to december hopefully we have everything that we need to make a vote and there aren't going to be any

079more unexpected changes so i wanted to put that out there at this time that transparency for myself as a board member is top priority and with all of these lea changes it seems to that hasn't been very transparent not much of a transparent process so as we get deeper into this i'm hoping we can have lots of details so that we are ready to vote and again i would just like to emphasize transparency in that process is everyone on the line okay all right uh ms murphy and and board member bove i understand your concerns and i would like to say that when i approached the department of education earlier this morning letting them know that we were going to have to rethink our approach specifically with transportation and to a lesser extent capital outlay

080they were ready willing and able to to assist us so i i think that we have a very good relationship with the department of education and i look forward to working with them to get all of these final details hammered out thank you are there any other questions for maria no okay thank you miss murphy and the next one is 7.03 information and discussion item introduction and possible discussion of policy gcj marie murphy hello again um so you have before you the red line of policy gcj regarding probationary and permanent status for professional and support staff the policy was posted on board docs i have not received any public comment regarding uh gcj for the most part this these are procedural changes the only real substantive change here is the addition of the educational audiologist

081salary schedule so that is that is the primary difference here and if anybody has any questions for me i'm happy to take those questions are there any questions for miss murphy um i i don't hear any and this is just first read so we don't need to take any action on this um okay so we can move to the next item but we are about 90 minutes in so we're going to take a 10 minute break so we will reconvene at 5 40. thank you you uh we're gonna take another we're gonna continue another five minutes in break uh so we'll come back at about 5 48. okay we can we can come back now we've resolved our technical issue uh hello so we are back 707 discussion action item set calendar for the 2022

082regular board meeting and possible work study sessions so in board docs you can see the proposed regular board meetings and uh in the proposed locations uh of phoenix and tucson i mean i i know i'll have a a couple of notes or a couple of proposed changes in terms of dates but you know in terms of the location um you know last year uh last our last meeting um you know we decided to set a meeting in sedona uh we all had a great time in sedona um it's it's a a beautiful uh place to be and uh you know it's good to to go go back up north and you know as the board may recall that uh at times we'd have board meetings up in northern arizona or uh i think a new

083we did in yuma one time as well uh you know but i would like to know you know a few things about that i mean one is the the cost because we we don't uh you know already have um equipment and people in one of those areas on a regular basis and the equipment to produce this and the production staff it does cost quite a bit more so um you know so i had uh the superintendent pull some of the costs for that and if it costs x to run a meeting in phoenix it costs about 1.2 or 1.3 x to have that meeting in tucson it's it's pretty comparable um but we're up over six uh x uh to run it up in sedona um so to put it another way you know the

084cost of that one meeting could have funded all of our board meetings for a whole year had we done them in phoenix or tucson or nearly so um so that's kind of the you know the cost to doing that um you know i don't know that there there weren't any members of the public that showed up in sedona even though he had appropriate space um to and that was distanced and uh you know we had appropriate space for people to show up we we did not get any members of the public uh arrive for uh to that meeting so you know that said again it's it's up to the board where we meet um you know if it's if if we want to meet up north again we certainly can i mean there's there's you

085know if we decide it's worth that expense uh you know we certainly can do it um but you know for now i think on the proposal uh that you see here uh we're just listed to phoenix and tucson and then the dates i think we can go through each one excuse me and have people give me their input on that i know i have some input but you know in terms of location maybe we get that out of the way is there anyone that believes that you know we should meet somewhere other than phoenix and tucson for next year no okay um is i i see linda is this is linda i was just going to say the locations that you said in phoenix and tucson were good okay um great okay i'm hearing uh

086none others um january 20th is that in tucson is that not work for anyone this is uk i i don't have a problem with the date i'm wondering if we will still be having um like the bridge line and things like that as an option i'm i just know that i'm flying back into arizona that week so i plan to be in attendance i just don't know if i will be in in time to drive down to tucson okay um i mean we'll have the bridge line i'd like to i know we've been talking to media about having um you know maybe an enhanced you know pseudo uh i don't say zoom but but something else where you know participation might be you know having a video component as well um but i mean there's

087no intention for us to undo the the bridge line or not to have it for i mean we'll be having that going forward that one might be a little bit challenging for me to drive down as well but i'm just not sure yet okay okay but but the date otherwise looks okay um you know march 10th for me um it's not gonna work um but you know i'm pulling on my calendar uh you know earlier than that you know the march meeting is important because we do a lot of the employment contracts in march uh and and that's important as you know everyone knows we we want to make sure that we get our contract squared away in march um and we have an idea of what the agency staffing is going to be for

088the next year uh in in march um and then we go out and we recruit an interview later in the spring for the for the next year to show up any any vacancies that we need to so i don't want to delay the march meeting too far um so i think pushing it back is probably not going to work i'd probably what about having it earlier could we do it earlier david uh yeah i would propose earlier um you know february 24th uh is you know a potential day i think we can do that um a couple of times or you know a couple of weeks before proposed i think that i might be able to do the third but um it's february 24th okay i know that's only a month from or a little

