Okay, the Meet the recording has now started. So I'm gonna go ahead and start the meeting. Welcome, everybody. We're coming off from last week with a great Summit. And we'll hear from, from folks about the summit in just just a couple of minutes. Sandeep, are you going to need to run away? Soon?
Yeah, Steve, I'm hoping to update you all about our progress on challenge process. And Erin will update you all on Digital Equity plan, and then we'll have to the office
sounds like a plan. So I'm sorry, somebody's going to ask something. So we do have a few new people. And one that we're welcoming back, Kelly, we haven't seen in a while, but you're going to hear from her in just a little bit. And Eric from the Arizona Department of Education, uh, Dario, would you like to introduce yourself, please? Absolutely. Thank
Dario Solis, Arizona State University, Director Business Development, Fulton Schools of Engineering. And I'm glad to participate in these calls. So fortunately, today, I'm just going to be able to participate during the first 30 minutes. But I did go to the event. And it was it was extraordinary. I stayed the whole time. And I learned so many things about the efforts that are being put forth in this area, which is very important. So thank you so much. And I am here anything you need from ASU, please let me know. And I'll be catching up on how I can contribute to this group. Thank you. Sounds
great. Anybody else that's new today. Most of the rest of you, Jennifer. Oh, Jennifer, you've been here before. Good to see you again. Okay, and, and ash. Welcome back. I haven't seen you in a while. I just you have a kind of a new role if I'm not mistaken. Yeah. Thanks, Steve.
Thanks for having me in.
Yeah, just tell people what your new job is.
Their morning? Yeah, so I'm directing AI and industry engagement at the University of Arizona. So I work in artificial intelligence, and mostly in outreach functions. So that's like public workshops and getting projects development work done for Arizona businesses, with our students, basically, that's our approach.
And I see your partner in crime. Barney is also on the call with us this morning. Okay, so let's get into it. We have anybody else that I missed. It's new today. You'd like this is the door access that you're doing? I can't hear you very well, apparently was at you. Overall. See board. Okay. So moving on. Since we have a number of folks who do need to maybe be out of here soon. One of which, of course is Sandy. So glad to welcome Sandy, to the meeting today. Just one last thing that I did send. Hopefully you all got it if you probably need to go back and check your emails. But I did send calendar invites for the meetings for February, March and April. So hopefully you have those on your calendar. If not go back and check that out. Okay, so let's just jump into it because we have a lot to cover today. So Sandy, we want to give us a quick update on what's going on.
Good morning, everyone. And I would like to thank you all who participated into our summit. And it was it was you who actually made that summit successful. So really, really a huge applaud to everyone who attended. Coming back to our BEAD progress. Currently Volume One and Volume Two of the initial proposal is under review. By NTIA, we will start the challenge process when Volume One gets approved. That's a that's a prerequisite. And hoping to get approval on volume one pretty soon, probably end of this month. Challenge process wise, we recently finalized the tool which will administer the whole challenge process. It's called App geo from a company called SUNBORN. Very soon we will bring the tool live for beta testing. So I'll reach out to some of our stakeholders to participate into beta testing to make sure that the tools are working properly. In month of February we'll be holding multiple webinars or roundtable session to basically train our community train the eligible entities will be participating in the challenge process regarding this tool, operational know how and the challenge process guidelines and who can submit your In this process, what can be submitted as challenge process, etc, etc. So we divided the whole category of the eligible entities into four different slots. One is for local government, which will be County Supervisor Association, county employees, city employees, league subsidies, everyone wanted to be nonprofit and our economic development organization which are cogs. So ACBS and as a nonprofit can definitely participate into that training process. One will be for the ISP and one would be for tribal government and tribal ISPs. The challenge process will start from March, it will be open for 75 days for eligible entities to submit the challenge process. There will be a 15 days rebuttal process from the ISPs who's getting challenged. And there will be a one month window for Arizona State Broadband office to execute this challenge processes. Everything will be posted. Our website is going through a really revamp right now. So hopefully we'll be able to post all this information on the website. So that's the update on BEAD. Just quickly, we yesterday posted in new position in the Broadband office, as you probably know that there are two other positions which is we are hiring pretty. The hiring processes almost like done, and you will see two more position getting added in the Broadband Team One is a Broadband program manager and other Broadband Program Manager helping parlor with the infrastructure side and will be one proposition for community engagement and outreach. We recently posted a new position for deputy director of Broadband and Digital Equity. I can I'll post the link in the chat. So please feel free to forward this to any industry partner or PRC, you know who might be interested in the job.
Sorry, what was that last position you've just mentioned?
That's the deputy director position. Steve, where I started. So that was the last position I always thought of fulfilling. I didn't remind the team so I'll post the Job. Job posting here in the chat. Okay,
thank you. Anything else, Sandip.
That was that was all that was pretty much the overall update for for this week. But there are more updates coming in regarding the challenge process, Steve. So I'll forward you all the information so that you can add that into your newsletter.
Sounds great. Thank you. Any questions for comments for Sandip? Before he runs off? Okay, moving on. Thanks, Andy. Good to see you. Glad you could join us today.
Thank you, sir. Thank you, everyone. I just posted the link on the chat. So please feel free to apply or feel free to follow into your industry peers.
Sounds good. Thank you. Okay, moving on. So Aaron, are you doing most of the updates? I know we've got I haven't seen I gotta look at the list again about the whales from the teams here.
