ASDB Board Meeting 03/07/19

001you big it is but that's okay I got to see but I just want I've got no one sitting okay thank you I'm not sure if anybody can hear me but it is four o'clock and we are on a pretty tight schedule tonight there apparently has been a car accident not with anybody we know but there's been an accident so it's delayed a couple board members we're trying to get him on the line so we're gonna start here in just a minute because we have a lot on the agenda I know a lot of people have come pretty far too to speak and to hear what's going on today so just just give it a minute we'll get some people get the call in number lit up and then we'll get started he's got the

002call anyone Leticia is the called in line live yet I haven't heard is on it okay we're gonna go and get started then okay good evening everybody we're gonna go ahead and get them yes okay so we can get started something here okay I think we're gonna go ahead and okay well take your time don't rush we're just getting started in ijen item number one perfect timing okay but are you okay well let's do the roll then yeah I can have Lindy the roll call while you're walking okay thank you everybody this is my second board meeting is pork present so we're gonna kind of item number 1.01 I don't have my standards list so I will just look at who's here Linda Bove Shelly her Bowl isn't present Dean Howard here David Nigro present

003Mike mannalie doesn't suit cake knife oh okay mark Sims but Mike Gordon when Davison is here no I think we're good we've been in the item number 1.02 I think we're going to postpone that one as well could we want to hold off on that one that'd be great I'm currently texting with Superintendent Hoffman who is also being affected by the traffic issue on i-17 she has let me know she should be here at roughly 4:15 okay here's what I'm gonna do and I don't know procedurally but I've been on other boards where we've been able to move agenda items up and down just based on that so we'll put that one on hold come back to it somebody just please remind me just so I don't forget come back I'm sure she'll remind you

004when she walks in thank you so on the following items 1.03 1.04 I know there's some folks that have come in from Flagstaff before we get started on those I want to make sure that I put this at the top of the agenda so people that were coming in town from out of town didn't have to listen to the whole administrative side of our board meeting so I was trying to give everybody the crazy of that with that said there might be some folks that show up a little late or a little bittle kind will try to accommodate that that the best way we can but if it's okay with the group and the board I'm gonna go ahead and hold these the way they are on the agenda and let's go ahead and start

005with 1.03 with that said we've received a number of letters emails on both these of the issues are going to talk about today they are on record we did receive them the board to receive them so they are in the public record so that means basically we don't need to read each letter and email you just want you to know that we didn't receive them in there on public record with that said we'll start with item 1.03 all to the public and is another piece to administrative leak I need to limit to you to three minutes on your under public comment so when the three minutes is up I'm gonna hear a bell and we have to stop you there because we're in a really good time country and I do one here from this

006many people's actions so the first one on this agenda item is Lindsey delft oils did I pronounce that right got it and then I'm gonna have a next one is Barbara Chirag really bad accent straight I'll come back to these Lisa ring okay I'm going to there's no glucose coupons Oh is that you Lisa come on down I want to put you in three minutes hi my name is Lisa ring and I'm currently a teacher in the early childhood and family education program out of Flagstaff I've worked with ASDB since 1985 and taught in various some jobs in Phoenix Tucson flagstaff north central regional cooperative and for six years with early childhood and family education program I've been a teacher with the EcoP for six years and like Barbara shrug I've dedicated my entire career

007to ASDP and the mission and vision of this agency under Barbara Jean's leadership our EcoP department has thrived and I've been thrilled to see the commitment towards excellence and innovation in the field barb lives out everyday the vision and mission of our agency she demonstrates excellence in leadership and service collaboration with families partnerships with other aid agencies to ensure positive outcomes for children and families throughout the state of Arizona I am dismayed that her contract is not recommended for board approval barb is highly qualified and has devoted an entire career to the success of deaf and hard of hearing children and leadership in the EcoP program I believe there's no one in the state of Arizona more qualified to lead the ECFE program barb has demonstrated outstanding leadership in working towards increased funding to our

008birth to three program so families have an opportunity for increased services and greater outcomes for visually impaired infants and toddlers and hard of hearing deaf infants and toddlers as the Board considers a new proposal of a certified program there is no one more qualified and experienced to lead in this direction over the past years our agency's guiding principles have been a CT accountability collaboration and transparency if we are following our guiding principle ability collaboration and transparency it causes me to wonder and ask the question the board and ASDB agency need to make decisions that are based on our guiding principles and the shared understanding of evidence of successful leadership as the Board considered considers a template for teacher contracts it causes me to wonder what types of decisions will be made in the future that

009will guarantee fair and considerate treatment of teachers and leaders these two decisions should be based on the evidence that is agreed upon within the agency for renewing contracts Barbara Chirag is highly qualified and dedicated to the mission and vision of a std barb leaves a legacy that cannot be touched or tarnished she has demonstrated the seven habits of effective leadership that our professional development team has spent a year discussing and implementing with our developing leaders I urged the board to be more collaborative in their decisions and to seek to understand from the many voices of a CFP that are here to support her continued leadership thank you very much thank you but the other folks that I mentioned that wanted to speak are they here otherwise I'm going to continue each one of these items

010are from people that wanted to speak specifically to item four point one to four point one to four point one two and there's the last one which is three point oh two which was airing Helene I got Melissa Holt HOV L when they try it out president Howard superintendent Reichman and members of the board my name is Melissa Foyle and I'm a supervising teacher for southern Arizona for the early childhood and family education program I wanted to speak today regarding by the shrug and the fact that superintendent Reichman has chosen to not submit the contract for renewal Barbara has worked for this agency for 30 years the last several years have been in the capacity as director of the early childhood programs in this position she has embodied the agency's mission of a CT accountability

011collaboration and transparency she's worked many long hard hours to help bring the legislative funding to the EcoP program and she's been accountable for this funding by helping our department develop data collection and she continues to this day to work on systems for that data she's collaborated with the agency as well as with the Arizona early intervention program to bring new life to a program that continues to grow and learn she has worked long tireless hours to bring us together as a statewide program so that we can collaborate as a Department towards a common goal and she's been transparent in all of her actions with staff if there are changes she lets us know about them and why they're occurring when we learned that Barbara's contract is not being renewed we asked many questions and I

012can share with you as a supervisor that many people have come to me asking for other questions there's confusion right now regarding how changing leadership at this very crucial time when our trajectory is upwardly moving how will that benefit the early childhood programs I wish I have the right words to share with those who ask but I'm truly confused at this decision and I would hope that as an agency that we would also embody that mission of a seat what's the accountability for the decision what data shows that she's a poor fit for that contract years of staff satisfaction and family satisfaction surveys certainly don't point to it I also understand that thirty years of past performance observing evaluations also don't speak to someone whose contract should not be renewed so as an agency when

013we have transparency in this matter as well I was fortunate this week to hear a talk on a spree to core the common spirit existing in members of a group and inspiring enthusiasm inspiring devotion strong strong regard for the honor of a group Barbara has worked to bring that common spirit to the ECFE program this spirit can only build our program build our teachers to learn more and be our best professional selves and this spirit is what it's going to take to follow ASD B's vision of providing excellence and innovation in education for all children throughout Arizona who are blind have vision loss are deaf and hard of hearing removing Barbara Straub from the position will work to do the opposite thank you for your time thank you Melissa next person is a cathing Kramer

014hello my name is Catherine creamer I'm also here to support Barbara's Fogg in a position as director of the ICI Fe programs I am currently my role at ASDB it's coordinating a teacher for listening and spoken language I work with birth to five so I work with the EC epi program and also with pre schools around the state I have worked at HDB since 1979 I'm not going to tell you how many years that is it's a long time and I worked with barb for many of those years in many of different roles I left ASDB in 2010 to pursue some other options and Barb was responsible for hiring me back and what I can tell you in the last four years and what has been built has been pretty incredible there's been a lot

015of growth to programs she has supported me in building the preschool program in Tucson which was at six children and then now is at 29 and growing she has helped me to support teachers around the state both in the birth to three programs for people that the children that going to the homes for toddler groups and also the preschool teachers we've developed trainings we've done a lot of training and have really impacted services to children as I watch her I watch her work Tyros tirelessly for children and for families she has built the program by hiring and recruiting and hiring new teachers they're training them for their specific needs starting new projects right now we have about three ongoing with me alone there's a lot more that are in process so what I would like

016to say as I agree with my colleagues that this is a time of transition for birth to five it's a time of transition and the ECF II programs I think for leadership is needed to continue on with the kind with the trajectory that we're having it is an upward growth it's in the middle of it it's it's it's still growing things are still happening so I would just like to say that as we go forward Barb's leadership is very important to ASDB I also like would like to say just a thing for me personally because I'm with teachers all the time and it does say a lot to the morale of the agency when someone who they see is working really hard and working a lot of extra hours to not have their contract renewed

017moved has a huge impact on how those teachers feel about work thank you very much thank you next person I have is is Lindsay okay which of the interpreter can't see me sorry Emily no stuck in traffic hi I'm Lindsay dehoyos I am a former teacher of PTSD six and a half years Donna stay-at-home mom with two deaf daughters two and seven months old last summer I was on bed rest in Boston Massachusetts and I had my daughter there while on bed rest I learned so much about the deaf education there they have a very strong bilingual approach and I went to my mom and I said I'm concerned about deaf education in Arizona especially in early intervention and my moms and I fought thirty-five years ago now it's your turn because in Boston they're

018thirty-five years ahead so I would like you to really look at it through a different lens hearing parents of hearing babies are teaching their children to sign and we're fine with that kotas children of deaf adults like dr. Jennifer Hensley she grew up with two deaf parents and she's a very successful woman and my daughter is two years old she has a cochlear implant and she already has 200 words in ASL before she even got her cochlear implant after three weeks at Desert Voices the teacher said she's already using pronouns theirs and other cochlear implant users are not as advanced as she is so important is it's really all comes down to language acquisition as a deaf mother and also she has a father who is deaf you should really believe in the experts know