089over a month from the january meeting um but you know usually the march meeting is one of the longer ones of the year does anyone have a problem with february 24th this is 2k i i don't have a problem with either the 24th or the third so okay and this is linda i don't have a problem with it either but i just wanted to say that we have a also look at the work study session calendar we have to make sure that those dates don't conflict or that they're not back-to-back right no i i agree um and i think uh when we set this first uh the regular meetings then we can go back and fill in the you know the work study sessions um so thank you oh if i could oh yeah sure

090how about march 3rd that's good for me that's good for everybody else i think i think i would prefer the 24th but is it 24th an issue for you uh linda this is linda no it's not okay um superintendent reichman can we be ready for the the meeting um can we can we be ready for the meeting on february 24th yes february 24th um i do think march 3rd would be better for staff if we could do that okay um uh hold on just a moment i noticed the part of the meeting where we all pull out our phones and calendars um yeah march 3rd that that'll work for me so let's uh if that works if merch there is okay for everyone this is superintendent right it's good for me and linda's saying is

091good for me as well okay great um may 5th uh will that'll work for me does it does it work or not work for any others this is linda so this is going to be a tucson meeting um again this is linda speaking here so let's see the fifth um i would like that one to be in person for me on that date so i'm just trying to think because it is my husband's birthday that day oh and for me to try to get to tucson on his birthday i think it's gonna be okay for now uh we'll just say yes for now i mean we could flip two so we can do two two sounds in a row and then phoenix if that's okay with everyone or march that's okay you wouldn't be able

092to do that right this is superintendent bregman the reason why we decided on the may 5th date is because it was before graduation because the closer we get to graduation is a problem so we're already very busy at that time and so we would prefer earlier in may the fifth is the day that works the best i think is location and this is linda we're talking about location right now the location is the issue not the date okay i'm just making sure that's clear tucson is only an issue on that january because i'm flying in okay um okay well we could uh flip into two you know do january march in tucson and then do may and july in phoenix that's okay with everyone we have an issue doing tucson for march for march okay

093we may be flipped into may and july may and july okay yeah we can do that we can do two phoenix meetings in a row and then do tucson in july but um okay does that work for everyone and so it'll be may 5th in phoenix that works linda okay and then in july i i can't do july 14th um i can do later let me pull my schedule up here um july 14th you know i you know perhaps the 28th of july i know it's a bit of a gap but uh superintendent reichman this is superintendent breckman so again um in july july 3rd and 4th or sorry the third and fourth week of july we have our new staff welcoming and then the very last week of the month all of our teachers

094are coming back during that week to start their work so again the reason why we picked the second week in july so the 14th is because it is before all of our staff are coming back for the fall semester okay and this is okay i would just want to make sure that whatever dates we do propose that we are cognizant of the acdhh commission meeting because commissioner chance is the rep from acdhh and then superintendent reichman is the asdb board rep to the commission so i i want to make sure we don't have those um meeting conflicts right now that's a good point um i i know that uh i mean we can have it on july 14th but i won't be able to to make it i'll be at a conference um you know

095on that date so uh out of state so is the seventh out of the question superintendent reichman um how does that work for everybody else this is linda it is not good for me um no sorry so i'm sorry uh the seventh was the seventh work for folks no it it um i believe that i'll be able to call in from that uh because i cause i think i'll be out of state that day as well this is linda i'm in the same boat there i'm not out of state but i'm out of country oh well there you go so it's going to be my first trip ever since covet started so first time in two years wow excellent um but we we can do the seventh i mean i'm happy to call in i

096mean maybe we can do a you know even have some video component i i know for me i just try to make everything in person um so we're gonna go with the seventh is that is that okay with everyone this is linda i won't be able to call in i'll be in europe so just know i won't be here okay thank you okay and then uh september 8th in tucson is that an issue for anyone no and then we come back to november 10th back in phoenix so this is linda here i do have a question for president nigro um we do need to vote for the officers um our annual election is is happening when is that supposed to happen that'll be this meeting uh i apologize okay thank you yeah um okay all

097right so that seems like we have that calendar done and then for the work study session yes yes yes we we switched may and july so we'll be doing march remain phoenix and then july and september tucson okay now the work study sessions we have um there are two that are proposed i mean there's one that's going to happen later this month there are two that are proposed one for budget for personnel on operations february 10th and then the other asdb attendant services statewide april 14th uh superintendent reichman discussed that a little bit earlier in the meeting does anyone have an issue with those dates those are typically held in phoenix on the ptsd campus in a in a classroom and we can se and that's not the whole year we can have additional work

098study sessions that's just what we have planned or any other any questions president niagara for the interpreters can you please repeat the dates of the upcoming work study sessions oh sure um there will be one later this month on the 18th but that's not on the table for right now um there is an asdb budget and personnel uh a budget for personnel on operations on february 10th that's being proposed and asdbi tinder and services statewide for april 14th that's being proposed this is linda thank you all right if there are no objections to that then um or any other discussion then we should entertain a motion to approve that calendar i moved to approve the calendar with the changes okay thank you i second all all in favor aye aye aye aye aye any opposed