Yes, I do have a brief. I have a brief Digital Equity update, and then I will be rejoining on my phone as I drive into the office as well. So apologies on that. But first of all, I'm just in case we haven't met. My name is Erin Lorandos. I'm the Digital Equity program manager with ACA. So my biggest update is today is the day everyone has until the end of the day today to submit public comments to our Digital Equity plan. And I will drop the link for that momentarily in the chat. But I just want to thank the the organizations and individuals, many of which are on this call that have already taken the time to read the plan and provide us with feedback. We've gotten some really amazing feedback and, you know, we're we're working on integrating things as as necessary into the plan. The rest of the process for that is, you know, after our public comment period closes today, at the end of the day, we have about a week to integrate everything and get all of our ducks in a row to submit our plan back to NTIA for the Digital Equity program curing period. So that is a 45 day period in which NTIA can provide additional feedback. And yes Karina, I'm so excited I saw yours. Thank you. Um, and in any case, will be submitted back to NTIA for curing and then our final submission will happen at the end of March. And because we've had a lot of questions about that, I will just briefly mention that we don't have any set parameters yet for the capacity grant program but that will be the next thing coming from from our office. These will be this is money that the state gets and then we're able to sell grant out to people across the state who are doing Digital Equity work. And so we'll create what those parameters for that grant application looks like. But it's a sub grant process within the state. So it's to us, you know, and we, you know, we invite any questions or comments that you might have about that as well. But once we get more information from NTIA about what that looks like, on a federal level, we'll be able to share more information there. And then further down the pike, there will also be a competitive grant process. But that is that is a nationwide competitive program, of course, and so the organizations from Arizona that are eligible to apply will be up against the eligible entities from other states as well. Korea, your question, When will that drop? does that refer to the capacity grant information? I'm guessing Yes, the grant application. So we don't have an exact date yet, we anticipate that we will get the information about us applying for the capacity grant for the state of Arizona, right after we submit our Digital Equity plan. The they did that intentionally so that all the plans would be in before the NOFO is, is released for the capacity grant. So I know that we have a window to apply for the money for the state. And then after that there will be the internal, you know, sub grant process within the state. And as soon as we see the guidelines, we will be able to create our guidelines within the state and then I'll be able to answer that question with more certainty. Any other questions or comments for me at this time? Otherwise, I believe those are all the updates from my office this week?
Thank you, Aaron. And again, good job. Do you want to comment on the Yes, on the summit?
Oh, I mean, what Sandeep said, is exactly the sentiment that I would share. You know, it's not only is it a group effort to put it on, but it's really all about the engagement and the interest of people in the room. And
what oh, oh, Thomas, please. I have my phone on what
it was a really great Summit, though. And, you know, for, for what we wanted to get done this year. I feel like we definitely did that, you know, as we move further into the process for both BEAD and D, you know, the the look and feel of that event will obviously change along with it. And we we will welcome your feedback, we will be sending a link soon when to the folks who attended, so that they can provide feedback to that as well.
Okay. Any other questions for Aaron, before we move on? So crystal interesting.
Good morning.
Oh, go ahead, Mark.
I had to walk away for a minute, maybe Chandi covered it the mapping pre challenge period? Is the date for that now known.
So we are waiting for our volume one. Oh, I'm sorry, Sandeep, go ahead. If you are so sorry, I didn't realize you were still here. I was going to answer for you.
Thank you, Mark for the question. So I think for the pre challenge, we will only be accepting the historical. Oh.
Sorry. Please. Go ahead. Go ahead, Sandeep. Sorry. Sure.
Sorry, Mark. So what I was saying that only for the pre challenge when the tool is open for beta testing, we will invite the eligible entities to register. And we'll be opening up the pre challenge process for that 15 days or 10 days or two weeks. However, it works on our site based on the timeline and the tool. But for the preacher and just want to clarify that what will be accepted is the historical booklet data, which we will also put as a layer on top of the mapping challenge. So the community can select a certain area based on the historical data of last 120 days, and they can submit a pre challenge to provide or show that there is not the basically whatever claimed by the ISPs is kind of underperformed or not meeting the threshold of the BEAD. Does that answer your question mark? i Yes. There are a lot of process going on. I just don't want to go into deep debt right at this moment, but happy to walk you through during the training process for the nonprofit and cogs. Good for now. Thank you. Thank you appreciate it, Martin.
Thanks, Sandy. Any other questions for Sandy? So what uh, people on the team are here today. I think I saw Perla and crystal. Am I mistaken? No,
I think they attended the call Steve. But we are. I'll be updating I'm basically reading and I will be updating going forward. Or if I'm not here, they will be updating on our behalf. I see a question from Jennifer. Yeah.
Hi, good morning. My apologies for not talking earlier, I was hands full and couldn't answer. But anyway, thank you. I'm glad to be here this morning. Just wondered, while we're talking about schedules, do you have a sense based on the calendar now, when you might be inviting applications for the grant funding? So BEAD?
Yes, actually. It's.
