(upbeat music) - [Narrator] The legislature is wrapping up its work.

- This week, we finally saw budget documents.

- [Narrator] Getting kids vaccinated against COVID 19.

- And especially this 12 to 15 age group.

We know that they can get COVID, we also know that they can transmit COVID to others.

- [Narrator] And getting ready for a return of high school sports.

- Last time this year, things were crazy and hectic.

So, man, it feels good to be out early and working.

(upbeat music) - Hello and welcome to Arizona 360.

I'm Christopher Conover, filling in for Lorraine Rivera.

Thanks for joining us.

The 2021 legislative session reached a critical point this week.

The budget for the next fiscal year was unveiled.

That means the end of the annual lawmaking is close at hand.

Joining us to talk about the budget and what is left for state lawmakers is Julia Shumway, a reporter with Arizona Capital Times.

- This week, we finally saw budget documents.

It's know getting toward the end of May and they have a spreadsheet of plan that Governor Ducey and the legislative leaders have agreed to, that would spend about $13 billion and cut nearly $3 billion in taxes over the next few years.

But while the governor and legislative leaders have agreed to this budget, they still have to get to 16 votes in the Senate and 31 votes in the House, and those votes are not there yet.

- I was gonna say, we know the Democrats are pushing back especially against the flat tax proposal, but there are Republicans like Paul Boyer who is often a thorn in the side of his fellow Republicans when it comes to the budget that is also pushing back.

So what are some of the issues besides the flat tax that, for example, Boyer is pushing back against.

- So, Senator Boyer is also pushing back because he wants a lot more funding for universities.

So, for the past several years, universities haven't received ongoing funding from the legislature.

They have received one time funding that's usually renewed.

Nothing's ever really one time, except for last year when the COVID pandemic hit.

And suddenly there was no more one-time funding.

All of our universities effectively took a budget cut last year.

Although some of that money was made up for through federal stimulus packages.

This year, there's an offer of about $35 million in ongoing funds split between the three state universities.

But Boyer wants something closer to $160 million, which he argues will have, will be able to return on return investment better than tax cuts.

Well, he thinks that it's easier to see new path for making up that revenue if you invest in education versus just cutting taxes.

So that's one of his sticking points.

We also have other Republicans who have other issues with the budgets.

And in one case, not even an issue with the budget itself, just Senator Kelly Townsend is totally fine with the budget, but she's not voting for it unless and until we pass election legislation that she wants to do.

- And you also wrote about a Representative David Cook.

He said he liked the budget overall, but again, needs some assurances in his case on unemployment and an increase in the payment.

Arizona pays $240 a week and he wants to see that number go up.

How likely is he to get what he wants?

- He will get an increase in unemployment benefits.

That's something the governor has agreed to do, that starting July 1st of 2022, provided Arizona meet a number of triggers.

Our weekly unemployment will increase from $240 a week to 320.

However, that comes with an associated decrease in the number of weeks that people on unemployment can receive benefits.

And Representative Cook who represents more rural area is really concerned about that.

He says that most people are able to get jobs within 20 weeks of unemployment, but the people who might need that full 26 tend to be rural Arizonans.

And people who live in small towns, if say a mining industry shuts down in their town, they don't have a bunch of other businesses nearby that they can go to and it might take them longer to find work.

So he doesn't want any decrease in the number of weeks that people are eligible.

- Let's switch to the other big topic of the week, the one that is looming out there, everybody across the country is talking about the audit of the presidential vote in Maricopa County.

This week, Senate President Karen Fann met with the heads of the audit.

They're now saying, hopefully the end of June, they will finish.

How does that play into the possible end of a legislative session?

- We know that there are some lawmakers, Senator Townsend was one of them who don't particularly want to go home until the audit is done.

Although the longer this audit has been dragging on, they've kind of...

They've rethought that a little.

They're not gonna keep us here until December, Senator Townsend promised.

But we do know that lawmakers have been asked what their vacation plans are through the end of June.

So we might still be around here when the audit is finished if indeed they do complete it by the end of June.

- This legislative session, state lawmakers passed a mandate that takes effect this summer.

Beginning in July, school districts across the state will include contact information for Teen Lifeline on the back of school issued identification cards.

In 2020, 43 Arizona teens died by suicide, up from 38 in 2019.

The clinical director of Teen Lifeline told Lorraine Rivera, the ages range from eight to 17.

- Suicide is always a complicated issue, but it almost always has to do with this feeling of pain or this feeling of overwhelming that they don't know anywhere else to get...

It feels like it's never gonna go away.

And so, when we're looking at eight year olds, 10 year olds and even young teenagers, they don't have the concept of time healing or time creating change with our emotions.