019from those who raise deaf children you need their help so for barbers Schrag for her position she's been here in it many many years and to be honest with you looking at children from birth to 12th grade we haven't seen much improvement thank you for getting the 1.6 million but I feel like it's the same plan visiting the home expanding more services in the home but it's the same thing nothing is new there's not enough education to the parents on how they can raise their deaf child and not only that there's a division between the Deaf mentor program they're the experts in working with deaf children now they're not even working with ECFE you know and a lot of the teachers have broken ASL they don't have that strong foundation in ASL and it's going

020back to that old school thinking so I think it's time for a new person a new school a new outlook okay thank you for your to letting me speak thank you last one four on the last month for this item is Erin green Aaron just real quick you got three minutes but is this that are you speaking to an agenda item specifically or I mean 0-2 okay so that's the IGA just wanna make sure yep three minutes sir mr. Howard I know you have the leniency to give me a little bit more time I drove over two and a half hours to arrive here and we'll drive two and a half hours to return home to speak to you today board members of a STB good evening I'm here to speak about a neck write

021men's proposal at the last board meeting that she was given unilateral ability to end a contract with the school district and the new proposal being offered tonight to give you some background as to the true intent of mrs. reichman's original proposal first some background the Arizona Department of Education is found through the state complaint process that the Flagstaff Unified School District was responsible for an ASD B teacher the visually impaired denying my son a free and appropriate public education by refusing to teach him Braille that same teachers been heard to brag that she's only had to teach Braille to three or four of her students over her career this same teacher created FERPA complaints from my school district by destroying my son's educational records at the end of every school year which is also a

022violation of ASD B's record retention policy numerous additional state complaints have been filed and one against my school district for the actions of two additional teachers of the visually impaired out of the North Central Regional cooperative for not following my son's IEP with the latest finding against Flagstaff Unified School District for the actions of an ASD B employee occurring in November of 2008 teen and a de is currently investigating two additional complaints related to the services from the north-central cooperative in 2018 and ASDB teach who refused to teach with curriculum to the point of threatening to quit the agency if they were made used curriculum in their Braille instruction that request was granted by the former director of the North Central cooperative and that teacher was reassigned to teach other children in my area without

023curriculum in the recorded meeting in a record meeting on November of 2018 the director of exceptional student services from my district and the current director of the North Central cooperative that director acknowledged that the replacement teacher the visually-impaired assigned to my son lacked the training and ability to instruct my son consistent with the IEP that they themselves helped right but that was still the only teacher assigned to provide services for my son we have tried to meet with superintendent Reichman in September of 2018 resolve these issues with the poorest service being offered our district and our son from the north-central cooperative in this recorded meeting she made specific promises to my family to resolve some of these issues that were never followed through with now you know that now you should know that weeks prior

024to the January board meeting where superintendent Reichman tried to establish your unilateral ability to end a contract with the school district miss Reichman met with the leadership of my school district and threatened them to end the contract with Flagstaff Unified School District and that started in October of 2018 mr. Aikman was more than willing to end the services of more than 60 children who are deaf hard of hearing and visually impaired to hide the systemic problems in the north-central cooperative for actions of threatening to end the contract and seeking board approval for the ability to end contracts at the January meeting represented a clear case of illegal retaliation for bringing up legitimate compliance issues with the IgA between Flagstaff Unified School District and ASD be something that mr. Negreanu publicly acknowledged at the last board

025meeting her mafioso style intimidation tactics at a public meeting were deliberate and calculated attempt to silence school districts across the state from bringing up legitimate issues of ASDB compliance of the contract by threatening to leave school districts 30 days to find alternative services to meet their legal requirements to provide faith also this intimidation tactic was meant to silence parents your stakeholders and shut them up so no harm up so not to harm other children in the district it was impactful and discriminatory miss reichman's actions represent the antithesis of ASD b's vision and mission statements I ask you to judge her actions at the January board meeting and her threats to my school district against the ideas that ASDB is committed to back support in the well-being of all and judge her by her commitment to

026excellence in innovation for all children throughout Arizona and finally judge her actions by the measure of excellence and innovation in collaboration with families and school districts as part of your not ask you to wrap up if you can please I will get it thank you as you consider the proposal in front of you today I'd ask you to consider new language in the proposal that would ensure that the issues that the school districts are having with regional cooperatives would lead to ASD be terminating a contract with the district would be investigated prior to that termination I would also urge you to give school districts an opportunity to appeal that decision before services were cut off finally I'd ask you to consider taking action to investigate the actions of mr. Aikman as it pertains to this

027matter and look into the systemic issues in the north central regional cooperative that she was looking to hide by her actions thank you for the extra time Thank You mr. green Laura I understand that and I'm on that next agenda item so just give me one second I'll get you Oh did you submit a pink form oh I can't read this I'm sorry Laura hawk no I'm sorry Laura come on up we should see this piece of paper I'm trying to reheat if you think it's a bad thing I hear you so again please state your name and got three minutes okay I'll talk really fast president Howard board members superintendent Reichman y'all thank you for letting me come my name's Laura hock Knoll I've been with the agency since 1997 I was a cooperative

028teacher itinerant in the southwest region before moving to Phoenix in 2002 to begin work in the early childhood program when Barbra Chirag was hired as the ECFE director in 2014 she told me that during her interview she laid out all the things she thought needed to change and improve within the EcoP Department I thought that was very bold and forward-thinking of her to do and incidentally that is a great way to describe Barbra shrug as a department we did need a reawakening and to be unified at our first statewide staff meeting barb spent time getting to know us better understanding what our hopes dreams and strengths were and started sharing with us her vision for the ECFE program during that first year she brought synergy to e cfv as stephen r.covey defines it in his

029seven habits synergy means the whole is greater than the sum of its parts he says synergy is the essence of principle-centered leadership that catalyzes unifies and unleashes the greatest powers within people I learned firsthand that the sharing of differences in creating open dialog builds relationships and as cubby likes to say sharpens to saw in 2015 again at our statewide meeting barb gave us all bamboo plants and told us the story of bamboo it grows a foundation with its root system for five years before taking off and grow into its full potential here's my bamboo plant it's much smaller than it was and December in December it was like this tall and it was doing really well and I made a mistake and I put it in the window and the stock started turning yellow I

030had to cut off the part that was living in order to save the plant so when barb gave us our plants she asked us to commit to her plan of training and change knowing we needed to strengthen our foundation so we could reap longer stronger and better results I knew at that point Barr was taking us in a solid forward-thinking direction for the first time for the first time since 2002 I felt like we finally had a director that was going to make our program effective and have lasting impact under Barb's direction we have gone from overseeing part-time providers delivering ECSE services to being the main providers in the home this has given us greater control over curriculum and supports we provide to families with the initial move of removing us from the role of

031service coordination to direct services we made a huge paradigm shift and family started getting better services and results this was a start and definitely not enough and we knew that we needed to better our skills under her Barb's direction and planning we got ongoing training to enhance our ability to support children whose parents choose a listening and spoken language approach we also continued to search for someone who could coordinate the Deaf mentor program to provide added support for families who are choosing to use ASL as their child's first language as well as provide an opportunity for all families to learn more I'll jump to the end in my humble opinion it is extremely short-sighted to learn of the decision or the suggestion to not renew Barb's contract barb has brought vision to this agency she

032has passion knowledge and determination she has followed through with everything she promised she would do for a program she remembers that we also serve kids with visual impairment we are nearly fully staffed and without her vision we would not be where we are under Barb's leadership we have set motion in motion opportunities for further growth increased services and training opportunities for our new hires I am asking that you reconsider renewing Barb's contract and allow us to continue moving forward continue with our momentum rather than cutting off the book the pieces of growth that we've had and making us start all over again please don't cut off our momentum please allow barb to carry us through there are so many more things we would like to do and we are growing and I respect Lindsey but

033I disagree we do we are trying to reach the entire curriculum I mean continuum for deaf and hard-of-hearing and also serving our visually impaired families thanks floor appreciate it I have no more pink cards that I believe so I'm going to move to the next agenda item actually yes sorry I'm gonna actually jump back to item 1.0 to superintendent Hoffman thank you for making it through traffic is not fun so okay thank you president Howard and superintendent Reichman and I apologize to everyone for my tardiness traffic was horrendous but the silver lining on that was as I had the chance to actually walk through campus I had a chance to see some students in action I saw students on the on the track and field practicing with their coaches as well as the girls basketball

034game as I was trying to find trying to find the room so I apologize sincerely for my for my tardiness but it was great to see the campus as well as I walked through I wanted to take this opportunity as a this is just finishing my second month in office as Superintendent of Public Instruction and I wanted to share some updates of what we've been working on and make sure that were one of the privileges of being superintendent is that I do get to serve on various boards as well as represent the department and so not only do I serve here on the Arizona School for the combined board but also the Board of Education and the Board of Regents and so I do see my role as also making sure we're building bridges between

035the various educational agencies and boards and so I wanted to make sure we share some of the highlights of what we've been doing in our department so in the first two months we have started various audits we we just completed a capacity review an internal capacity review that was completed by an organization called the Council of Chief state school officers or CCSSO and they are helping they helped us to identify some areas where we're doing well in other areas where we still need to to work on and one of the for example one of the things they noted that we should continue to work on is having a strong clear vision our entire department can be aiming towards and that we can have it also share that clear vision with the communities that's one area

036that we're going to be working on as we create a strategic plan for the department and we're also going to be we're also working towards doing an audit which is going to be more of our financial operations as well as our IT and data systems we have an audit committee that we have assembled they are school finance experts from across the state and so the committee has met a couple times and we are soon gonna be learning about the scope of the audit and moving forward with that because it's very important to us that that I can be held accountable for our school finance systems and IT systems as well as making sure that everyone is receiving their funding in an efficient way and and also that the public has trust in our data and