So
let me take a step back. Let me think it through before I answer that question. So if we finish our challenge process, and it's in our Volume Two, feel free to have a look, we tweak the timeline a little bit, but mostly it's going to stay as it is. So we, as part of the final plan, we have to have the sub grantees completely selected. The contract doesn't need to be executed, but at least the sub grantee selected and the contract negotiation needs to be done. Before we submit the final plan to NTIA. Now the final plan when it to it will be due to NTIA we don't know yet. But it will be due from 365 days when the volume two gets approved. So if give or take the volume to gets approved on March 15, march 15 2025 will be the deadline for for the final plan. So for the final plan. So in according to that what we plan that if we are completing our challenge process on July 15, which is 75 days for the eligible entities to submit a challenge 15 days for the ISPs to rebuttal. And one month for the state Broadband office to execute all this challenge process basically review all the data accept or reject this challenge process that will put us on July 15. Dish. We're hoping to open up the procurement in August 15. Or end of August, we at least need eight months to execute this whole process. Because this is a whole state we are talking about, there'll be multiple project areas. And if the project area does not get any interest from an ISP or any other entity, we have to go to round two, which makes things more complicated because that area is not lucrative enough for the investment. And we need to talk about different kinds of matching etc, etc. So we're thinking at this point August 15, Jennifer, but this timeline might change but I don't see it changed drastically. Because this eight month timeline is also shot when it comes to contract negotiation. Put the procurement out, we have to at least keep it open for three months so that ISPs can apply. So when we are talking about challenge process, state Broadband office will also parallely work on the project areas here in the state. So a lot of the stakeholders who will be involved in this process or in our monthly roundtable will talk more and more about project in the state. I mean, as of today, we know that tribes are going to be its own separate project area. But there are places in rural counties where the whole county wide approach will make sense. So we're determining this based on how much do we have, what kind of middle mile or backhaul we have in that particular area? And what is the bar home passing cost and what technology the community will receive. Also, at the same time, one of the most important thing we are collecting right now and a lot of ISPs in this call they are reaching out with information is trying to avoid any kind of overbuilding. So the as per the federal guideline, we have to go through a federal deduplication which we discussed on volume one. And based on the Federal obligation, we need to determine that how many households we are taking off from I've done understand the need to mute
no worries. So we need to do a federal deduplication where we are considering the federal grant state grant a lot of the counties here are deploying their own ARPA dollars to deploy for last mile connectivity. So we are taking these all into consideration updating the map and then we will provide a map which will show that which areas are open for BEAD funding. So you will probably see in an area when it comes to the project area there will be multiple islands which is all from BEAD funding, and that's because of the existing federal funding. So there are a lot of parallel things going on along with the challenge process. Cindy, I see your you have you have a question. Please feel free to go ahead.
Yes. Cindy, if so what is What is it exactly that releases on August 15, anticipated? That's
the procurement window. Basically, that's when the application window opens that ISPs, local government or any eligible entity can submit that Submit Application to basically get the BEAD funding the billion dollar funding. Yes. Okay. Perfect. Thank you. Thank you, Cindy.
David Do you have a question? Or comment? Yes.
David Cross our project manager with City of Mesa, I just wanted to verify is the priority for fiber projects, is that going to remain in place on on the plan? Because I believe that the last time that I was on there was also comment about determining the threshold of cost. After certain costs, you would then explore other options. How has that threshold been determined?
Not yet. So that threshold will be determined. That's why the Federal deduplication is really important, David, because to give you an example, we have close to 330,000 households here in the state, which is unserved and underserved altogether, right? If we are covering a significant amount of household, close to 60, to 70,000. Household using our ARPA dollar, the 100 million dollar grant to eat. So we have to take that off from that map, which we already did, because those are going to be solved with fibre to home connectivity. And then we have other federal grants some of the art of provider, they are building fibre to home connectivity here in the state as well. So they are in discussion with us giving us their map where they are building. And when I say map, I just want to clarify in front of the whole crowd here that this is not just a map of the area, they are giving us a map which is connected with every single household. So we are dropping down the analyzes to the household level. Every household here in United States has a BSL number, or Broadband serviceable location, unique identifier. So it's basically a VIN number for your car, it's basically a MAC address for your computer. So we are connecting any address anyone surfing with that number and then taking that off from the map. So after taking off all the federal funding, and all the state funding, as well as anything funded by the local government, if we end up with just give or take debit to 200,000 addresses, which we need to serve with these billion dollar, then definitely the threshold for fiber goes up, right? If we drop the number more than definitely the threshold goes up. But they still within the threshold, like suppose if we have a number of 6000, which we will contribute from a state's side, and ISPs are contributing 25%. So you can think about $7,500 per household, right. But that number is definitely going to be different from community to community, county to county. deploying something in City of Mesa in Maricopa County is way different than any southern county or Northern County. Right. So we are taking a deep dive based on every single county how much money we'll be spending. So based on that will determine which community will get fiber, which community or I wouldn't say community inside in one community, there might be household which will get fiber, which folks who live really outside of the city zone where there is no house within miles and miles, they will probably end up getting wireless or satellite depending on which situation they are in. But our commitment to NTIA and the folks to the state is definitely connecting every single household in that map as of as of today. So does that answer your question?
Yeah, yeah. And I guess I just want to bring up that there are ways and we can discuss this more offline, if you'd like. For example, were able to light up a street with $2,000 Wi Fi. And so that's the whole street, it doesn't matter if it's a whole apartment complex, if it's, you know, just five houses on the street. And so for $2,000 To do that, there's almost no comparison, when you're looking at $10,000 to bring fiber to just one home. Right. So so my concern would mainly be that with this almost expand the digital divide, because we are focusing on taking fiber to locations that ISPs already deemed would be too difficult with fiber. And so as opposed to being able to fully utilize the funds, allowing for other maybe more creative approaches off the bat. Is it handicapping a little bit from the start? Right, which is part of a much larger conversation. I understand that. But But yeah, that that clarifies it. Thank you.
No, I agree with your question, but with the NTIA guideline. What I will tell you that it's a priority for the For the Biden administration, as well as our governor, that create more sustainable solutions, wireless is definitely a great choice. And I came from wireless industry longtime work in 18. T. Verizon. And I understand it's easily deployable. But when it comes to the upgrade, there are a lot of folks in this call who had always a genuine part about what's going to happen with the upgrade of this network. So, state will go for maximum amount of fiber, but where financial, it does not make sense, it will go for the wireless connectivity, there are a lot of wireless gear outside, we add as we are talking can actually reach 500 by 300. Easily and with the six gigahertz releasing, I think there will be they will build each one reach one gig theoretically. So that's that's a really good speed almost close to fiber. So but I just want to clarify the fiber will be the priority, because that's the more sustainable solution for next 4050 years. And you've if you, I can send you a link for our volume two that describe exactly what situation it will be fiber, and what situation it will be wireless, but also at the same time, I just want to reiterate one thing that citywide public Wi Fi or citywide Wi Fi network is not going to be a solution most probably because in a in a in an environment. In today's world where multiple ISPs are, are using a fixed wireless solution using some license some unlicensed or a combination of carrier aggregation. citywide Wi Fi will not be a great solution in a really crowded area might be in rural places. But everything can be deployed if your option is open as far as that area or the household is unserved or underserved are eligible for funding. So thank you.