099no okay uh great that motion passes and we have our calendar that is set uh 7.08 discussion action item election of 2022 board officers um pursuant to policy shall be held the last meaning of the calendar year uh so uh you know every year we elect uh the officers there's a secretary and a president um so you know typically we discuss president first uh so are there any openings for for nominations or discussions on that is this uk go ahead go ahead blaine okay thank you this is lynn i would like to nominate david to continue his great job as president this is uk i would second that um thank you thank you both i'd accept that nomination are there any other nominations or discussion this is lynn again i nominate bouquet to continue her

100fabulous job this is linda second and this is i will accept that nomination thank you any other nominations for either either position this is linda can i move to accept both nominations uh yes we can do it in one vote um all in in favor of uh david nigro for president and sue k kaifel for secretary hi hi did we get any opposed no okay thank you um and uh thank you everyone we'll um and we'll continue our work into next year and uh thanks for uh thank you uh 8.01 call to the public call to the public on non-agendized items uh we have uh several of them that we've received um there is a and i think there may have been some confusion uh and some of the instructions or people interpreting some of

101the instructions we do have a new form since we're in this meeting area where we don't have members of the public physically in the room right now so we uh at early in the year we had uh and last year we had an email address public.com asdb.az.gov now we have an online we developed an online form uh so we did have some comments that were mailed to the email address we're going to go ahead and read those those comments anyway again because i think there was maybe some ambiguity there so we are going to read both comments that came from the form and came from the email address but uh you know in the future we're going to be turning off that email address and uh making it you know make sure in all of

102our website and all of our other communications that the the online form is the the way to go to submit comments so it's okay with that can you read the public comments certainly the first is from kylie craven in regards to instructional assistant and aid pay members of the board our names are danielle murray and kylie craven kindergarten teachers at phoenix day school for the deaf we are requesting that the board consider raising pay for instructional assistance at our school you may be aware that the age shortage at our school is becoming more and more prevalent with a pay rate of just 12 15 an hour our aides often leave to find a job with better pay in fact schools in the phoenix area are currently hiring for 13 to 17 dollars an hour for

103the pay they are receiving our aides are expected to do a lot of tough work including changing diapers disciplining students teaching small groups etc the amount that they are paid for the work they do does not match and we are losing aids because of it over the last few months we have asked for input from staff on the phoenix campus below are a couple of responses one ptsd needs more classroom aids economically speaking increased pay increases supply the lack of adequate aids prevents individualized education from being carried out suitably accommodations designed by professional service providers are neglected when there are not enough hands to provide the accommodation many of which are hands-on including wheelchair transfers one-on-one assist for academic and personal care activities sensory breaks etc students are at risk in high needs classrooms when

104basic needs are not properly being cared for especially where there are behavioral concerns the students who are most affected are those with the highest needs this is discrimination additionally the fact that ptsd who generally hires those who are deaf or hard of hearing offers less pay than the surrounding job market is exploitation and then second comment is i have a ba in deaf studies and am currently taking deaf-blind courses provided by my school to help further my education and be the best intervenor i can be apart from all the work we do as interveners and aides the pay is simply not livable we are all starting to feel undervalued overworked and underpaid i absolutely love my job and the people who i work with and have no desire to quit but many employees have quit

105this school year because of the non-competitive pay this has left us working harder to support each other and our students many of us are struggling to support ourselves off the minimum wage on top of not making much money per paycheck we are also required by the state to give 12 percent of each paycheck to the retirement plan 12 means about 1.50 from each hour we work and about 120 from each paycheck many of the employees here work for 10 months and are recommended to have dispersed pay to be able to support themselves during the summer with all of these things considered hourly employees are making much less than minimum wage and we cannot support ourselves please consider they said to view more cove comments and they provided a google docs link please consider raising aid

106pay to show that we value our students and staff thank you next is from julie christensen the subject is just thank you to whom it may concern our son levi is an energetic happy three-year-old boy he is bright and engaging and says as much with his eyebrows and head tilts as he does with his words he loves anything he can throw or that has wheels he enjoys building with magnet tiles and figuring out how things work or fit together he loves being outside and playing with water his shovel dump truck and every rock he can find he adores his family he also happens to have a hearing loss we started early intervention with asdb when levi was three months old in january of 2019. hearing specialist sandy o'connor came into our home and lives and

107not only supported and encouraged us but also pushed us to dream big and set the bar high for levi once our family decided to focus on an lsl learning spoken language mode of communication we were introduced to desert voices sandy was a huge cheerleader for us in choosing what would fit our family best and when we began attending parent coaching at desert voices in may of 2019 we immediately knew this was a huge benefit for levi desert voices would not have been a reality for our family without the financial support from asdb that covered parent coaching and eventually part of the toddler class with all the medical bills surrounding his birth testing new hearing aids and so many ear molds this would realistically not have been possible for our family without asdb we thank god

108for his provision in our lives though the continued support of your amazing staff and both our hearing specialists sandy o'connor and samantha gotcher and the addition of our time at desert voices with slp tracy leblanc and his top toddler teacher kendall collins levi has thrived while he still technically has language delays he talks so much and we are thrilled with his progress we know his time with each service provider has helped build a foundation that will help him continue to succeed in the future and will have to keep raising that bar for him thank you asdb for being willing to invest financially in our son your employees sandy o'connor and samantha gotcher were a huge blessing to us as well the switch to all virtual sessions was not an easy transition but everyone stepped up