037in our finance system so that's been a great action there we also have our policy team that's been very active down at the Capitol we've been signing in and support and in opposition to various education bills and of course we're always looking to see which bills are gonna help our students all students be successful across the state and doing everything we can to support that so for one example where we already had some success was we supported the bill that reduced the restrictions of the for our ll block and that was very important to us as an administration that supports the diversity actually celebrates the diversity within our state and also supports multilingualism so we're very happy to see that pass unanimously it's just amazing to have such bipartisan support and so the last thing

038I'm gonna making a quick plug that for all families and educators I hope you're following our social media pages we have new official pages as well as we're updating all of our official Department of Education pages so that you can stay informed about everything all the great things we've been doing and also if you want to share with us some of your achievements we're always looking for student stories or educators stories to highlight and so my my twitter account is at SU PT underscore Hoffman and then on Instagram and on Facebook it's superintendent Coffman all written out so I hope you're following along and also Vegas if you'd like us to highlight something great that's happening in your community and thank you so much again for having me here thank you sir antenna ok I'm

039back on track item 1.04 this is called the public on non-agenda items so with that I the folks that have filled out a yellow for the sheep if you might want to kind of move up to the front that way you're you don't spend a lot of time coming up to the microphone my business in the front row that's just a suggestion one other thing I want to point out on the on the procedure here is I'm allowing three minutes for each of you to speak and I think that's adequate time for you to try to convey your point he will he'll to hear the alarm like you heard earlier I'll let you go fold it over a little bit but I want to be sensitive of everybody's time on the board and last of

040all on the speakers may offer objective criticism of a deep aid that excuse me ASDB operations and programs as concerned them but in a public meaning the board will not hear personal complaints about ASDB employees nor against in person connected with a std other channels provided for more consideration disposition of legitimate complaints involving individuals I want to say to keep that in mind as we were hearing this type of testimony that makes sense if that said first person I have is Danny Lawrence standing here I know you had a long drive I appreciate you coming down mr. president many of the speakers that I fill out speaker cards for thought they were speaking at the end of our session today so my family the green family and my last name of the only people currently

041here I think you had a stack from us I just wanted you to know that yes so if you aren't allowing comments at the end I will call the speakers off let me let me try to wrap this up a little bit into maybe this works if there's a consistent message if you're all are conveying the same message there may be some time saved there I'll Ford a little bit extra time for that if that's the case if not let's let's roll through these because it's going to take some time because I got 14 slips here three minutes each so we might be here a little bit so it makes sense it does not what I thought we were doing here today but okay okay I'm doing my best all right I appreciate that and

042I will try to stick to your time frame as quickly as I can a SCV board thank you all so much for the opportunity you've extended my family and my friends to be heard here tonight we traveled from Flagstaff and will again travel to Tucson in May to be with you to continue to press for some change in this organization and the way services are disproportionately allocated and regional cooperatives it's long overdue and I think you know it let's first start with a discussion about the real crisis in this organization and that's the crisis of a scbs lack of effective leadership in our situation we started with superintendent Kohler who said in writing my child wasn't blind enough for instruction we have evidence of a Regional Director intentionally denying my family's approvals for technology and

043we've experienced at least three VI instructors who were allowed to selectively quit working with our family not because my son was problematic but because his parents were demanding curriculum based instruction and the inclusion of accommodations in his instruction the leadership of this organization allowed it and still does as evidenced by the fact that we're no longer allowed to communicate with the director of the north-central cooperative no one in my family has abused your staff there have been no name-calling no threats no ultimatums just difficult question asking when we ask difficult questions the superintendent was threatened to cancel our service contract with Flagstaff Unified School District's just this year after I refused this agency's incompetent services in December those threats still the mast in your last meeting the Ombudsman's process has been a joke for us

044there's not a lot of follow up the trust building efforts are destroyed by whatever happens with the administration and these retaliation practices and dealing with our family continued leadership can't be great leadership you can't be great without it and clearly we aren't following the mission statement of this organization for education for all children and there appears to be zero ability to minimize conflict or support staff next let me share that I'm a business woman I to serve on many volunteer boards of directors at both the state and national level of my organization so I understand what if some what some of you are facing as volunteers and I sympathize with it in an open records request we made of this organization it was clear that ascd didn't keep records of expenditures a violation of state

045policy and also approved in the furcal file it for violations found against our school district it seems that reckless business practice continues a quick look at this financial of the financials speak about two huge problems ASDB bites the hands that fees it and it's stunning to me really appears that 49 percent of the revenues of this organization come from children's servicing regional cooperatives but don't get actual service as a business and it's a business and disability as a business isn't it an ASD be clearly only funds that supports the most restrictive environments for its students it's shameful and this is not 1950 don't let this administration tell you that the cost of a few buildings justifies the inequity finally I wanted to take a moment to tell you that my story is that unique and

046that will be exposed as I reach out more families serviced in regional cooperatives share an eerily similar story not every family can afford the private services we've paid for this year not every family can take a day off of work and attend a meeting over 250 miles from their house most people couldn't take the time and they just accept the mediocrity of these services unfortunately you now have a family with nothing left to lose and our voices growing louder by the minute I used to worry as a mother and stare at the ceiling I used to have to pet the egos of your staff and your directors and your administrators to make sure everybody felt good about doing job not anymore because my child is laughing again he's learning at a rate that would have

047taken a year and it was services at ASDB in just a short 7 weeks and you can quote you can end your cooperative agreement with F USD but you won't silence me you'll just fuel the raging internal of hurting up 60 other children in my community my town is taking notice our representation is taking notice and the media is now involved and we have a pending office of civil rights complaint against AFC b4 the way your administration and regional co-operative system has hurt my family ASDB chooses who they serve and clearly this organization this organization is choosing not to serve my beautiful child we don't want your meager services but as dr. Maya Angelou wrote when we know better we do better I did better for my son and I have a responsibility to do

048better for other children's service by ASDB it's long overdue and I hope this board will continue providing the guidance needed to big change thank you thank you miss Lawrence appreciate that they fund the item next by a person of speakers from my life awareness I'm sorry if I mispronounced that not here yet I'll set her to the side I've got Amanda Amanda steel set her to the Sun Tzu's eatery Gina Blair Pamela Lange Erika Smith Courtney Burnett Holly Patel kick green hi my name is Kate green and my third student at five-second fights for digital today I'm here to talk about the lack of service that I use to be in my school district I'm providing my visually impaired weather so I'd like to talk talk about this part of life that you all don't

049see in my perspective on the current situation you all don't see the parts where my parents were responsible for taking care of me and my brother are up two early hours of the morning sacrificing government for their mental and physical health fighting with my little brother's disability would be a productive member of society and a victory I personally cannot comprehend why they need to do something like this they make you have a blindside I also can't think of any other job in the real world where you're employed to do a specific job and then have the option not to do it and still get paid at the end of today but somehow the service providers that are supposed to show my brother how to read just decide not I mean you could get a job

050at McDonald's thanks chef not to wear it show up to work and I'll be seeing a burger and expectedly paid at the end of the day and watch let's keep it up my brother is it going to be able to go to college for something as passionate about or go to college even at all my brother services these people in something different feel to the same thing I can't and I think that they should have the opportunity to matter what their Portland or what they develop over time they should be able to be honorable students and that people opportunity to graduate the Arizona taxpayer money is going to paying people that aren't doing the jobs they're just screwing over innocent people my brother should be able to have an equal opportunity it says and you

051wanted to you all are denying your back it doesn't seem very fair to me we're talking about human being Thank You kid I appreciate that next person I have to speak is Sawyer vain hello I am attend your own fight and language doesn't seem a professional to me my name is Rosanna just because I'm a twin with 9,000 that does not mean I should not be able Spence college I like to be able to learn and I think change with our thousands or any other physical and mental problems should be able to learn and go home to my family my eye problem is far away is very serious either because ill needs supplies and it is really a television affiliate people on the planet but we are one out of four families in the u.s.

052that have it I need to know well in two years I mean your home but I don't want it thank you sorry okay I have Aaron Aaron green welcome again mr. green good evening again is to be board members thank you for the opportunity also speak on a non-agenda item I would like to bring to your attention a problem that is inherent in the regional cooperative model of services provided by ASD be for visually impaired children and hopes that you can take some action to resolve the issue no central leadership and administration of the cooperative's long travel times between schools teachers of the visually impaired with high caseloads no statewide standards for Braille or keyboarding instruction and unfilled vacancies in the co-operators lead to decisions about services being driven by the availability of ASDB resources

053rather than the needs of children to receive a free and appropriate public education the result of this is inadequate and course services being provided to children that need time and consistent repetition to become truly proficient in Braille and keyboarding in many cases a STV provides a warm body but not in education TV eyes and the rural cooperatives are forced to focus on magnification rather than actual Braille and keyboarding skills to the detriment of students long-term potential Ruby Ryles published a paper in the journal of visual impairment and blindness that showed Braille readers have a statistically significant higher rates of employment higher levels of Education higher levels of annualized salary and are more self-sufficient than visually impaired readers that rely upon magnification magnification technology has its place but should never replace a solid foundation in Braille

054literacy but that's not what's happening out at the regional cooperatives please enact statewide statewide standards for braille literacy for your visually impaired students require set benchmarks for annual Braille learning don't allow TV eyes not teach Braille to visually impaired students and please require your TV is to actually be proficient in ueb Braille by requiring them to get and maintain a national certification and unified English Braille not taking these steps ensures the failure of the instruction you are woefully providing visually impaired children of Arizona deserve better than the half-hearted effort that is currently being rolled out of the regional operatives across the state thank you for your consideration thank you for your time Thank You mr. dream superintendent reitman and the rest of the board I have a quick question procedurally on this item since our