Okay. Go ahead. Sorry.
My question is, if you have to, you know, part of the formula is how many homes you can cover, even though the priority may be fiber? Is the goal to cover more homes? Or is the goal to get as much fiber out there as possible within the budget?
It's not a question about covering more home, sorry, it's covering a question of covering every single household in the map, because NTIA give us that billion dollar based on a number of household on the map. So anywhere they're financially fiber does not make sense, we will switch into an alternative technology. That's what the note drives. And that would be our approach as well.
So theoretically, if every household was cost less than $7,500, they're dead.
That's, that's, that's a number I was just using as an example. I'm just
using it as an arbitrary number. There's three variables to the equation. One is you have 200,000 homes, you have X amount of budget. And is the question would be is if $7,500 is the threshold? And let's say that hits 150,000 homes? Are you going to adjust that $7,500 to try to get to more homes? Or? Or is the goal? Or is the goal which keeps the majority of the people on fiber? Or is the goal to try to get to every home and then you'll adjust to $7,500? Up or down to make that happen?
You're exactly right. Right, the second option, so making sure that we are covering every single household in the map, and then adjust that threshold number based on where it's possible where it's not possible.
Okay, good. Thank you.
Nicole, I know you're online. We're gonna hear from you. If you want to chime in on this at all.
I was just adding some clarifications to the questions in the chat. There are, you know, there is a fiber preference in policy. But that doesn't mean fiber only projects are are going to be selected. Really any Broadband technology that meets NTIA A's network capabilities. I posted those as well as the deployment requirements and the service obligations. So deployment requirements, that's that providers are going to deploy and begin that service no later than four years after they receive the grant. You know, I know with wireless we have speedier setups than than fiber and a lot of cases as well as those service obligations. So that's the low cost option for all eligible subscribers that's not imposing data caps. A lot of actually, public awareness campaigns to that type of thing. If, if applicants can attest to all of those then it's It goes into the state of Arizona's scoring rubric for how they're going to, to ultimately award those. But ultimately, we have to check Arizona's Volume Two for how they are proposing to rate different applications based on each each project.
Nicole, can you just tell people who you are, please?
Sure. I am Nicole Umayam. I'm the federal program officer for Arizona with NTIA. So I live. I live in Phoenix I get to support the Broadband office I get to connect with stakeholders and serve as the grant administrator for Arizona's BEAD and Digital Equity programs here in Arizona and sure to be a resource for you.
And Steve Mark, today I just wanted to mention, I put in the chat, a link to ACA connects and Cartesian that has just done their fourth revision of the state by state BEAD money and newer projections of where cost thresholds and number of households are, there's a slide deck for every state and territory. So at that link, you can download a 10 or 12 slide deck with their estimates for Arizona.
Thank you, Mark. Any questions for Mark? Sandeep, you have anything else?
No, I think really, I would like to invite folks, this is this is a great discussion. The question was asked by Rory , Jennifer, like to welcome you all, for the ISP roundtable or the appropriate roundtable, you fall under the group. We are going to start holding it monthly again. So let's discuss this question. I think this this awareness this is this is important to make sure that we are distributing the BEAD funding properly. And folks has a clear understanding a lot of these things are actually mentioned our volume two, which is still posted on our website, we tweak the data or tweak some of the paragraph a little bit before submitting to NTIA based on NTS feedback. But the structure, the main components are still sane. So I think this type of discussion needs to be need to be happen before we open up the whole area for procurement. And you will see a lot of areas if we are dividing the project areas in a massive geographic area. Fiber cannot reach everywhere. This is what I did for living for last 10 years like basically create a bridge between the financials how much money you have versus what kind of technology you are getting. So I completely agree with Rory that there will be areas where you will be needing different kinds of alternative technology there there will be areas where you cannot even actually reach with fixed to unless it has to be dropped down to satellite connectivity. So I would say this type of discussion is very important before we open up the areas for for procurement, because once we open it up, it will be hard for us to discuss about these things because that will be an ongoing procurement at that time. So I invite you all, let's, let's have a look. And we will be in this call every single week. So we are happy to take any more additional question here as well, Steve, and
Sandy, maybe we need to do a study session too. For those of you I know we have some new people on the call. But we did do a study session on volume to be and also the Digital Equity plan. And I know lots has changed since that time. We've got new information. Maybe we need to rather than trying to cram it all into this meeting that we do a separate study session to
I agree with you, Steve, I think the best time for the study session, I think we can do probably one when we start the challenge process because before the month of February, we'll be busy with all set up the tool and basically doing the webinar and everything. And then we can do one before the procurement starts.
Sounds like a plan. Okay, any other questions for Sandy? Okay, moving on them. Nicole, do you have anything else that you want to share at?
Sure. I just wanted to provide a few federal updates from some of our partners and our sister agencies. That is and and NTIA. USDA is currently their applications for their community connect grants are due on February 28. So that's that's funding for rural Broadband service and economically challenged communities where service doesn't exist. I'll add that that in the chat at FCC side, we all know that on February 7, the ACP program will or ACP will stop accepting new applications and enrollments. So anyone trying to sign up has to be approved and enrolled by by midnight on February 7 for their, I guess one month of service before that program runs out of funding. There is a fact sheet from Jessica Rosenworcel on it and a letter to appropriators so we'll just make sure that we have the up to date information there. For for NTIA side, the tribal Broadband connectivity program around two, that deadline was actually extended to March 22. So this is $980 million for tribal entities to apply directly to NTIA for Broadband as well as use and adoption projects. So those are Digital Equity type of work. So I know there's been a positive response to that lengthened window for applying. And the another resource that I'm not sure how many people are aware of, but it's the Broadband USA, that's the site where you get all the program information about NTIA s programs, there's also a federal funding site. So this is a listing of all opportunities for Broadband planning, Digital Inclusion and infrastructure. And so if there's updates, you can you can also provide those, but it's a good starting place for people who are interested in in that. And then finally, the NTIA, you know, is is the entity that runs the FirstNet program. And they're actually recruiting for FirstNet Authority Board members, right now. There's a notice that I'll post that helping individuals self identify on if you would like to serve on the board. And you're, you're directed to send in those letters of interest by February 2. So get to it, if that's of interest.