109and made the best of it sam was amazing coming into a new job and showed so much patience with us as we adjusted to an 18 month old trying to focus on a screen we appreciate appreciatively acknowledge the gift you gave us for two years at desert voices with parent coaching and these last few months of toddler class these investments emotional educational financial will have long-term benefits for years to come in our family and especially in levi's life a simple thank you could never fully convey our gratitude sincerely brandon and julie christensen number three is from joanne motco the subject is liquidated damages waiver for retirement and it reads dear board of directors of asdb my name is joanne matko i was a dhh teacher for asdb from august 15 1994 to august 31st 2021

110i retired after 27 years of service on september 1st 2021 i am respectfully submitting a request of the removal of the 3 000 liquidated damages charged issue upon my retirement for the following reasons one notice was given prior to the end of the 2020 2021 school year time to post the position was sufficient number two asdb was willing to forgo the charges of breaking the same contract on june 30th but not for september first with the same notification and same plan for securing replacement number three my position was not posted and there was no intent to fill it my position was absorbed students were added to caseloads of current asdb staff number four no substitute or compensatory services were required number five by working the first week five weeks of school i aided asdb and

111region 1 staff in setup and transition of services for every one of my students i provided in-services to their classroom teachers delivered and set up audio equipment in three districts connected new staff to district staff and worked with the lead interpreter to provide equipment and tech support for virtual interpreting services while waiting for our newly hired interpreter to start in-person services i provided direct services to students for the first four weeks allowing their new teachers time to perform the above duties with their initial caseload before assuming mine into their current caseloads number six the past two years asdb has placed an emphasis on awareness of mental health needs i made a mental health decision to retire early and lose two thirds of my over eighteen weeks of sick time almost twenty thousand dollars rather than

112take fmla to fulfill my contract i felt that my choice was best for me my students and their families asdb staff and asdb as an agency rather than prolonging my employment and confusing my student transition with intermittent returns number seven i worked for asdb for 27 years serving districts all over northern arizona i have an exemplary record with highly qualified status each year based on yearly evaluations i have taught in nine school districts more than 20 schools and countless classrooms representing a consistent and competent face of asdb with administrators teachers staff families and students number eight my first 23 years of working for asdb we didn't have contracts we had work agreements which i filled without question when it was decided contracts would be used the question was posed what about retirement it was answered

113with this isn't about retirement that is a planned event this is for people who decide to leave without notice leaving our agency in a tough position for providing services i assisted in every way possible to make this transition smooth and efficient and provide ample notice thank you for your consideration respectfully joanne matko next is from elizabeth browse no subject line dear board my name is elizabeth brousse and i'm an itinerant teacher of the deaf and hard of hearing out of region 2 formerly dvr my comment today is related to the discussion from the september 9th board meeting about filling the ombudsman ombuds person position it was mentioned during the meeting that it might not be necessary for that position to be filled and i would like to offer another perspective for keeping the ombudsperson position

114and to consider an alternative to the hierarchy of the chain of command while asdb has policies and information in the handbook regarding a process for formal complaints or grievances it does not specifically address informal sharing of concerns ideas and questions the policies i have read point to formal complaints or grievances being revolved resolved at the lowest level of administration which has become known throughout the agency and was mentioned at the september 9th meeting as the chain of command the process for communicating informally isn't clear is there an informal way for stakeholders at all levels to do as the accountability collaboration and transparency principle states openly share concerns and ideas candidly communicating our intentions and foster thoughtful discussions by freely sharing knowledge and information in the documents that i reviewed asdb and the board have recognized

115that staff members may have concerns with or not be comfortable addressing concerns ideas and questions both formally and informally between asdb staff members and themselves which would include communication with the chain of command asdb provides an unbiased neutral third party channel to seek guidance ask questions make comments and report concerns and that is the ombuds person for me personally how to advocate through the chain of command has been unclear and intimidating i have sought guidance from the ombudsperson and the guidance i received offer me a clear path to address my concerns and seek further input on asd pilot asdb policies if necessary without the position of the ombuds person in the current model of the chain of command i wonder whose questions comments concerns and ideas are not being heard what if instead of the

116hierarchy of a chain of command asdb supported the structure of an inverted pyramid of support with the students at top this would focus on building a community of collaboration communication and idea sharing across levels of the pyramid to reach the goals of the agency i ask that the board consider actively recruiting for the role of ombuds person and critically examine the structure and purpose of the chain of command thank you elizabeth next is from jeremy tuttle also no subject line my name is jeremy tuttle i am an educational interpreter in the asdb itinerant program where i've served for over 23 years i have a bachelor's degree specializing in educational interpreting from the university of northern colorado and am nationally certified by our id via nic and ed k12 a specialized credential for interpreting and educational