055still a number of slips or folks that might be coming out of town is it outside the purview of the board to hold this agenda item till later I'm just asking to put a pause on it just in case people do have traveling from Flagstaff to speak I want to give them adequate time and transparency to do so okay I don't know and based on that I'm gonna go ahead and pause it and we'll come back to it okay this is Mark then your sins you can have a motion to delay the agenda item to later thank you someone entertain a motion to make a motion to lady I have a motion do I have a second a second all those in favor say aye hi I thank you everybody we'll come back to that

056one now I'm on a genom number 1.05 executive routine reports I recharge operation and now to find are there any questions from the board based on the reports that have been submitted hearing none I'm Lou died in 1.46 information items and discussion assistant that excuse me assistant superintendent report good afternoon president Howard and board you have received the report from the five regional directors the two principals the audit team as well as the directors for deaf and blind programs as I did in my January report I'd like to kind of highlight some of the opportunities and activities that align to our strategic priorities under communication and relationship building can pdsd continues to develop and strengthen strengthen their vocational partnerships to offer experiences to their high school students many of their students are currently involved in

057internships at Bookmans the Sunnyslope thrift store and Larry H Miller as well as Starbucks after the discussion at the January board meeting about offering contracts to teachers for the 2019 2020 school year principals directors supervising teachers coordinating teachers some some of them were able to give input to develop an information sheet that has been passed to the teachers along with the draft contract that you had for discussion this information sheet was included and kind of a what about contracts the why of contracts a little bit of history about contracts contracts were offered in the 80s to teachers at ASDB we did some historical research and some audits the contracts if board approved would be being rolled out so we can try to ensure that we have our staff ready for the start of the new

058year understanding that finding the highly qualified teachers and keeping our excellent staff that we do have is an important priority both HR and I have been answering questions to try to help clarify any questions about the contracts fears on a Braille challenge was held February 19th with 44 students from across Arizona that participated at the Tucson campus both parents and students were allowed to attend sessions on independent living and having active lifestyles February 1st the regional cooperatives held their second summit that included supervising teachers and the focus of the summit was to discuss and seek ways to improve services to the districts and students registration information a little plug for camp leap dr. Jennifer Hensley the director of Brookline programs has put out registration information for Kathleen under our priority of academic achievement and student

059engagement both the Tucson campus as well as pdsd have been working with Mary winter Steen litter literacy consultant and teaching structured literacy with regard to our campus facilities the NCR lease will be coming up in November of 2019 so they are actively looking for the best space utilization for the NCR cooperative and that concludes my update thank you are there any questions thank you again item 1.07 superintendents report good afternoon president Howard you taking that time this afternoon they weighed meeting and the significant discussions we are having I'm going to start with and I'd like to be with this story what I have a new story her story of a lily flower no okay many of us have seen pictures of their little flower and their community their flowers that seem to float on top

060of water but actually at the bottom and lakes when they germinate in the mud there at the bottom there and they grow start blowing out of the mud with a little pot on top of the stem and then the stem starts to grow through the murky water and in fact the floating debris dad lost the previews and it keeps rending explain us what is it doing that magical is the goal is to get to the top of the pond and when it gets up there and can blossom because there's a lot of promise to filter the water is dirty its muddy its murky it's chaotic but really that's the way around the payoffs and the conclusion until once that pot works to the surface of the water God slowly and that of us today we

061are life to the lead cloud our goals here at the top of the pond is that our students will graduate from high school college and came away that's the goal that's what we're shooting we want our students to have same academic social emotional vocational skills that's a counterpart tab of our high school graduates so we we want get there we have to keep reaching for that goal but in the murky water pay off it's very easy to get distracted it's very easy to use our way so you have to have a plan plaintiff and as you know we have five priorities that I proposed last July agenda really the agenda and the five strategic priority for example you will be talking about and that fits and that priority want that communication in relationship building but

062so protocol who is speaking school district throughout Arizona and used to be involved and become more about what in the regional offices another we'll have a discussion about maybe being able to integrate between the five programs program discussion priority please we have damage indignant we have three things here talking about this afternoon that fits into that thyroid and that is the math which one and here in a presentation about that and will be asked to adopt the man for a grown man that's we're playing to act development and then of course by Shane of khufu power executive services lastly Matt with the board finance my information about our finances and giving you that information as well I suggest sometime this summer you can get together and together and look at the five suppose the priority

063in Pacific population we want to accomplish and then that one maybe even four or five years that might and finally upload with with an invitation have a steering committee the plans internally within on April 17 1 2 4 option inviting and during that steering committee meeting we'll be sharing with each other innovative things that maybe they don't know about [Applause] more about thank you Thank You superintendent any questions okay rydym to our consent and looking to entertain us to go to each session have a conversation about some processes yeah the question here on the table is can we call an executive session just to talk about the process for instance agenda [Applause] okay well I think there's been a number of communication back and forth to the board it's specific to what what is the

064if it were if it were up to me I would ask the board if there are agenda items that we want to pull out to remove from the consent agenda item from the consent agenda we would then act on the consent agenda item and then there were ones that we've pulled out by motion we can then go into executive session to discuss those individuals correct that's not necessarily my question so I really think you're asking for legal advice correct yes it's outside the time consent agenda specifically to procedure and legal advice on how that procedure goes forward yeah thank you well please come up and repeat with you didn't set because I think it's important good afternoon is that better that's better please make sure to state your name sir I'm Deborah sterling I'm an

065assistant attorney general from the attorney general's office and I work with ASTP on various issues yes you can go into an executive session to obtain legal advice on any agenda item okay with that said I think there's a need for some legal advice based on process of these agenda items in these consent agenda items specifically then the board needs to make the appropriate motion and we can go and vote on it thank you hope I was clear on entertain a motion I move that we go into executive session to discuss the process of handling the consent and non consent agenda items I have a motion to have a second I second all in favor say aye moving to executive session we need to read something ok now we're live go ahead pursuant to a RS

06638 - 4 3 1.0 3 a1 the Board of Directors may vote to go into executive session which will not be open to the public for the purposes of discussion and consideration of employment matters as it relates to agenda items 4.0 one through four point one five also pursuant to a RS 3 8 - 4 3 1.03 a for the board may go to vote to go into executive session which will not be open to the public for discussion consultation with the attorneys in order to consider its position and instruct its attorneys regarding contracts that are subject of negotiations in pending or contemplated litigation or in settlement discussions conducted in order to avoid a resolved litigation specifically 3.02 you it's like your marks and I think we're all back there are we back on the

067phone lines - they've been transferred over dr. Sims yeah I'm here thank you okay procedurally do I need to make a motion where are we just back in regular session now so we're back in regular session okay item number 2.0 one consent agenda item approval consent agenda items consistent with board policy and food items 3.1 4.1 4.0 24.0 three four five six seven eight nine ten I'm leading these for a reason 11 12 13 15 6.0 17.0 to 7.03 and 7.0 for this is consent to Jemma I have a motion to approve the consent agenda no no this is Shelley so 4.01 down through 4.14 he's being held off for discussion in executive session are you requesting those items be we pulled off consent employees I am requesting that those items be pulled off and

068we go into executive session through 15 so 4.01 through point 4.15 I would like to go ahead and vote to approve one moment 3.01 fixers to clients you've got to be one motion at a time so the very first motion that I think I heard was that you would like to remove items three point 4.0 one through four point 15 to go into executive session is that a motion yes okay I have a motion do I have a second I'm not hearing a second based on that motion fails and I'm mistaken Shelby did you Shelly did you have a second motion for those other consent agenda items now okay I think I now I need to go back to the original motion of do is there a motion that proof consent agenda items as read

069for item 2.0 one show perhaps you wanted to limit this scope of the original motion you know I I guess I'm not really understanding it let me see if I can clarify if there's an agenda item in the consent shall surely that you would like to have removed one in particular two in particular or all of them based on your news emotion that can be adopt and have a discussion an executive session so your original motion to do all of those failed for lack of a second motion yesterday based on the question of my right did you want to revise another motion or a specific item or you okay where it stands no I was hoping to pull out all of them all listed under human resources because I wanted to go through all those

070to make sure that we were okay I understand so I'm back on there the last motion of approval of item 2.0 one consent agenda items as listed did I have a motion I don't have a motion yet I've moved that we approve the consent agenda agenda items is listed I have a motion to have a second marki right Becket I got a second what the seconds as well all those in favor say aye aye aye all those opposed I guys have it so move now we're on item 3.0 one if I'm not mistaken no sorry that was consent I'm on 3.0 to information discussion idle and our governmental agreements of school districts proposed our proposal superintendent right then just to give you a little bit of background you probably already know this but I want

071to remind you is that school districts generally have a possibility for providing the appropriate public education at IEA when you have a student that's identified with the disability then the school district needs to put together and I each team that is the individualized education plan to include school district staff including parents depending for the other professionals during the IEP team meeting then they identify on major pool goals academic achievement goals for the students and the kind of supports that are necessary to achieve those goals in Arizona school districts have the option if they want to to reach out to these request an agreement and that agreement allows a SP our itinerant teachers to go into the school district and hearing blind and visually impaired you've already heard a lot about that this afternoon so when

072these school districts make that choice when they contact up the process as it's been all along is that we sang the school district a template to Earth during administrators Diana they're returning spying sometimes to school board president signed it and then they send it to us assistance you can send it back she finds it and she send it to the Arizona Attorney General's Office they review it then they sign it and oftentimes the minute it's dying you already have started to provide services then FMX would under about consent agenda in this way that's having an agreement with a SBB and asked me / that's been the process I'm proposing that we change that so that you become more info one and more involved and have a better understanding relationships with school districts around the state

073of Arizona what I'm proposing is that any time we have a new school district the school district that we have not had any like web that we provide that information that to you you have a new school district to watch that happen if we met with that we have so many students blah blah blah blah blah no those school districts to the five year agreement expired and they want to move and you will just like the rule under the consent agenda but there if we have a school district asking for an agreement and for services and you say oh because we don't have enough teachers you need to let you know that as well and that ears and does mostly yep a school district themselves let us know they want to terminate an agreement you