That was great. Thanks. Any time. Any questions for Nicole? Okay, if Matt moving on quickly, because we still have a bunch of stuff to cover. So I'm sorry, I should have done this earlier. But I have been drafting ACBS NS response to the de Digital Equity plan. And I will stay online after the meeting if anybody wants to talk about it, or even scheduled some time later this afternoon before I submit the plan, but there were several areas that I identified that I thought were important. One, of course is is to have an entity like I know the plan, they really haven't at this stage really identified any specific entities and organizations. So I wrote the wrote our recommendations, consistent with that, with that process. But I did say that the state should support an entity that will engage public and private leaders as well as industry experts to share information and collaborate on recommendations and critical Digital Inclusion initiatives for the state. Obviously, I will hope that that might be easy BSN. But we do need to have an entity like a Z BSN, as a part of the overall outreach. Because we do meet frequently whether we'll continue to meet weekly, that's still to be determined. But we do provide these kinds of updates and so forth. And so even though Broadband office is going to be doing outreach, that hopefully we will have a continuation of AZ BSN are such an entity. Secondly is those of you who have been involved with us for a long time, know that in 2020, that AC BSN and actually drafted a strategic plan. Much of the stuff that plan is still relevant today. And many of you who haven't seen that, and I will send out the link. But I noticed in the plan that that strategic plan was not acknowledged as one of the existing plans in the state. So I have already sent that information to the Broadband office. We'll be including that in our comments. The next area is cyber safety and security alliances and strategy, in my opinion, that just having awareness campaigns is not enough that we need to bring together and we've already started to build, I've already reached out to probably 20 some odd entities to start working on a strategy for cybersecurity, cyber safety and security and want to emphasize that we have broken that down. And I know we're not the only ones who do have done this. But we talk about the cybersecurity and I know folks want to change that language and that at some point that could probably happen. But we really have tried to distinguish secure cyber security being focused primarily on networks, devices and so forth. Versus OSI. over safety where we're helping people to say stay safe online. But we do need to have a real organized strategy for the state on how we're going to address cybersecurity specifically, and I don't want to, I don't think we want to get into covering the universe about cybersecurity. So we want to focus specifically, particularly on a lot of these people were signing up for ECP, low cost, service, all those kinds of things that we have to really look at. How are we helping them to address cybersecurity? And what are the different options that we we've got ISPs have a role. We have nonprofit organizations have a role. We have school districts have a role. So we have a lot of different entities that need to play a role in this. And so we want to focus not so much on technology, because there's lots of information about cybersecurity, and cyber safety technology. It's not the technology, it's the strategy of how are we going to help and support people. So that's another area, Digital Inclusion, sustainability strategy and Digital Inclusion ecosystem. And I think that has been referenced to some extent in the plan. But we really need to have an ecos understanding what the ecosystem is for Digital Equity, everything from the state and state agencies, federal agencies, local governments, nonprofit organizations, to really understand what that system looks like, and how do we grow and support that. The next area, which those of you who've been around me enough, know that one of my big issues is local community coordination and planning. And again, it is referenced in the plan. But I went into a little more detail about saying that we really have to provide the support to those two local communities. And, again, one of my big issues is that the excuse me, the local first entity has done a great job of working with local communities and facilitating planning, providing assist technical assistance, helping them with finding funding opportunities. And so I basically have said that we need to have an entity. And this is pretty consistent with what we recommended in our plan in 2020, of having an entity that can help those organizations. So they need to be able to help do the outreach to those communities, they need to help facilitate the planning wherever those communities need. And related to that is the need to provide funding. In many cases, which again, we recommend, and there were about six points that we recommended in our plan, that we needed to have people to do research on funding, funding opportunities, private sector funding, foundations, corporate giving, and so forth, and to have a real strategy on how we can support these. And it becomes particularly important, again, in my opinion, that you know, Digital Equity funding is going to do a lot, but it's one time shot. And then what happens and how are we going to continue and sustain this. And so we really have to look at what other sources of funds are out there to support Digital Equity. And in some cases, in one of the meetings with the governor's office was talking about the need to even look at is there possibilities of looking at private sector corporate funding for to support if people if ACP goes away? Again, we've, we've supported and continued support nonprofit organizations that are collecting, refurbishing and distributing low cost devices. And then, and so the last thing was affordability. And I raised this at one of the meetings that we need to look at, we have a number of tools in this state that we haven't really looked at. We've been focused a lot on ACP, but we need to understand the final mile and what if anything that can do for us. We have the sun corridor network, we eat rate, and a whole variety of other funding. And we need to look at understand those and maybe others and what have what and how can we use those tools to address the issue of affordability? So those are the recommendations that I'm that I've drafted. Many of you have anything else that you think ought to be added? I don't have the time to take that today. But after this meeting, if you'd like we can stay online, or you can send me your comments but it does have to be in by five o'clock today. So any quick thoughts or comments before we move on? Okay, so I'm gonna just jump right into the the presentation And for today, and I want to where's it should be on here? Yeah. So anyway, welcome back Karina and Kelly Kersey and others from the Arizona Department of Education that are going to give us an update on what's happening with the Department of Education. There's been some changes and things happening, new people and so forth. So Karina, I'm gonna turn it over to you to introduce your folks and take it from there. And you hit you have a presentation, so I will stop sharing.