117settings in addition i served on the board of directors for the national association of interpreters in education naie as a director of publications from 2016 to 2018. in my time with asdb i have seen this organization proudly serve the needs of students in our member districts over many years welcomed as valued related service providers on the iep team educational interpreters have served the communication needs of students in line with best practices in the field however due to recent policy change by leadership in the itinerant program that has been impeded most notably a policy applied to educational interpreters required that they would no longer be able to participate as contributing members during iep meetings except by submitting a formal written request to leadership within the itinerant program while promised that the policy is only to gather

118data in practices it has already proven to deny interpreters attendance to iep meetings even when invited by member district personnel and desired by our own teachers of the deaf though it has been communicated that this policy was decided based on research when asked for this information it was withheld and that the decision was made at the leadership level when investigating best practices in educational interpreting however recommendations run quite contrary at classroominterpreting.org hosted by boys town that oversees the eipa exams used to credential educational interpreters recommended recommendations include that the educational interpreter should participate as a team member in all iep meetings he or she should work with all other members of the team including the deaf educator speech pathologists and parents to help provide the student with access communicating with other members of the educational

119team is essential in order to provide adequate services to the deaf or hard of hearing student the naie as the national association representing educational interpreters also states that specific prescript specific procedures for prescribing educational interpreting services under idea mandate an official iep team meeting in which all stakeholder holders including a teacher of the deaf and a qualified educational interpreter have an opportunity to provide professional recommendations as an educational interpreter with a long history with this organization i cannot understand the need for this change in policy it conflicts with published best practices in the field most notably it impedes an interpreter's ability to collaborate meaningfully as a valued member of a student's iep team and our ability to offer the high quality services we are capable of providing i implore the asdb board to look into

120these policies and take action to bring the expectations of educational interpreters in line with best practices informed by literature in our field and upheld by our professional association the naie thank you if you wouldn't mind that would be great uh next comment um from megan megan nelson my name is megan nelson i'm an educational interpreter at desert valley regional cooperative i've been an educational interpreter for a total of 12 years and i am eipa certified for as long as i have been with dvr i've always felt valued as an interpreter interpreter involvement in iep meetings and as members on the iep team have been continually advocated for and supported the skill and knowledge that educational interpreters possess related to our role in a classroom and on a team has been recognized acknowledged and appreciated we

121have continued to encourage the field of educational interpreting to be taken seriously and have hired and given training to interpreters who have represented that idea it has been known that dvr has high quality interpreters and we've worked hard to maintain that reputation in fact the educational interpreter job description has a list of items that asdb wants their interpreters to be knowledgeable of and skill them which is evidence of the expectations they have of their interpreters as the redesign of asdb dvr has progressed the outlook and attitude toward educational interpreters is rapidly declined the educational interpreters are no longer valued for the skill and knowledge that they bring to the table they are no longer seen as an integral part of the iep team the steps that have been taken over the past decade to elevate

122the standard practices of educational interpreters to a higher level of best practices is now taking many steps backwards in time i would like to bring it to the board's attention that over the past year five educational interpreters have left dvr due to the drastic decline of value towards its interpreters the interpreters have provided research and data to support what our role truly is and the interpreters have expressed their concerns regarding decisions that are being made related to interpreter services when the concerns have been presented and taken through the appropriate channels they have time and time again again look down upon an interpreter's contribution and have dismissed the insight and concerns it is not change in general that is the issue i bring to you today much change has occurred over the past couple of years

123within the cooperative that has been accepted with little to no resistance it is the new underlying tone of oppression and intimidation that is the issue and as an interpreter i cannot stand by while the educational interpreter's role is being undermined and belittled the culture within dvi and the itinerant services has become a negative one and as a result not only affecting educational interpreters but student services as well i urge the board to take this concern seriously and i hope that in the near future our mission will once again be focused on accountability transparency and collaboration with the goal of serving our students in the best way possible along with acknowledging the skilled individuals who take their professions seriously thank you for your time the next comment uh is from ashley parks my name is ashley

124parks i've worked as an educational interpreter in asdb's attendant program since august 2010. oh sure sorry i hold a bachelor's degree in special education and am e i p a and b e i certified and i've recently found myself a witness to the systematic devaluation of the educational interpreter role within our organization though there are many situations that have implicitly communicated this i would like to make you aware of a couple specific and explicit situations that have led me to see this as an overarching organizational issue this year it has been decided that our interpreters have no use or role at an iep meeting we have been told that if we are invited and want to attend a meeting we can petition for permission to attend though the only interpreters i know of who have

125gone through the process have been denied we are being told to communicate our unavailability with the case managers we work with and finding that districts at the districts we are sent to work in are more respectful of our role and see more value in our expertise in the field than the itinerant program of asdb another rollout this year was an interpreter-specific handbook that prohibited the interpreting of any tutoring services and graduation ceremonies regardless of if they fit within the confines of our 40-hour work week there was nothing but alarm and concern expressed when this change was introduced and that was met with platitudes and vague blame tossed towards the powers that be you have a team of interpreters passionate about providing equitable access to deaf students and hearing environments being stifled and prevented from doing