074can also include you like that that is school this link put letters no if they want to come any the agreement because whatever whatever the reason may be most of the time because the school districts have hired own teachers they can provide the services and then finally of course on any combinations that I will on your next agenda item path of opening to revise the policy that converging director working to improve or not approve my recommendation is to pretend to terminate so that's what I'm saying [Music] any questions can I ask it this is my family a quick question like under what circumstance it has to choose to the fact that by considering terminating an agreement last fall to return my question is for the initiation what's the reasoning for being presented a new IgA

075to the board as opposed to having it kind of completed in the ordering course the agency business as it is now [Music] our work in fact prefer that that information not be today me formally to uncertain finding of that I just want to make sure that you are comfortable getting all the information to understand how I work I can edit as an informational item in my report you know we've brought on three new districts or serving as many kids if that would help I guess I'm just trying to figure out why you know we need that new you know why would need that that new procedure I mean in these relationships were basically a vendor right I mean worth this school districts can hire their own staff to provide these services you know they're the

076ones that hold a IPA of the responsibility they can you never hire us they can hire a third party they can build their own expertise and hire their own staff to deliver those services it's whatever that's up to them in terms of the capability you had mentioned you present a plan as to how we're gonna grow our capacity to serve that I mean these are fee-for-service relationships for the most part or would be receiving additional funds to provide them and I would I would think that we need to grow the contractor workforce accordingly is that I mean that's what we do now okay and then the final the the policy the termination policy is already on the agenda for later today which the board ostensibly will act on later oh that's okay all questions one

077other thing that I think I was gonna point out that have we talked about earlier on this is in the event there's a resource issue as well yep all of a sudden we have multiple school districts like appointees how are you gonna handle this that's like another piece of the decision for us as a board to say bigger issues for this region Bob so I see the transparency that's kind of my head goes to right I guess what I'm saying is it because their fee for service relationships the more you know we signed up more school districts we have more need but we'd also have additional funds to to service them on any other questions otherwise this is an information discussion item hearing none we'll move on to item 1 point our C's the 3.03

078urgent purple revision to policy IB welcome good afternoon board president Hubbard members of the board superintendent right men but for the record my name is Mary Murphy and I am here to discuss action item 3.0 fleet a urgent approval of revisions to policy lb and this is pursuant to the discussion that was held at the last board meeting I don't so this went to the policy subcommittee and we had some good discussion around it you know nature concerns were raised it was placed on the agency website for public comment no public comment was received and at this time I'd like to make myself available for any questions oh but I should back up because superintendent Reichman did request that this be placed in an urgency revision meaning that you would adopt it being one read

079instead of the typical shoots and I'd like to make myself available for any questions any questions hearing none and obtain emotion actually two motions has been coming up right it's a motion to prove forgets without a time frame but your emotion salute second second all those in favor say aye aye aye aye aye those opposed now entertain a second motion for the actual approval of the item correct in motion I move that we adopt the policy as propose a new clinic we have a motion to have a second I second the motion a second all those in favor say aye aye those opposed motion carries yes I'm going to know what port president powered superintendent Lightman assistant superintendent next member of the boards I'm Melissa Tabriz I am a member of the ODB team and

080what we're bringing for their consideration tonight is the approval and adoption of the nav curriculum last year about this time we came to you with ela curriculum this is part of a five-year cycle of reviewing each of our major content areas and then putting them up for adoption over the last several months and you'll have a form in front of you with the dates we've formed committees at both campuses on the tucson campus and if these this to look at and review math materials it's been up for popularity of rubric respond the teachers indicated based on the rubric scoring which curriculum that they would like to have at each of the campuses and I would have to open this up to any questions that you may have without any math for today Thank You Erin

081any questions this is Shelley sure so I noticed that PTSD and ASD and ASB are indicated differently as far as choice for the math curriculum can you expand as to why we had separate groups meeting both of them looked at the same curriculum and both of them reflected on what would be best to meet the individual needs of the campuses PTSD did choose a different curriculum for their campus at the high school level then did it has to be an ASP and what part of this in this situation there is the campus at Tucson has been acting as a unified campus of both those four are visually impaired and hearing impaired students and they felt that this one curriculum would work best for all of their students again that has a visually impaired population where

082PST has very limited with a visual impairment okay thank you any other questions um this is my family just I had a chance to take a look at the curriculums now they'll look really great with Rover to go math are we getting the add-on pieces the differentiation kits that go at each grade level because those are probably really important yes great thank you thank you entertain a motion for action item 3.0 for I move that we adopt enough and motion about a second I'm thinking it I have a second all those in favor say aye aye all those opposed I motion carries item 3.05 information discussion item feasibility study on residential program superintendent right and I'm assuming this isn't happening last January we provided a report phase one study and that report we looked at

083the legal educational and fiscal implications of a legal one we did a survey disputes for the gap and the schools for the blind program open or if they were closing them we also did an analysis of opportunities and possibilities around this day for locating the drawing program so to follow up with the January board convened and February to figure out what the next thing what do we want to be in Phase two and the society that we have the purpose of Phase two which focused on continuing investigating on how we can improve or modify the current born program delicious date folders stakeholder feedback pacific a parent of students program and then thirdly with you a workforce analysis to specific steps that we can take is fat well first of all to get feedback for me

084this afternoon as to next at then to do phone interviews we've already put together a proposed list of questions for you review on what we can be asking the parents then he would do a workforce analysis program a more effective cost-efficient and then provide a report [Music] there's a lot more information in the sheet that or dots effective summarizes what you want to do for the base - once we get your feedback as to what needs to be we will do the work collecting the additional information and providing cool in the main questions and comments I have a question Roger since there have been people that have been offered to go through the residential program who have decided not to send their children will those parents be surveyed as well that the agency know who

085they are we could probably get a list if it is part of the IEP goals or if that comes into play and the parent says absolutely not and that would be [Music] to contact but what if there was worth abandoning it but 14 cars that never made it to the AP I'm not sure that's a good question shouldn't anything that's discussed and still not done be represented the private notice if it's a server it should be just remember the PW ends and we should be able to find all of them I would think additional questions comments dr. Sims did you hear that response this is Linda Bove hi mr. president you I'm wondering when we talk about stakeholders in receiving feedback from our different entities and our different stakeholders does that also include the board

086members how can we deliver feedback do you have a plan for that and as board members what are the roles and how do we approach this and giving feedback to ASTP and obtaining information what is your vision and that can you describe that lease develop a survey 40 members back together into okay that would be great that not specifically what I mean but thank you what I'm trying to say how can I say this will be the will we be the last group to vote on the decision regarding the feasibility study correct that will be the end process right and then I'm sorry I can't see you but I'm assuming that's that's where we are [Music] discussion put it on hold a very specific I see what you're saying and thank you I definitely would

087like to gather all information before we continue with the vote and I think I'm not sure if that's enough how sufficient is the information and how will I know that I have enough information to be able to vote on something I guess maybe do I need to make myself a little bit more clear do you want to fight throw in a thought here so visually and goal-oriented is what I'm hoping to see means what Linda's saying and at the same time one of the objections I've made is I don't I don't think anybody on this board and I make an assumption or anybody in the community wants to get rid of a residential program I think what we're trying to do is say is the one that is in exists now is it a good

088one is there something better we could be doing is there something we can do in northern Arizona what I see personally I mean what is it to make a residential program will bust and flexible there are taking care of a myriad of issues with that said before I make any kind of decision I want to hear from stakeholders I want to have something that is misses me that says I would like to have a work session while we do sit with stakeholders and service what other types of residential programs that aren't necessarily towards the death part here in line are out there that we could look at I'm looking for solutions in ideas not a justification of a program that is in Tucson and before I make any decision right I'm on board with that

089I want to know what all that is now that might take some time folks but I would rather I my conversations with the superintendent is I have a very short term plan a midterm plan and a long term plan that all fits into somebody tell me what that timeframe is I don't want to make a quick decision that says we're gonna do something right away because there's just too much at stake I've heard the school I see it but I'm looking at a robust program what else has worked surveys are great it's one piece of the puzzle I think we need a lot more information and feedback to make a long-term decision I'm right there with you Dean I think it's very important thank you it is important I am concerned about if we're given

090the deadline of May it might be too close and I'm not sure if you're it invested but I'm interested in actually going and seeing things in person firsthand and actually seeing is believing you know not static statistics on a piece of paper or something as abstract as a form I want to be in the depths of it and ask those questions in the moment I know physically for some of us it's not possible but I definitely would like to make it possible myself as a responsible for member a voting board member I think it's an integral part of our duties to be able to travel and I don't want to rush it like you said Dean I do have a schedule I do have a life and I can't just put everything to the side

091but to work through this process to give us more time to be able to see what is happening out there and we can't go as a collective group I understand that and it will be an additional work involved to maybe additional many ones a collective gathering of information and I think I'd like to bring forth my experiences because yours might not be different might be different than mine so it's important that we come together and share it as a community so thank you for letting me it's becoming I don't want to occupy too much of the conversation because I think what I feel in September I can have you correct me what happens in May is you're gonna come back with some more information but based on that my vision is that's when we start

092a work session to have that conversation about what this is going excellent thank you and in I'm sorry and based on what dr. Sims said is those other folks that chose not to operate in your program I would like to have them at the table itself beyond this rivet that's okay I would just like to add just looking at the survey here again is sometimes I don't think we we get at what we may not want to hear but really need to know and so maybe talking to some of the parents that have students here or some of those parents that chose not to put students at the Tucson campus asking them if if the residential I see you know your asked me if the dormitory wasn't there but what would an ideal dormitory program

093look like if it could be anything what would it look like to you I think we need to sort of think outside of that I also having had a little bit of conversation with Dean I think one of the stakeholders we meet to also talk to this may be the students to see where where they see a benefit or not you know they may have just been put here and you know they don't or former dorm students right recent graduates this is including alumni I say you know I wouldn't say alumni thirty years ago necessarily but I would say alumni in the last you know three to five years and - this is Lynn do you piggyback that we I know that we've had some students who have chosen to leave the dorms and you