We know that like, all of our feelings, sad, happy, whatever, they all transition and change over time.

But our kids, they feel intensely these feelings and they just...

They don't know how to make them go away.

And so oftentimes, the thought of suicide, it's not about dying, it has everything to do with I just don't wanna feel like this right now.

And they don't have a concept of understanding that that could change or is going to change maybe in just a few hours.

And so for our kids, it's just about always reminding them that when they do feel alone, that they're not.

And that there's lots of ways to reach out for help.

- This program is somewhat unique because it is actually run by teenagers.

What is your hope for how it changes some of these staggering numbers that we're seeing in Arizona.

The idea that peers and teens are more likely to talk to other teens about problems that they have before they go to adults.

Developmentally, it's what we know kids do, it's what all of us did when we were teenagers.

And even more so, what we know of teenagers now, is that they look at social media to compare their lives to their peers, to people that they consider their lives similar to them, or they want their lives to be like them.

And so, Teen Lifeline more important than ever, is we train teens to take calls from other teams across the State of Arizona about any kind of problems that they're having, and be able to talk to them without judgment, with true understanding and to help them to build problem solving, to help empower them to make healthy decisions for themselves.

And also help them to build those connections to adults in our lives, knowing that that first step is usually talking to someone who understands from their point of view.

The hotline is also supervised by master's level of behavioral health clinician.

So there's always professionals in the background.

- This year, the support of state lawmakers to say, we've gotta get into schools and put some support on the back of IDs.

Is that gonna be a game changer moving forward?

- You know, it is a game changer already in the districts that this has been going on in in the last five, six years.

So, the idea initiative that having our information on the ACA IDs was actually started by a high school principal brought to his district, after they had lost several students to suicide over a course of a few years, and felt it necessary that he wanted his students to know that they care about them when they're on campus.

They also care about them when they're off campus.

And that they wanted to know that they're always there.

When they're on campus, their school counselors, their social workers, the administrators they're there to support them.

But the times that they're not there, they want them to know that they're not alone.

And so that immediately was a game changer for us.

But what we realized right away, was that it wasn't about more hotline calls coming into the crisis center.

It did happen, but it wasn't about that.

What we started hearing in the districts that started doing this over the last six years, is that it changed the conversations they were having on campuses, it changed the amount of kids that were willing to come forward about themselves, but also their friends that were struggling.

It gave parents the tools to say, this number is on the back of your ID, let's talk about this.

Is this something that you would ever use?

Or let's talk about how you would use this.

And we know that it has saved lives, not from the kids who called the hotline, but it saved lives also, from the conversations it started having in the classrooms with teachers, with school counselors and also with parents.

And we have been statewide with this, but this new mandate that goes into effect July 1, will just make sure that we are there and that there's support for kids and families year round 24 hours a day.

And to know that they're not alone, especially in this really difficult time.

And so I think the biggest thing that this does, it actually shows families and kids, that they are supported by their community, and that people care about them when they need it most.

And it's not just suicide, it's any kind of problem that they're having, that they need to talk about.

We want them to reach out to their families, we want them to reach out to their teachers and to their friends.

But when they feel like they can't reach out anywhere else, that Teen Lifeline is also a place that they can reach out.

- Nikki Kontz the Clinical Director for Teen Lifeline, thank you.

- You're welcome.

Thank you so much.

(upbeat music) - Children involved in extracurricular activities, tend to engage with school at higher levels.

That's according to a 2014 report from the US Census Bureau.

As schools focus more on bringing students back into the classroom, they're also looking to resume sports at the level they were before the pandemic.

Arizona 360 checked in with a football team in Southern Arizona, eager to see that happen after coming off a challenging season during the pandemic.

- [Narrator] In the town of Sahuarita, at Walden Grove High, before the first bell rings in the start of the school day, (indistinct) the sound of metal on metal, signals that the players on the school's football team are already putting in work.

Leading this pack of Red Wolves, is coach and history teacher, Corey noble.

(indistinct) - Right now, we're just off season and our primary, and probably even our secondary focus is all in weightlifting.

It's one of the things that we really missed the most from this last year, not having really, I mean, anything after spring break.

(metal clanking) - [Narrator] Every lift.

- Come on, two more.

- [Narrator] Pass.

- Go - Drive your eyes to the route.

- [Narrator] And play.

- Good job, Gabe.

- [Narrator] An exercise in establishing a new normal.

The pandemic started appending longstanding traditions in March of last year, when Noble was entering his fourth season as head coach.

- We were just starting to kind of figure out about COVID and this pandemic.

Like I remember thinking and like telling my coaches things like, hey guys, I think we're gonna be probably taking a couple of weeks off of workouts.