126just that by your own policies finally i would like to highlight a specific situation i found myself a part of an attempt was made to remove interpretive services from a student i work with without any input from a family the classroom teacher the school administrations or the interpreters who have worked with a student as a professional who works daily with the student impacted by this change i cannot express how surprising and upsetting it was to realize that the interpreter was viewed as a non-essential voice in this dramatically impactful decision we have prided ourselves on being a leader in the realm of deaf education and it pains me to say this but the decisions being made today will tarnish our that reputation tomorrow our attendant program here in the valley has been the place many educational

127interpreters aspire to work at and now we are seeing an exodus of skilled and seasoned interpreters from the organization an exodus caused largely in my opinion by a sheer disregard of any professional expertise and a general lack of respect for our role it is my hope that if having brought some of these concerns to your attention you will feel the need to address this before it becomes more pervasive thank you jill williams my name is jill williams and i have worked for asdb since 2007 as an educational interpreter but more specifically with dvr itinerant services since 2012. i am nic and eipa certified and also hold state licensure on september 15 2021 i had to leave work on an unplanned fmla situation thus far i have been out for approximately six weeks has brought been

128brought to my attention that there have been several days that the student i work with has gone without an interpreter when the topic has been brought to the attention of upper management we are are told ieps for allow for the student to go without an interpreter and that is really the school district's responsibility to find coverage this is the complete opposite of the stance dvr has taken taken during my time here up until now dvr has made the student services a top priority making sure students have every resource available to them and the accommodations are consistently met also it took about five weeks of inconsistent coverage for the remote interpreting to finally be set up for a virtual interpreter to be present when an in-person interpreter could not be the underlying tone at dvr now

129is one that puts interpreters and the need for interpreters on a very low level of the totem pole because of this student services are being subject to decisions made by those who don't know the impact of an interpreter has for the student or the gravity of the effect it has when a student has to go without the lack of collaboration when these decisions are being discussed and made is very unfortunate thank you for taking the time to read this next one is from julie sixta sign language interpreter e-i-p-a-n-i-c working for asdb region two for nine years now i have seen many changes most have been positive and some changes were a challenge like any change it does take patience and adjustment however the recent changes involving the redesign of asdb has thrown up some concerns

130asdb has prided themselves in serving the deaf and blind community it has always been revered that working for the dvr desert valley regional was a respectful and prideful position to obtain and strive for the interpreting position has been through many changes as well we have worked diligently to receive respect and understanding in the work we put forth including working towards national certification maintaining continued education within dvr and outside of dvr and becoming members of organizations who support our professional field one of the main goals and a top priority as an interpreter is providing the best access for our deaf and hard of hearing students one aspect of the position has been participating in the students iep individual education plan we have been a team member of the iep along with the classroom teacher teacher of

131the deaf and the other school staff members deemed needed these goals have been hindered of late by the lack of respect towards our position by stating that we are only hourly and that a more qualified team member such as the teacher of the deaf should be representative for the student a recent plan has been established for the interpreters to request attendance through our lead and the director when an invite has been requested for our attendance in the past this has not been an issue to attend as our lead would find coverage for us to be participants as team member and not as interpreter recently it feels that time and money play a hierarchy in determining whether our attendance is needed and not the need of the student and what our input can provide for the

132future of our students leadership service and collaboration is part of the mission statement for asdb and seeing some leaders disregard any information they were provided in regards to the importance of an interpreter as a participating team member in an iap has put a lack of confidence and trust into the leadership of dvr collaboration feels to be looked over and decisions made based on one incident i feel a collaborative team would have communicated with the interpreters in regards to the decisions of our role and changing the possible service we provide this has not been the case in the past year transparency and collaboration seem to be one-sided towards administration and leaving out the skills and knowledge of team members who have built this organization in living up to asdb's mission statement the next is from brittany

133bromley also no subject line hello my name is brittany bromley i am an educational interpreter for this organization's itinerant program and have worked for asdb for five years i am writing to the board to express my concerns with the shift in culture of the itinerant programs throughout my time and over the past year i have noticed some organizational deficits i feel need to be brought to light during this school year there was an attempt to limit interpreting services from a deaf student i work with on a regular basis i was first to be informed of this change via a google meet meeting via a google meet meeting scheduled during the school day prior to this meeting i had reached out to gain some basic knowledge on what would be discussed to ensure i was prepared

134i was ignored this method of communication is becoming the norm and establishes expectations to participate in meetings failed in misery where transparency is not valued the significant deviation in services was presented to me as a definite decision that was made without any input or discussion from the classroom teacher parents school staff or other support staff that worked directly with the student realizing the immensely negative impact this would have on the student's education and ability to access their environment i expressed my concerns when i questioned this decision due to its perceived lack of being student focused i was met with little regard toward the student and more focus on questions toward my professionalism i fear that i am witnessing in real time the deterioration of relationships with the districts we serve in turn i am forced

135to participate in this by being encouraged not to facilitate a relationship with these schools when they are in fact our greatest stakeholders this is not a sustainable model additionally i have concerns interpreters are not being considered value members of the educational team earlier this year it was decided educational interpreters were would no longer have an active role in iep meetings they may only attend if they are interpreting for the student present in the meeting or if they have requested and received prior approval to be an active member in the meeting from a supervisor some interpreters who have requested to be present for these meetings have been denied with little to no concrete justification as to why many seasoned interpreters have explained and presented evidence of the importance of being present for these meetings yet their