Yeah, thank you, Steve. Yeah, let's, we will share the presentation. I think. Eric, you, you got it. And let's start there. But Hi, everyone. Yes, my name is Karina Jones from the Arizona Department of Education. If we haven't talked and I am the I wear different hats. My title is director of IT Communications and strategy it program engagement. And I'm also the Director of Educational Technology that is the unit that we are here to talk about. So if we have seen before, or remember, we used to talk about the Office of Digital Teaching and Learning as part of the Department of Education, that office working to drive Digital Equity across Arizona in terms of education, education for everyone. Now, the work that we were doing as part of the Office of Digital Teaching and Learning has been split into a lot of that work remains under information technology. And that is part of my half working on information technology and continuing to support solutions such as cybersecurity. The great work that Milan is doing Broadband wise, all of that is coming from information technology, the information technology area. But what I am here to talk about is the other half that was recently created, and that is educational technology. Coming also as support one of the other support services that we provide to school districts. So the educational technology is highly focused on academics and it's looking to to raise academic outcomes in Arizona by providing digital ecosystems that we are going to present about so that you see what what is what's really is that we deliver we have a tangible product. With me, we have Eric sooner he is the recently hired Program Manager for educational technology. And we have commune, Kelly cracy, whom you guys may have already met in the role of Aditya now she is community engagement manager for educational technology as well. So let me start just with a little lengthy intro, and then I will hand it over to the team. What is the what is it that we are trying to tackle with these products? And this is a little bit of context of for the covered populations for the Department of Education. Okay, so we are serving over more nearly 1,130,000 students in in Arizona that are attending publicly funded K 12 schools. But we also serve over 18,000 students that are adult education students. And the department of education in Arizona is one of the few states in the country who also covers the adult education population. These are students that are not enrolled in K 12. Not attending college higher ed. And we also serve them. Also this program that that we are going to talk about is looking to to enhance or raise academic outcomes we have, we have almost 110,000 certified K 12 teachers in Arizona 60,000 plus of them are serving in public schools, which means that the difference are not serving in public schools or potentially may not even be in the classroom but but they are certified and that's okay. Now from from our school reports, we have 79% of the teachers are experienced, meaning 21% of them are less than three years in the position. All of this is information just to see what is it that we serve. Also, it may not be too clear here but we have information in our state reports. data, we have information about the populations that we covered and we can see that we classify them by special education. Those are students with disabilities, military, migrant, our multiple races. All of those we are looking to tackle very, very unique and serve their unique needs. So speaking of have unique needs when we are looking to work in the education in the Educational Technology unit is to deliver equitable solutions in terms of instructional content to Arizona. Many of our school districts, many of our school districts have outstanding teachers outstanding curriculum, and they deliver outstanding instruction to our students. Many others do not many others lack the resources to acquire curriculum, lack experienced teachers to develop their own curriculum, and like their understanding of how to follow K 12. Arizona standards, academic standards. So that is what this group is working on, on bridging that gap, making sure that we have equitable access to resources, instructional resources through the different tools that we have. So if we move to the next slide, Eric, the first tool that the solution that Eric is going to talk about is the Arizona digital educators library that is being available now to win school districts. And now this is for Eric and Kelly to take it from here.
Thank you, Karina. Good morning, everyone. Again, my name is Eric Stuebner, Program Manager of Educational Technology. I was a 17 year educator, Dean of Students and tech coach, I've been around k 12. Education my entire life. And I think this product that we are developing stands to help all of our students because it's going to help our teachers. And so what the Adele stands for Arizona digital educators library and the thought process behind Adele is that it will be a place where he can curate standards aligned resources, contribute high quality content to all educators and Arizona. Give them lesson planning and assessment tools and be able to, there's so many resources out there that teachers can go and find. Not all of them are highly qualified or highly vetted. Some of them are junk. And as a coach going into classrooms, I'd seen that firsthand. And so being able to, to put this work together to put this content together for teachers to easily access build their lessons, it's bridging that gap from what some have and what some don't. So this this tool, I'm going to walk through it quickly. And then kind of give you a rundown of what it looks like as a teacher walk you through the steps of the planning. And on the back end of that is the adult student app. And this is going to be the student side that's going to help teachers assess student learning. And it's going to interact as a an assessment tool that will mimic the state assessment that teachers are preparing students for throughout the year. So with that, I'm going to quickly jump in and share Adele. And so logging in as a teacher, what we've been doing the past couple of months is starting to curate these resources. And this is a new ask from the department to to produce some of this content that that's standards aligned. And that will meet teachers needs. It's something that's new, because typically as a district, they will go out and purchase their own content, they will do their own standards alignment, they'll do their own curriculum maps, we need to help bridge that gap for students and for districts that don't have that. And so being able to put this work together for teachers, is where we're headed. So currently, right now we've got these four core four subjects set up. And as ad II builds this content, I spoke earlier about a curriculum map of what we what don't want to do is dictate a curriculum or force something into a district, what we want to do is provide standards aligned resources. And so we've broken down those standards here in the fifth grade ELA into the different strands that they the standards live in. We're going to focus today on informational texts, because that is, you know, as a teacher, I'm looking through instructional materials that I might have, and I know that reading for informational texts is it's about a 25% chunk of the grade great level test that they're going to take the AASA so let's say that I want to create a lesson for them. I've kind of got one started already and I'm going to speed through it because I know we're short on time. So what I've done is built, built the lesson using this lesson plan. tool. And it's allows me to break down all the different parts of a lesson. And as an ad e team, we can set up this lesson as an exemplar. So this is what we're looking for. This is what you should be planning for. So being able to add some key points and opening some independent practice. And closing, one of the things that we want to allow for is differentiation because our students are working at different levels. And as a teacher in good practice, you know, the levels of your students. So in one of the schools that we're working with, currently, they've said, the, the focus is on guided reading practice, and leveled readers, because they have students that are lead reading at a third grade level students that are reading at seventh grade level. So we want to be able to give them core instruction, but then also differentiate. And that's going to be what their sparkle app, and those lessons are for. So when I go into my lesson resources, I can quickly add a resource and so I'm going to upload a file of a passage that I want. The one school was working with corn. So this has been kind of a I'm learning a lot about corn by doing these, these different lessons for them. So I can add this PDF into my lesson.