Who would have known, that it would be a year.

I would've never even imagined saying something like that.

- [Narrator] Like most schools across Arizona, Walden High transitioned to virtual learning and put sports on pause.

(indistinct chatter) For Noble and his team, that meant suspending practice through the summer and canceling an annual trip to California.

A scaling back that weighed heavily on players like juniors Jason Stevens and Ronnie Berg.

It was heartbreaking, especially 'cause right before that we had had track get canceled and everything kind of just started tumbling.

- Are we even gonna get a game, because it was still up in the air, our season might be canceled and all the practicing we did was for just no season to show for it.

- [Noble] As it got later and later into the summer, I'll be honest, like we stopped talking about like when we have a football season, it started becoming, there for a while, late summer, early August, if we have a football season.

- [Narrator] As weeks turned to months, COVID continued to spread in Arizona.

And the potential for the team's football season remained uncertain.

Its roster, which normally boasts between 115 and 120 players, also shrank two 85.

- [Noble] The motivation factor for some of them just went out.

And then, obviously the concerns in the dangers over playing a contact sport in this time with COVID.

- Yes, good job.

- [Jason] If we're gonna do it through this, you just gotta love it.

'Cause a lot of people fell off, a lot of people didn't work.

- Go get that Joe.

- [Narrator] When it came time to regroup in the fall, the team adapted by adding more practices to accommodate 10 players at a time.

- Here for nine hours a day, doing football workouts.

In the hope that we were going to be able to do something.

- [Narrator] The school also began requiring weekly rapid tests for all student athletes.

- Every Monday that they've been in school, they've been getting COVID tested.

And we've had some isolated incidents, but it hasn't been a thing where a whole position groups out or anything like that.

So, I mean, I think the big takeaway for us, was football's not spreading this.

Definitely been the toughest recruiting cycle that I've been a part of as a head coach in terms of just the lower number of opportunities for players, from both the high school perspective, from a high school level, of less off season exposure, less in-season exposure, less coaches being able to come out to practice and see us actually practice, see the kids interact with the kids.

And it's been a recruiting dead period for a long time at this point.

Colleges allowing college players to have an extra year of eligibility for the season that some of them missed, which, hey, it's great for them, but on the back end of that the repercussions, that's fewer roster spots, scholarships for incoming freshmen to go into college.

And we've got four kids that signed to go play next year.

I honestly think had it been a normal year, I think we would have probably had seven guys go sign.

- [Narrator] A season, normally comprises 10 games, with a chance to play for a championship.

The team played four.

As community spread of COVID fluctuated, often exceeding benchmarks set by the state, canceled games became common.

Noble says, being in Pima County, also presented disadvantages compared to schools elsewhere in the state.

- It's incredibly unfortunate that the vast majority of the schools in the Phoenix Metro area, played a full season.

And those boys got a full season of opportunities.

How do I tell my kids, because of where we're at, we're not gonna have those same opportunities for our kids.

We've had firsthand knowledge of how awful this thing can be like in our program.

So it's certainly not something that we're taking lightly.

But, I mean, I've had a lot of students that are, and players that are traditionally A students, A and B students that have said like, I've never struggled more with school.

- [Narrator] One year later, the pandemic has not loosened its grip on the globe.

But as more people gain access to the vaccine, the rules have changed in places like Pima County.

- It just feels good to be out here early.

Cause last time, this year, things were crazy and hectic.

So, man, it feels good to be out early and working.

Especially with all these guys.

- [Noble] It may not be normal, what we would call normal two seasons ago, but I think it'll be a full season.

Obviously, we're gonna see how everything plays out and we've gotta keep doing our part.

- Just exciting.

It just makes me like crave this season, just cause I just, so much in store for this team.

So every throw I get, I'm just so excited and proud.

- Collegiate sports also look different this year with few or no fans in the stands.

But falling COVID case numbers and rising vaccine numbers, give fans and players hope for next season.

We sat down with Dr. Ricardo Valerdi, he's a Professor of Engineering in the University of Arizona's liaison, between academics and athletics.

Some of our spring sports are still playing baseball, softball are going on, all cross the country, not just at the University of Arizona.

But how did the pandemic change UA sports all of this year?

- Well, in a lot of ways, it was a lot of stop and go.

In some cases you had to be prepared to travel and you didn't quite know if you were gonna be in a bubble or if you're gonna be driving there or flying there, commercially or private.

So a lot of on edge kind of preparation.

And that's tough when you're mentally and physically trying to gear up for competition, to not know whether it's gonna be 100% go.

On the other side, because there was so much patchwork with different health departments, restricting things or allowing things.