094go back to their home school if we could find and get information from them as well this is my kinetic quick so I would assume that's kind of a scary word to throw out there but like phase three are we gonna have like an exploratory group that looks at what options are out there I mean regardless of what the feedback that we get I'm assuming we're gonna want to make things better one way or the other so are we going to look at those other not necessarily schools for the Deaf and Blind but the whole myriad of options that might exist for alternate or more diverse residential programs I don't even know if I want to use the term residential program because it I think that would cap when we look at like best practices

095for how similar code your kids exist in other other modalities but beyond what we're doing to maybe get a idea of what what's already happening that we could steal from and put into place for us I would assume that's the next that the phase that we're going to include is to explore options we've already done some [Music] some contacts in the northern parts of Arizona to see the foolish spell boarding school the native and we found that they have essentially all closed but right now the city is building a gone facility that will open in a couple of years but they don't have dawn facilities so to really compare with other we found it difficult to do that the one thing we call it regular that toll program it's often in this fund destroyed what

096it means residential programs for students who are mentally ill or for students who want a juvenile detention system have very different funny living arrangement explain unity so if you notice the way I tried I'm not signing the national program dawn programs because it really used a dormitory that the whole focus is on the academic environment when parents make the decision or the determination that for that particular student the least restrictive environment is to be in a tool with like peers and they happen to live in northeast quadrant of Arizona well nothing like that is nearby the only way for them to access that kind of academic environment is to actually involve in ASD or ASD so it's very different than most other brands they oftentimes um I'm aware of a relatively new program that has

097just opened up as a transition program for students with autism here in Phoenix that includes a dormitory component that might be something to look at just to see how they are incorporating that because I know it's term limited I think they are only allowed to live on the campus for two years so it might be a model to look at and that is exactly how I'm hoping that this type of work session involves this goes kind of exactly this is much to hear we would need the enrollment of the current residential program or dormitory program to see if people are with like tears I mean if you have one in grade school then they're not like tier know it happens to be well attended to be like computers so I would like to be enrollment

098the ages and the distribution this is Linda yes and I did request that so dr. Sims it is in the report I did ask that I didn't have a chance to read it she just submitted today but I think I definitely we should share that an itemized list of students enrolled in the dorms pretty clear superintendent ripen yes yes so my question is it seems the next step after this I can't report through the work study sessions and you may want to consider setting up a date so that we can actually do it I would say yes for that and at the same time I want to be aware of the stakeholders that we need to engage this might be an opportunity to utilize an existing every Saturdays are fine but I think sometimes it's

099a challenge so we probably need to do this out it's a non-answer I know but I'm trying to survey the monkey SurveyMonkey it up on a calendar I envision any more questions I had a 3.5 thank you we move on to 3.06 statewide early learning program proposal is that you superintendent yeah this is a adjustably we a three page synopsis Greek language doesn't really fully he's left the thought for discussion conversation some of the agony agony that's gone into their going on all the first five years of life it's critical triumphant success and after after we have currently as you know early childhood family education program we also have three preschool I didn't really fully understand that myself months ago the two and three schools that I knew about have one here in the wine

100also I have a contract with foundational for blind that's the t4p school program there and they serve these metropolitan area so when we look at the zero and those of you who are in the business of early learning intervention no better than I know some of the challenges that occur in that transition between the two and a half and if you look at the data on the second page you can see very clearly that we have more than 400 families being served by our teachers statewide [Music] and I included those not many but some so for me that's a very clear opportunity to provide that support in that so lift that you know thinking about thinking about the challenges thinking about the additional funding that we described we got one point some of the teachers

101here have sad we hire new teachers we provided training records Bob has worked very hard to integrate the existing teachers to provide them with the mentoring and support she's also worked very hard to together a program evaluation plan which support from others so our partnership to serve those bad our teachers in the regular school classroom to support that student I think there's a lot of different ways so I'm proposing I'm not asking for a boat that just wanted to let you know that you are seriously considering combining under one statewide program director [Applause] this is Lynn I have one question can I decide to a clarifying question really quickly of Annette when you're saying consolidating under one director does that mean we're focusing on zero to five entirely without dropping I said losing any children

102through the cracks in that transitional phase from early childhood to preschool so there's that continuum without any gaps is that what you're saying yes right thank you my question was will there be any funding issues with our one thing that some of us don't understand and myself too I'm still learning is that the funding mechanism for Yero that five the dill degree we just use general funds we have a commitment to serve a student 46 million dollars of general funds to support program we got additional funding at one point six of total agency commitment is four million dollars for the deal for food now when they transfer into preschool they become vouchers so in actuality if we further develop partnerships for school districts then we could get vouchers revenue support our work the potential is

103there thank you superintendent this is David board member my grow a couple questions one I mean I think it's a good idea that we're at least user-facing now looking at the challenge of zero to five as opposed to looking at from the the funding basis because you'd mentioned the funding basis from zero to three is different from three to five and that's probably explains the drop the large drop-off is that three there these tubes become a responsibility of local school districts and they they may be placed within their local school districts and then we're not seeing them and receive not saying them etcetera my question is would we continue to operate the same preschools both the Tucson and here and also fund the the FBC preschool or would we be creating something different in terms

104of the actual underlying schools when we do this we have currently PTSD ASB ASB and ppsv again is thinking about the partnerships with school districts what happens here in Phoenix most often is that one school district may have a cluster of students of three or four yields or that and then a couple of years later they all disappear so and then they then I have another cluster and a school district so I'm thinking if we could have a director with the leadership expertise and the knowledge we could develop partnerships with school districts to do and the best way I can describe it there's mobile in school kind of concept because one challenge a Phoenix Day School for the Deaf it had three I think up satellite locations but the student population change we didn't have

105the support necessary to maintain those programs were down to one satellite the debilitate Creek Way and the South is part of the feeds metropolitan so if we have someone who can focus on that and create position apasa I'm not sure that is semi mobile that can use and location to location depending on where the fluxes show up maybe providing any more school support and with that before the Kleins visually impaired as well because we the the preschools that we operate are only for the Deaf and we don't operate in a decree schools for the blind was closed at some point in time this is American I have a comment I will suggest that you call it birth through transition because you don't know when the transition that occurs for instance a hearing impaired child and

106they identified a two and a half and might not be ready to be mainstreamed if that's what the parents wanted I I'm not sure five makes sense that's compared to a transition to the next step whatever that is whatever that transitioning not if a child's identified it those are funding structures not educational structures of where the child is yeah the way the funding is they are so talking about maybe we need to figure that out kids who will be identified at 3 or 2 and a half and then the parents are very anxious because they're gonna lose services at 3 I'm not sure that's in the child's best picture can I ask a question I I'm gonna sort of piggyback on to what dr. Sims is saying I'm open for example I'm aware of a

107child that's been identified at age 4 and at age 4 putting them into a preschool 3 to 5 program they're already so behind their peers that it's almost a detriment to try and get them you know to plop them in where where they are complaining just not going to succeed so how do we bridge that and be able to keep them in an environment where they're they have that exposure and have the ability to catch up without feeling like they are just you know chasing the group from from start start me a very big detail too complicated so there's a comment off to the side here that this sounds like another work session yes it does I do and I do believe that we should do that this is a new structure for it to

108be successful we need to be focused make sure that services are being by the equitable [Music] you know how critical those and I would just add to that that you know maybe we need to educate the legislators to the point of saying birth you know zero to three is an age but maybe we need to be looking at them and identifying them developmentally in accordance with their peers so if they're identified at poor but that developmentally language wise they're at two then they need services birth birth to three and the funding should follow them Marshall until as long as we use the funding as the way we develop our terminology will justify that way we should use terminology that based on the child state not on the money at five things first to transition whatever

109that transition is not based on five because that's when preschool so I used to guessing that we are the subject matter expert and we work with the family and the educator that determined when that happened and so I'm gonna have to interject here cuz it's starting to click against a clock and I think this is a work session issue that we need to dig deeper position lot of moving parts to it with that said I'm also running against a clock of some transportation issues with some folks but I think old I need to get some folks out of here by 7:00 so I want to accommodate everybody I can but I want to kind of start to do to dissident if we think any other items or any other comments on this item otherwise and

110then I think we're not to have some conversations about work sessions and when we pick this property for us as well okay now I'm off to item for point or Tina revolt teacher contract template superintendent rack assistant superintendent rise excuse me yes and the January meeting the rough draft was brought for some discussion and comment and if you have any more questions we have people we would like to issue contracts to but we want to make sure that we are doing it with the proper template which we have been given at this point it is a very simplified version that we worked with the AG's office to develop any questions on that quick quick question about that is is we've never really operated under one but now we're trying to develop a baseline before we

111correct I Anita and I actually went through HR and we found that contracts were issued in the early 80s I have people that have actually signed contracts and if you lay the basic template that was developed but it looks similar without some of the legislative things that changed so they have existed at ASDB neither one of us could determine the why of throwing away but I we are learning we are in a rebuilding stage for sure and as we go through the process that has to be more input and whatnot but at this point we have the AG's basic template at this is Lynn and my jaw has dropped our teachers have not had contracts prior I need acoustical tonight to explain the whole letter than ten things I won every year I am from

112public education I understand this but I am also an employee base TV and I'm burning can I ask what this is Mike is this because it is to be seen as an institution by law in school it bounced yes as far as we could figure it bounces back and forth but we have worked with the Attorney General when I came on in 2016 it was one of the plates that was handed to me from the assistant superintendent of the time and we've been working on that since then and it's if there's a lot of reasons we like to do it but that is correct according to dr. Rex in looking at some of our seasoned employees I was able to go back and verify that from around 7:00 1977 to the early 80s we did