And then I can also come down and add my standards. And so this is really important for what we're talking about when there's resources out there. There's lots of stuff that teachers can find, but isn't going to be related to the content that that's going to be tested. So I know that I'm in fifth grade. And I know that I'm going to be in my informational text. And I'm going to be determining two or more main ideas. And so this tool is allowing me to tag my standards so that if I'm turning this into administration, if I'm sharing it with a teammate, we know what standards we're covering. What's great about this tool, as well is that I'm also because of the assessment, I'm going to be working on writing. So I know that I need to add a writing standard. And then, because we're talking about corn, I'm going to come also in pure science, there's my science standards. And I can come in and add fifth grade, life science standard. All right. So now those standards are tied into my lesson. And I can save and close that. So this lesson is now ready for distribution to a team. So if I'm in a group of 3/5 grade teachers, it's something that we can all take a chunk of the unit and do a lesson plan and then share those lessons across across our team. I'm mentioned earlier the sparkle student activities and here's a look at what that looks like once it's brought into into my sandbox here as a teacher, these were these are living on Adele as resources for all i went gone through looked at a Dell grab these ones said, Look this is we can do some compare and contrast around this. This core unit. Here are three level readers that I can add. And again, like I said earlier, there's these are aligned to our state assessment. And we'd give students the opportunity to interact with this tool as they might. They might do in March when they
rarely take the test. I needed to interrupt you and Karina This is for you also, that we need to try to keep this as high level as possible because we're running late. Yeah, the time we took with Sandy was
so that's fine. And we will we're here for anyone that would want to come and have a little bit more of a rundown and if there's any more specifics and getting through it. I appreciate the time and we're just very excited about it as it is so Kelly did you want to Anything I
do just quickly, thank you again for the time. Kelly Krusee, Community Engagement Manager. So as Eric is demonstrating here, our the overall purpose and goal of this is for it to reach all corners of Arizona, not just schools that are already heavily resourced, but the schools that are not. So as we're working on Digital Equity, this is one of our concerns as well, making sure that the students who are getting access to the internet and to these resources are also have the access and the opportunity to raise their academic outcomes. And having ms for teachers also impact students and all teachers then have access to what we think will be crowd sourced curriculum. We want to get your feedback because you all work in your communities in your areas, you know, what's happening in your schools. We're looking for your input, your ideas, your thoughts, are there ways for us to collaborate with perhaps different partners that we haven't thought about or ideas that you have, we are really wanting to get in at at each community level, raise awareness for this. And really, again, our goal is to serve and support the teachers and raise the academic outcomes for students across the states. So there's a link there, I'll plug that into the chat, looking for your input, your feedback, and based on the time I will stop talking. And I'll I'll plug that link into the chat. So
Kelby just can you talk to us a little more about what your role is? And then Karina, you know, you submitted recommendations for the Digital Equity plan. And I think, part of a discussion, maybe it's a future discussion is, so what again, what is the role of schools in Digital Equity, and, you know, outreach the community, parents, students, and a lot of the skills that Digital Equity skills that we've been talking a lot about. So I know, we don't have a lot of time to get into that today. But I think that's certainly as an issue that is near and dear to the hearts of the people on this call.
Right. So I'll speak quickly to my role and let Karina jump in as well. So my role is with the community and with the schools, the teachers. And right now we're in the early stages of of developing this, we're still building it. And we're trying to collect that input and that feedback, as we go to make sure that we can refine this and really meet the needs of educators to raise academic outcomes. So my role will be to work with schools, in every part of the states to find out how this can best support them. What can we do to make this better? How will this work and make those changes and refinements again, trying to reach everyone and make this says as equitable as possible, really trying to focus in on the schools that are lesser resourced and don't have the curriculum don't have the opportunity or the funds to have all of the resources that they might need to use in the classroom. And this we think will help to bridge that gap.
So we definitely need to have further conversation with you guys. Again, I apologize, we kind of wrap
let me just add something. This is not new, the solutions that the product that we just saw is being utilized and ready in Georgia and deeply covering and helping many, many schools there. The concept is what we call a learning object repository, if we are familiar with that term in tech world, and there's many other solutions that we are bringing from different states in the country. But yes, the Steve, I have been in conversations with Erin, about how solutions like this can can help actually disseminate knowledge even about like, digital citizenship, right. And we are talking about building a seal of data literacy, digital citizenship from the Arizona Department of Education, how can it live here, or disseminate content so that we achieve Digital Equity and this was part of the items that we put in feedback for the for the Digital Equity plan yesterday?
So right, so any questions for any of the folks with the Department of Education before we move on? And again, Corinne, I'm sorry. We
have? No just being here with everybody. It's, thank you for the opportunity. Kelly.
Yeah, of course, you know, I also send out contact information for everybody. But you know, people want to be in touch with any of you, the department that will have that contact information.
Yes. And I'll plug that into the chat as well. Thank you.
So just quickly, because we are running out of time, Drew I know you're online. You have anything else you want to add about what's happening with ACP.
I think everyone's sort of heard At this point, but yeah, wind down is started. Most, every enrollee should have gotten a notification. I'll share a article we wrote at Benton about those notices in case anyone wants to see what they look like or examples. But we're still working hard at Congress to try to get this thing refunded. So if you're interested in supporting any advocacy, and we need everyone to support as much as possible, you can go to don't disconnect us that or don't do it. I'll post it in the chat. But don't disconnect. us.org is a website because we're trying to share that to drive calls to your representatives, and Senators. The only other thing I'd say is look out for probably February 8, enrollment freezes, no new enrollment after February 8, probably around March 15, middle of March, a second wave of notices is going to go out. And then a third and final wave is going to go out at the beginning of April. And those notifications are going to be more detailed than the current ones. They're going to tell the consumer how much their bill is going to increase and remind them that they have the option if they want to, to cancel their service and no penalty anytime while they're on the ACP. So happy to talk more if anyone's interested.