136expertise seems to be ignored these meetings are key components to a student's success and our absence hinders our ability to support and facilitate their individualized learning goals as the culture in this organization moves further away from the professional respect and collaboration it is apparent that decisions are made without the students best interested interest represented i hope that my concerns are shared and able to be addressed thank you you can take fun i'll take we'll go back hello my name is heather pavlovic this is my 15th year working as an educational interpreter for asdb dvr itinerant services i have an eipa 4.0 and a ba in asl english interpretation it has been an honor and a joy to work as an interpreter for asdb and i felt valued and respected as an interpreter i believe fully

137in the work we do providing quality access to communication and education for deaf and hard of hearing students however since the beginning of the redesign the changes that have been made have devalued the interpreters we are now seen as paraprofessionals and no longer deemed necessary to attend iep meetings and participate as part of the educational team and i believe the quality of services being provided to students is decreased one major concern regarding student services is the lack of substitute interpreters we currently have not had a substitute interpreter for the last several months and yet we've had several interpreters leave dvr thus needing a sub-interpreter as well as one interpreter on fmla for an extended period this has resulted in deaf hard of hearing students required to have an interpreter by iep consistently without an interpreter

138that alone is cause for a major concern to add to to that there is no coverage for interpreters who leave to take sick time or days off to care for sick family this leaves the interpreter knowing that their absence will mean a full day without access to education for the student a waste of a school day many interpreters will choose to instead show up for their work at the expense of their health rather than the educational loss for their student this should not be a decision that needs to be made especially in this time of covet i have been constantly perplexed by the changes being implemented by leadership and the reasoning behind these decisions as we interpreters have asked for clarification and information on the decisions made there has not been transparency nor patience instead

139a refrain that many interpreters have heard from leadership is maybe asdb is no longer the right fit for you as a result we have lost quite a few highly qualified and experienced interpreters my hope is that asdb can hear these concerns with them with humbleness knowing that it is coming from deep concern for the future of the agency and the education of the students we serve thank you for your time next is from lauren dunn hello my name is lauren dunn i am an educational interpreter in the itinerant program i have been with asdb for 12 years now and hold an eip a score of 4.1 and an mba i am writing to the board because i'm concerned about the culture of the itinerant program recently the culture has become a culture of intimidation by

140leadership the interpreters have voiced concerns about new policies and changes through the proper channels they have provided research and academic evidence to support their claims after said research and evidence was provided a decision was made that contradicted the evidence and the interpreters were told the decision was based on research that management refused to provide i have also witnessed our lead interpreter being belittled in front of his staff by our director during a meeting during this meeting our lead was supporting his staff with a new policy that we did not agree with the director did not listen to the interpreter's concerns in the meeting or the leads she was solely focused on degrading our lead to a point where he physically curled and curled into himself and emotionally shut down if he is being humiliated and

141mistreated like this in front of his staff then what is happening when no one else is present our lead is supposed to be our advocate and voice and due to his intimidation the interpreters do not feel confident that we will be supported or heard on a personal level i have also experienced our leads voice not being heard i am placed at a school that we have historically placed two interpreters at due to the length of the day the comp the complexity of the ib curriculum and the teaching style that lends itself to lecturing the full class period our lead approved a team for this school year but was denied by leadership he then provided evidence to why a team is needed and was still denied after our leadership came and observed the decision was made

142not to provide a team with an explanation that educational interpreters do not team however this school did have a team as recently as last year the solution presented by management was to replace the interpreter and move them to a less demanding school this to me was an insult to my person since i'm seasoned highly qualified interpreter when i responded that the problem does not lie with the interpreter but with the schedule itself i was told that they will look into removing the interpreter since the student only gets 30 minutes with the teacher of the deaf per month to my knowledge there is no rule or correlation between a student's need for access to communication and the student's need of a teacher of the deaf this comment made by our management was intended to intimidate the

143interpreter for standing up for themselves and the students needs as an employee this new culture of intimidation is concerning and then this is from aaron kennard again no subject line hello my name is aaron kennard and for the past five years i have worked as an educational interpreter for asdb's itinerant services when i started working with dvr it was an agency that worked to align itself with the best practice best practices as recognized by the larger professional community of educational interpreters however recent changes in leadership and the direction of the agency has moved away from best practices a new model is being implemented that is more of an assembly line model that marginalizes educational interpreters and treats the students we serve as numbers to be quantified previously it was standard for educational interpreters to attend

144student iep meetings for the students they provide services to the critical role of the interpreter in these meetings is well documented in professional literature both from the national association of interpreters and education and the boys town national research hospital the information that interpreters gain from these meetings and apply to their work is crucial for providing the best services to students likewise the insight interpreters share with the rest of the education team cannot be replaced by other service providers the newest policies push the interpreters out of these meetings lip service is given to an approval process for interpreter attendance however none of the interpreters who have gone through this process have been approved the de facto result is the interpreters are barred from attending when the interpreting staff raised concerns about this and other policies policies