113have contracts and like she said there was no rhyme or reason why we could determine why they went from contract to intent to return I can only assume maybe that was administration changes additional questions hearing none entertain a motion to approve second all right I'm sorry I moved you I moved to approve of agenda for 14 okay I have a motion do I have a second I second the motion a second all those in favor say aye aye all those post motion carries item 5.0 one information discussion items finance committee report good evening board president howard superintendent Reichman assistant superintendent Rex members of the board and the ASDB community our most recent Finance Committee meeting was held on February 27th with board members mantling and gordon and superintendent lightning in that meeting we discussed some

114informational items and we reviewed the financial reports for the months unto January 31 2019 and 2018 as you can see in the beginning of my report a few informational items have been identified and added the first being the $900,000 that we received as one of the beneficiaries of the state's Volkswagon settlement and of that amount a ASDB will receive $700,000 in fiscal year 2019 and the remaining $200,000 in fiscal year 2020 ASDB plans to use the Volkswagen settlement monies to purchase six new vehicles excuse me six new school buses in fiscal year 2019 and because ASDB is able to use the monies from the volkswagen settlement for school bus replacements in fiscal year 2019 we were requested and we were approved by the governor's office of strategic planning and budgeting an appropriation transfer to shift

115369 thousand dollars of the 738 thousand dollars from the school bus replacement an item to our operating budget which we expect to purchase up to fifteen new general fleet vehicles for the regional cooperatives we will request another appropriation transfer in fiscal year 2020 and submit a decision package with our OSP B budget submission to have ongoing funding included in the baseline beginning in fiscal year 2020 one for the Refresh purchasing of the general fleet vehicles the second informational item relates to the 2020 baseline report the joint Legislative Budget Committee baseline was published in June 20:19 and it shows an estimated increase of approximately 790 $1,300 as identified on page one of my report and it includes our appropriated funds from fiscal year nineteen to fiscal year 20 it should be noted that the baseline provides

116only an estimate of the state's general fund balances and does not represent a budget proposal but it is an estimate of available resources after the statutory requirements the approved fiscal year 2020 appropriations report is expected to be published by the joint legislative budget committee in June and I expect to be able to provide any updates to our appropriations in the July board meeting in summary the fiscal year 2020 baseline includes an increase of approximately 1.3 million dollars from the schools for the Deaf and the blind fund which consists of about six hundred and ninety five thousand for a base adjustment due to higher than budgeted costs for our special vouchers as well as two hundred and forty five thousand for a base level increase of two percent for inflation the remaining three hundred and twenty

117two thousand is for an additional base level increase for the teacher pay raises and the amount of the additional base level increase may increase by an additional five percent in the spring of 2019 after additional formula data for the fiscal year 2019 becomes available also as we've been discussing in the meeting tonight you will recall in the fiscal year 2019 budget we were appropriated 2.1 million dollars from the telecommunication fund to fund the additional early 21 early intervention specialists of that amount 1.6 million dollars is to begin funding or will be ongoing to fund the intervention specialist salaries and the four hundred and seventy thousand dollars was just one-time funding and year 2019 and that was to purchase the fleet vehicles for each of those intervention specialists what the fiscal year 2020 baseline does it

118ships it from a telecommunication fund the 1.6 million dollars to the general fund and removes the one-time funding of the 470 thousand dollars to also briefly summarize the fiscal reports as discussed in the finance committee meeting there were five hundred and thirty nine point nine FTE full-time equivalents and about a hundred and eleven vacant positions those vacancies include about 37 teachers 15 instructional assistants three residential service assistants 18 educational interpreters about 14 bus drivers and 24 various other positions as of February 2019 we've had about 2,000 79 students in comparison to February 2018 we had 20 110 students it was suggested in the Finance Committee meeting that I provide student enrollment data and you can also see that on page six of the report that was submitted and what I tempted to do was sort

119it by disability and then also show you the by revenue source and when I mean revenue source identifying the number of students that we receive vouchers for and then also identifying the number of students that we receive um due the fee for services as well and just as a base of clarification based on some comments that were made this evening seventy five percent of our total program costs for expenditures are attributed to our students not the forty five percent also it's noted that fifteen percent of the expenditures relates to administration and the remaining twelve percent is for agency-wide services which would include telecommunication as well as facilities as shown on page seven as it relates to the collective revenues our revenues are approximately 1.8 million dollars lower compared to budget fiscal year 2018 and it's

120due to the decrease in voucher revenues which we thought was attributed to a 2.1 million dollar advance from the Department of Education that was received in September 2017 but we are currently performing some additional analysis to further determine that decrease from B FY 2019 to B FY 2018 as we believe it may relate to the decrease in the hearing-impaired as well as a multiple disability student so we are still conducting some analysis on that I mean it should be noted based on our year-end projections voucher revenues will be about three million dollars less than anticipated we budgeted 26 million dollars for voucher students but the way we are projecting it expected to come in anywhere between 23 to 24 million dollars also on page seven you'll see that our expenditures of about thirty 1.1 million

121dollars has been expended which is about fifty four point three percent of the budget and fifty eight point eight percent of the budget was expended last year expenditures have increased due to the amount of the other operating expenses of equipment and as a reminder again the five hundred thousand dollars that we expended for the emergency - repairs on a Tucson campus there have also been an increase due to the earlier payment of receiving the risk management in place as well as some increase in expenses for books and subscriptions from the title one grant we've also had some increases in expenses and some translation as well excuse me translation and sign language services and then also our equipment line as increased because of the one-time funding that we received in fiscal year 2019 which was a

122four hundred and seventy thousand dollars in the spirit of transparency we are expecting our expenditures to come in at an expected one million dollar budget to actual deficit and as I mentioned coupled the expenditures of the 1 million and the 3 million dollars for the revenues that are coming in lower we're projecting anywhere from a 1 million to 2 million dollar use of our available cash balance as a result as the executive director of business services I will continue to monitor our revenues and expenses and we'll take any additional fiscal steps as needed to rectify the situation last but not least our b FY 19 in conferences have been lower than last year and that's primarily due to the transition from the statewide eprocurement system which i've mentioned previously we transition from the pure AC

123system to the new state system a PP although the system went live in October of 2018 ASDB did not begin going live until February of this year and that was due to some challenges internally with trying to make sure all of our users had the full functionality to enter the requisitions and we did not really fully begin utilizing the system until then I have participated other CFO meetings through the state and it was not just an ASDB issue it was a statewide issue but as a result of the delay we did have to do manual purchase orders which have not been reflected in the reports that I have provided I will expect that the next report that I provide for the next meeting the encumbrances will be up to date and that concludes the March

124report based on the data as of January 31st and I'll open it up for any questions at this time thank you do we have any questions this was on page 9 of the report there is a report of expenditures by program fiscal year to date and I want to confirm with you that the under the regional cooperatives we've spent about eight point nine million dollars or twenty eight point eight percent of the total budget for the agency that correct that's correct and what are the classes of things that are purchased with that money is that is it equipment is it labor all inclusive of all of the expenses okay and we would expect that but into the fiscal year that 20% share will be consistent we think it's about 30 percent or so of the

125agency budget the way that's its training compared to prior years yes roughly at about 30 percent okay thank you any other questions thank you on items 7.01 introduction possible discussion of policies whoo beeping once again members of the board you have before you the red lines of policies jl & e you ve these policies were submitted to the board subcommittee no major concerns brought up they were also posted to the website for public comment no public comment was received and at this time I would like to make myself available for any questions any question none thank you for the update okay item 7.05 Ombudsman report good evening president Howard superintendent right-wing assistant superintendent Rex Boyd members than the rest of the community so the Ombudsman position the office aka me has been around for almost

126six months now and I will have a important for you at the next meeting that we have so that you can actually get some data the data is pretty small still as of beginning in October of last year we I am had 15 inquiries and those are from all of our different constituent groups except for students so I've heard from folks who are parents community members and mainly staff for the most part those that have been resolved through mediation and many of those inquiries or questions about how to proceed and just as a reminder and for those of you sentences in your position it is intended to be a third track so that folks have an option to grievance or complaints they can come to me and I can assist either the questions or in

127resolving whatever their issue is so though that's the data so far and hopefully we'll have more to report one of the things that came up during the last meeting was some questions about how we could make the office a little more visible so I have been working on that with the challenge and staff at ASDB area and we are developing a brochure that will then work on a dissemination process with the superintendent rushman and her staff and we are developing forms that will be accessible on the website they'll be a larger presence on the ants to the website with a form that can be submitted directly to me we've established and a Ombudsman address that will come directly to me again everything is confidential and we are also going to be adding a icon to

128the portal that is that station that are the computers that are stationed at several different locations around STV so that staff can access that and easily submit a form if they have an employer and then finally we're developing a survey so that we can that we sent out automatically two weeks after hopefully the resolution with me or the individual who's expressed the concern is done working with the Ombudsman office and that survey will ask questions about how they decided to proceed hopefully we'll have and I'll be presenting that to you at the next board meeting for your review but it will be hopefully a way to determine the efficacy of with each tenant the update any questions great thank you very much your shame I'm gonna go to item 8.01 now and I had not

129forgot about item 1.04 at this point I know there might be some folks that are doing this to speak based on that I think there might be a conversation to had about future gen items through the board and I am entertaining a conversation to have about that particular issue what was that dr. Sims yeah I might if you may consider much better group in HD about the equity issue let that mean and the administration and and what that means for various stakeholders which are in the word around what we need to define it and talk about what we need at the whole for the blender they I guess what I'm hearing just to clarify based on work session immediately following the may board meeting to have the dialogue about the and discontent equity issue correct

130yes please super ten right when are we okay with that what [Music] I didn't say in equity and equity it's a word being thrown around and justifying different policy or fashion and policies we as a group should probably talk about but we all have it the concept for that and how we're applying it across the agency and house take whole issues receive it as well and dr. Sims you're also talking about in relation to the co-op's all the above yeah okay we will definitely have that item on any other agenda items that we would like to have both by the way and that superintendent recommend I think we need to also have a conversation about that meeting is scheduled for Tucson I highly recommend and we gotta figure this out is potentially have a care