Thanks, Drew. And moving on a mile. I'm gonna skip you for a minute and introduce my co come since most people may not know who he is, and get us a quick update on what's happened with telemedicine. I know you've got a meeting coming up with an interview for possible new director.
Yeah, real quick, I actually need to drop off. So I have some things in the chat that I'm just was typing up that are it's a bit long, but just briefly, we did have a candidate. And there may be others I we haven't had any other scheduled yet. But very good candidate come in, I can't share the name. It's you know, obviously they don't want their current employer to know that they're looking at other opportunities, but really excellent candidate, really great vision for expanding telehealth to rural and underserved and unserved populations in the state. And looking forward to that hopefully coming to fruition. The other things that are just quickly saying and we're just about out of time, just the Broadband summit was really great. I appreciate the opportunity to speak there about health navigation and Digital Equity. And thanks to Aaron and Anissa, and Claudia, who are on the panel for that. And lastly, most just sort of as a application for Broadband. Most of the telehealth flexibilities that were enabled for Medicare coverage in around the beginning of COVID continue to be available through the end of 2024. But many of those may be discontinued, if not additional extended. So there's kind of this telehealth policy cliff that didn't need to be pushed back. And hopefully those will become permanent. But so patient patients, the upshot of that is patients can still be located anywhere. So this work to enable patients to be or people to be able to connect from their homes anywhere in Arizona. Currently, they'll be able to take advantage of telehealth from those locations as well. So with that, thanks very much.
Right, my glad you're able to join us and welcome you. Thank you. So Mala you want to do a quickie update.
Yes, very, very quick because I have to jump off to the two things that I really want to draw your attention to is the hotspot lending through the E Rate program for that Shelby schools health libraries Broadband coalition has got a letter that's going to FCC this week. And that is, you know, while they are happy about the students, about the support to have for the students to do their homework of campus, they and the competitive bidding and then having them pay their non discounted share, etc. And going going through the IRS program because it's a well established program. They really wanted to be more technology neutral, rather than having just hotspot lending. As the program today, we've been talking so much about technology neutral. This is one more program where they want it to be cost effective. But again, technology neutral. So it could be it that would really, really take the burden off loaning the hotspots through the libraries and schools keeping the circulation records for 10 years, that is a real burden on both schools and libraries to do this, maybe just a circulation data would be a better option. But the whole idea is not just to make it so dependent on just hotspot lending, but maybe wireless technology or any other innovative wireless offerings for them. So that is that's one program that, and also they're concerned about the costs that this the increased demand we'll have on E Rate to make sure that that is not burdensome, is another thing that shall be is asking FCC to look into. The second and I'll be very quick about this is the cybersecurity plan. The draft cybersecurity plan that FCC has put out, this was put out on January, it will on January 29, EPS funds for learning submitted comments on three things. One was the length of time that the pilot should run right now it is $200 million for a three year cybersecurity pilot program. But there is a lot of arguments about, you know, comments about the length of time that the pilot should run because if it's going to run for a three year period, then by the time the comments are collected, and we get the feedback, it's going to be the fourth year. And by the time the another program based on that is implemented, it's going to be five years down the line that's too long to wait for something that is so important as cybersecurity. So that's one area in which comments have been sent comments or it's still open for comments until February 27. And that's the reason why I urge you all to to think about this and see if we can offer more comments. The second thing is about the amount of funding allocated right now they have allocated 200 million funds for learning has done a study saying that the average for a robust secure cybersecurity program, the average required is about $146,000 for each applicant, which means that the total that they're asking, asking for is 312 point 5 million versus the 200 million that FCC has put up right now. And the third comment was on rather than establishing a menu of eligible products and services, as they always do, for the E Rate program they use. They allow the applicants to do something innovative or technological advances use technological advances for this pilot, and use that as a guiding principle for protecting the rate funded networks and circuits. So this is these are three areas, the length of the program, the amount of funding allocated, and the framework for determining what products and services are eligible for funding. So those are the three areas that comments have been received so far. Please feel free to go to FCC site and look at cyber if you if you just Google on the cybersecurity pilot program. You should it should take you to the comments and comments are due by the 27th. Ma Do you have that link by chance? I can find it for you and put it in the chat once I'm talking. Right. So
wow, I gotta tell you how is all this technology always identifies you as mom have?
No problem, any comments? Otherwise I can shut up. Jump off into.
Okay, thanks, Mala. Any questions from our any other quick announcements? We will so we'll stay online we can do some kibitzing of, if you would like. And if not, I think we're done for today. Oh, one quick thing ash. I want to follow up with you because I think it's time for us to get back to I know you've got a different role and you're focused more on the industry. I, but it's time for us to get back to this discussion and it keeps popping up all the time now about AI, Digital Equity. Oh, yeah, perfect. Yeah, I'll stick around. Okay. And we don't have to do that even today. But that's a whole probably a whole different discussion. That will take some time. But we'd like to hear about that. And I know you're involved with I think, Arizona Technology Council. Yeah.
And and I had popped in today, particularly driven by this Digital Equity issue. I've been taking notes. So yeah. How about I just will just follow up. Sure.
So so the only thing the only thing is ash is that if you have any thoughts, that we should do anything regarding AI, then the Digital Equity plan that has to be submitted today. If you have any quick comments, you might want to think about that.
I do q&a. Can I hang on this morning chat chat? Yes. Absolutely.
Absolutely. So we're I'm going to stop the recording and we will go into our