145they were met with either silence vague reasonings or buzzwords that explained little when pressed for details staff members are shouted down the change in culture has led to an environment where most interpreters either feel their voice will not be heard and so choose to remain silent or don't feel confident enough to speak up sadly many interpreters have chosen to leave asdb which has led to students being without services this situation has been treated as ultimately the responsibility of our member districts and little effort seems to be made to act in good faith to find coverage these policies are emblematic of the new shift away from focusing on providing the best possible services to the students we serve devaluing the expertise and experience of qualified long-time staff members deviating away from best practices and creating a

146culture that does not value transparency nor collaboration thank you uh there is a one final one that we didn't have printed out um as a parent of kids with hearing impairment i would like to offer a testimony to support asdb and desert voice partnership my name is sutir vela kondu and i'm sorry if i'm mispronouncing that uh and i'm the father of mayank and jayan uh vela makondu both of my sons were born with hearing defect and they both failed their newborn hearing test and that's how we came to first know of their disability many parents who discovered that their child is deaf hh have typical hearing themselves and have questions about how to best meet their child's unique deeds there's a lot of information about how to raise a child with hearing loss and

147we were lost we were very fortunate to get an early intervention from asdb who educated us on available resources our rights and assisted us in making decisions about what is best for our child prepare and conduct home visits coordinate and conduct relevant assessments helped us in understanding sensory impairment provided strategies and activities and support uh development and ifsp outcomes and monitor progress from the time they were born to when they were in preschool at preschool age during iep transition they conducted various assessments and they were able to identify that both of my kids primarily needed listening and spoken language services our goal was also to prepare our kids to mainstream into a school of choice with hearing children their age asd recommended us to a public charter school desert voices that was specially tailored for

148kids who are deaf or hard of hearing and focuses on teaching them oral skills needed to talk and understand when spoken to their structured language focused teaching curriculum and a small teacher to student ratio truly accelerate the progress in their communication skills our asdb support coordinator had close rapport with the dv team and she also helped transition our kids to tv through various visits i'm happy to say that both of my kids are mainstream now and without this partnership between asdb and desert voices it would not have been possible i highly recommend and vouch for this partnership to continue so many families with kids of hearing loss can benefit similarly okay now those were all of our comments next 8.02 discussion and possible action item agenda items for the next regular board meeting are there

149any any particular items that anyone would like to add to the next board meeting president agro this is dean howard hello dean good afternoon good evening um i would like to have an update on desert voices and other services that are provided outside asdb i think it's been a while since we've heard from those groups and maybe if we can get some updates from them and asdb staff at a future board meeting that would be good okay um and to clarify no um would you like number of children served or would like more data about how we're providing those services or or what would you like in that in that option um i would like to see the data i would like to see student enrollment i would like to see any additional numbers relative

150to progress that would be good and i would like to hear from both the agency staff and service staff that like desert voices that provides those services okay uh superintendent reichman could you arrange for that so we get some of that data um the staff that interacts with that and then folks from uh from fbc and from desert voices yes and and the i know um miss cooper reported that the fbc contract was uh signed just recently um the desert voices contract is still in effect is that that's correct correct correct and that was a when they um entered that uh contract last year that was for a five-year term is that is that right yes yes okay so okay great and are there other other items that people would like to hear for next

151next meeting david this is mike uh mike go ahead um this is not necessarily uh sorry with all the feedback there um but i'm wondering on the work study that's coming up in two weeks is is there a theme of that work work uh work study similar to the funds that are coming up in the new year uh there is okay um i believe that was language acquisition good superintendent right is that the work study session on november 18th is primarily language acquisition a few other issues correct yes this is superintendent reichman and we are focusing on the early learning program overall both for our deaf and our blind students and that will include an emphasis in um early language acquisition and obviously being an important part of our early learning program right and and

152there'd be some i mean we'll probably prior to dean's point before we'll probably get some information from tv and fbc at that point correct yes correct great okay good that's what i was okay um is there anything else mike no that's good okay great um i know uh you know for me i know we're gonna be talking about the iterate services in the april uh you know work study session um yeah but we might we might want to also discuss it in january as well that's good yeah april might be a little too too long to wait this is linda and i would agree with that decision to have that conversation earlier um president nigro in january i would like to have that on the agenda for january as well since based on the comments

153that we heard tonight i think it's important to have that conversation thank you i do as well this is lynn i agree with with as well we need to get this discussed as soon as possible okay uh any other notes um no okay so uh it'll be those those two things uh superintendent rickman um we'll make sure we get on the agenda for the next meeting and then we can move on to 9.01 action item adjournment usually this is when lin moves through adjourn is this okay i move that we adjourn i'll second this is pretty awesome okay second second second second uh all in favor any opposed no um excellent thank you uh very much to everyone to the board and and the staff uh and the media uh production for uh having it

154another in-person yet distance um uh board meeting um again as we mentioned earlier in the meeting uh we'll look to schedule as like a zoom-only meeting in december um regarding the statutory package uh you know you'll just pay attention your email on that so we'll find a day and conduct that uh other than that thank you everyone i was waiting for you lynn yeah i i moved that we adjourned this meeting thank you everyone have a good night