131in Phoenix I don't know if that's a formal motion as looking like yeah requires emoji so based on that well I don't believe is an action item I'm sorry this is Shelley so what's the reasoning for having the meeting here in Phoenix well my impression is that I have a lot of people from northern Arizona that are very interested in this issue and rather than have them drive all the way from Tucson let's put it in the middle again and have it in Phoenix we can flip board meetings to the Tucson Union okay this is Shelley I was hoping to meet with students who are living in the dorms and so that we could talk with them during that board meeting or previous to the board meeting to Phil to figure out what they are

132feeling if we're discussing possible closure of the dorms okay so let me rephrase that because we're not talking possible to school closure at the dorm I think I said at the very beginning room as well right just a point of clarification I think that Shelley was saying the dorms closed in June for summer I am mistaken interpretation like IQ favors my question to the interpretation school will be ending in June they'll be on summer break so I want to make sure that we could talk to them prior to that how do we okay I need help with this because I totally get that like I'm struggling with the issue there's a paramount problem that you're facing specific to the the relationships with flagstaff with that conversation I need to get stakeholders in a room to

133start to solve this problem because it's just not gonna get any better and I also hear yourself saying Shelly as we need to meet with the students before they go on summer break so I didn't mean to come across that hard - I agree I'm not sure how to do this sure be brief all right we would be the only family coming from to Sarah from Flagstaff so please hold your meeting in Tucson because there's lots of Tucson families that aren't here today because they're trying to get up here for my 10 and i-10 said bloody nightmare and so Tucson would be fine because the people who can't speak here tonight would be speaking in Tucson I appreciate that very much that solves my our dilemma also this is Shelly now I'm sorry I'm think

134what we're talking about now is heaven the may or me in Tucson keep it the way it is or Accession really following in Tucson so I'd like to add to the agenda to involve the students to have them come and speak with us I hear you and I think are we talking in another work session or during the regular board meeting we'll be having a work session in Tucson yes but I think the thought process is we have a regular board meeting followed by work session to talk about the equity issue before because we've done that before I met with some of the students before last summer and that I mean that were they were there for a camp and that worked out well we did it I think an hour and a half before

135is that yeah I think Charlie met me that meeting this is Linda I just want to emphasize you know at the last meeting I felt I didn't really like the idea of having a work session after the board meeting I'm not a huge fan of that I just to be honest it feels very rushed we have the meeting and then we have our work session and then we all leave and I think something more like a retreat a full day half a day I think we need to make time for something like that we really do a meeting after a board meeting it just feels like another board meeting where we go round and round in discussions I'd like to have an agenda created I would like to ask that we have time set aside

136for retreat whatever we want to call it a work session or a retreat not just two hours after a board meeting this um this is UK I was just going to throw out there as a possibility if we could meet with students prior to the board meeting and maybe have a a topic specific discussion or some of the stakeholders in a time-limited forum after the board meeting so that we hit both stakeholder groups and have specific topics for each of those and then I would agree I think we need to look at a half-day hold a session retreat type of thing to get at some of the other media issues at a later date so maybe we can capture both and maybe if I'm hearing the right cks feed that we potentially do the board

137meeting followed by an information session if you will and then a full-blown work session to kind of come up with some solutions and ideas based on what you're saying and retreat I take a lot of time but I think it's important enough that we start to air this out so and know you're okay with doing something before were the students I'm really embarrassed right right the gradual Saturday retreat and people's schedules were so complex at one time we couldn't put a quorum and the other time we can only get five people so it's not because people don't want to do it it's if people have complex live and getting a time where everybody can get together is difficult people have already set the time aside for the board meetings so it kind of works as

138a natural progression to just go into it it's a long day rushed and it's not ideal but everybody gets together more regularly with the work-study than they have with the retreat to the press glenda okay okay yes I do I can see your point so that would mean that a work session I'd like to have specific agenda items laid out and that's what we stick to I don't want it to just be Oh did because then we digress and so I do value your time I want you to value my time and so I would expect that all the board members would make a retreat a priority I mean that's one of the reasons we're on this board so if you know why are you here in the first place if not to make time

139outside of the board means it's long okay point point taken let's make an attempt at it thank you we're gonna have to do as well are we clear on the agenda items for next week are there any others that we want to bring to the next or future work session for four I think we definitely need to prepare for that too any other items now I don't know if I need to come back to item 1.0 for call to the public or not if so I I don't know your name so I've got 13 slips so if you want to con it come up and tell us who you are and you've got three minutes Tina okay come on up Tina that was our yes sir this microwave number on the line about six minutes

140we're almost there we're almost done actually it's perfect timing but you know before you speak I'm just gonna make sure that everyone everybody understands that the names on these sheets are entered into public records so there will be a documentation of it you never gave you three minutes please proceed I would like to just start thinking start by linking the members of the board for their service and I also appreciate you taking the time to hear the very important issues that come with the Equality and the spending and I appreciate you taking the time to be willing to put that on the agenda to be looked at in a bipartisan way that everybody will be able to see what is truly clearly going on here and I want to thank you for your time and

141thank you for allowing me to speak perfect thank you very much there are no other speakers I'm gonna move to item number nine I move we adjourn this meeting I have a motion to have a second I second a second doesn't favor say aye hey all those opposed Oh during your stack come on up and state your name I'm going to give you three minutes to speak good call just make sure you state your name and how many are there you got a couple of you up here come on up hello my name is Amanda Steele Thank You ASDB school board members for allowing me to speak tonight tonight I want to direct my comments to the lack of availability for children serviced and regional cooperatives to assist technology devices to utilize an instruction instruction

142of their vision impairment services as proven in the materials provided by Danny to the school board as a result of their open records requests to indicate that there is a clear discrepancy statewide and what is available for visually impaired children literally excuse me living in regional areas versus metro areas these discrepancies make decisions for families that receive ASDB services without them knowing it in the case of Sawyer's family they have a child entering middle school far less prepared than his peers living in Tucson all due to his geographic location for five years Sawyer received Braille education services with nothing more than a Perkins Brailler because those working in the education services excuse me in the north central region of regional cooperative were untrained themselves in modern devices that help visually impaired students ASDB staff didn't

143know what to recommend they weren't exposed to what would be helpful they were never offered in services or annual training to show those interacting with children and what was available visual impairment has been substantially benefited overall because of changes in technology and given the blind a new access to their world without those in charge of instruction being exposed to new and developing technology they wouldn't know what would be helpful to the students they work with daily and materials provided to you earlier this week you can see that in regional cooperatives there is a clear strategy for selection magnification for instruction versus simply teaching children how to read Braille with technology in the southwest regional cooperative for example students have far greater access to technology devices like the Braille apex or in Braille note touch while

144in the north central cooperative students are lucky to get a Vizio book magnifier a device that has been discontinued and no longer being supported but literally being purchased annually by the this organization this availability chooses an educational path for families that the varies based on organization this availab I'm sorry this is that that is a discriminator this is just taury and it needs to stop as a state-funded entity ASDB has an obligation to service with equity and fairness which neither has been shown in this case of assistive technology tonight I am specifically requesting that this Board of Directors ask ASDB administration to investigate this lack of equity specific to the availability of technology for visually impaired students living in regional cooperatives students should have shouldn't have to move from families to get access to something

145that children living in at metro areas have this practice of separating families who live in rural parts of the state to satisfy technology needs is absolutely ridiculous and as an AZ a Z taxpayer I've taken notice and I'm outraged please train your staff provide tools for children to use education equitably and seek innovation live your mission statement it is about time thank you thank you second speaker I'm sorry thank you so much for allowing us to to speak can you please take your name up sorry my name is Suzie try so this evening I wanted to speak to the issues of relocating students in rural parts of Arizona to receive services that children in metro areas get it's disturbing to me and it hurts my heart is I'm also a mom of a child with

146a disability this week ASD be admitted in the green families IEP meeting that they cannot deliver the services but Sawyer's peers in Tucson get and recommended day school placement suggesting that this family should be split up and that Stribling should live separate from each other that is a parent it just it just hurts my heart and I lost my specs right it just shouldn't be split up and and asking if a parent to to end their career and to move because SP APA can't simply provide keyboarding instruction and flag stuff is just saddening keyboarding instruction is a necessary skill for all students but most especially visually impaired deaf students it's a still if the states pull the duct and the blind students doesn't provide this who does the real answer is that ASDB does provide

147the service just in Tucson and Phoenix and it doesn't offer it to the 74% of its student body population living in cooperatives and 49 of its revenue source or maybe it's just a service that is VA is refusing to provide to this family which I really hope it's not it's shameful and it's just sad mean that this you know I I just hope that the the school board would really look at this because let some other words but I'll change it for the second just because basically you know the needs of this families aren't so great to warrant the suggestion you know the hardship placed on the school districts that have to live with this recommended recommendation should be noted a school district has a federal obligation to provide services to provide services and the

148suggestion comes at the cost for a family that creates liability and most of rural Arizona and the school district in most of rural Arizona school districts that are contracting with a std for services are running on funding that is dwindling a SCB not being able to provide equitable services and suggesting relocating for a family exposes districts to lawsuit nasb APA is not a good stewart to these two those who serve they serve whether that is students to school districts I'm not to ask you to wrap up things so basically what I'm trying to say to you is that when I look at your funds I'm seeing 700 and what $71 per per student per year for a child to receive these services and I'm looking at how much these other schools are making per student

149there's a very big difference and I don't understand where that's coming from I'm really confused on that and I really just asking I'm here and asking that you look at that and and reconsider when that money's going thank you thank you there are no more speakers the parts been turned in I saw the motion on the table for adjournment for the second all those in favor say aye I was opposed guys have it thank you everybody