And also the fact that some competitors didn't have the same level of testing as a Pac-12 mandated.

So there was a lot of Swiss cheese going on in terms of mixed results.

And that's tough mentally and physically - Did the NCAA, which of course oversees all of college sports, did they make any allowances for student athletes in this past year that they hadn't in previous years because of the pandemic?

Maybe changing eligibility requirements and things like that?

- Absolutely.

So the big change from the NCAA was allowing student athletes to apply for waivers or a full-time enrollment and progress towards degree.

And those are two important benchmarks that every student athlete needs to meet every semester in order to maintain eligibility.

But the NCAA understood that, different student athletes were faced with different challenges either at home or at the university.

And so they gave us some leeway there, which allowed student athletes who maybe couldn't finish a semester, or couldn't finish a class, to apply for that waiver and still maintain the eligibility.

But, with that, provide a plan for completion.

How are you going to make those units up in the future?

It wasn't just a free pass, it was thinking about how you're gonna make it up after the fact.

- All right, I guess we need to ask you to get your ball out.

The semester has ended for the University of Arizona, ending all over the country for colleges and universities.

What's athletics look like in the next academic year come August?

- Yeah, and it's very interesting because we are now planning to have a somewhat normal academic year starting in August.

But we're still gonna feel the effects of COVID, the ripple effects are gonna be persistent.

And the most important one probably is the size of the roster for specific teams.

Because, I'll give you an example of Major League Baseball, last year only had a limited draft.

As a result, players didn't put themselves out to be drafted as high numbers as in the past.

Therefore you have this sort of bottleneck that's created on the roster.

And so for somebody coming in into college athletics, maybe as a freshmen, there probably isn't as much opportunity to play because the roster is top heavy.

You have seniors and you have what we call COVID seniors now.

And so, it's tougher for coaches now to manage their scholarship money, it's tougher for incoming students to try to figure out what their role on the team is gonna be.

So I think you're gonna see some of that for probably the next three or four years as the ripple effects continue to be evident.

- You mentioned those high school athletes hoping to come and play at the University of Arizona or somewhere else.

Are there going to be fewer scholarships because there are fewer roster spots for them?

- Well, the number of scholarships stays the same, it's just more people competing for them.

And the differences in some cases you have headcount sports and other cases you have equivalency sports.

So those headcount sports are ones where you...

If you have a scholarship, it's 100% or nothing.

And so those are competitive in a different way, you either have a scholarship or you don't.

It's those equivalency sports were it starts to get more interesting because you could split a scholarship into smaller pieces, smaller slices.

And so maybe there is more room to distribute, but there are more mouths to feed so to speak.

More people that are available to be on the roster, but you have the same amount of scholarships.

So it's probably just a...

Coaches are gonna be getting very good at fractions and percentages.

And you have to get really creative, maybe get some significant digits on the right side of the decimal.

(gentle music) - The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has issued two sets of guidance in recent weeks, that changed the way Americans deal with the COVID-19 pandemic.

First, they opened up vaccines to children, ages 12 and older.

And then they relaxed mask and physical guidance.

Joining us to talk about what that means for Arizona is Dr. Cara Christ the Head of the Arizona Department of Health Services.

When it comes to, especially businesses, I've known businesses, I've seen since the CDC made their announcement, some have signs up that say, you still have to wear a mask.

Other businesses are saying no masks.

From a business owner standpoint, what guidance should they follow?

- We would recommend that they follow the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

For example, what we've done here at the health department, because we want to encourage those that are fully vaccinated to get back to normal.

So, our signs will read something like, for health, masks are recommended if you are not fully vaccinated.

Just so that businesses, no one's... We don't expect people to check people's vaccination history or to confront people.

It's really to protect those who are not vaccinated from getting COVID-19.

- You talk about the vaccines and you don't want businesses confronting people necessarily.

There is some concern I've heard my neighbors talk about it, that people will just to be blunt lie about it.

They don't wanna be vaccinated, and so fine, I'm just not gonna wear my mask now either.

From a public health standpoint, is that a concern?

- So from a public health standpoint, we would prefer that people who were un-vaccinated wear their masks.

We know that COVID-19 is highly transmissible and is highly unpredictable.

So, we've got young healthy people who are hospitalized with COVID, who have none of those risk factors of being elderly, having some kind of underlying condition.

So for their health and to avoid spreading it to others who may be vulnerable to COVID-19, we would recommend that they wear a mask.

- Let's turn to vaccines.

The CDC also recently opened vaccines up to people over the age, 12 and older.

We can do this now in Arizona, most vaccines sites.

What do parents need to know?

Should they get their kids vaccinated?

- So we would highly encourage parents to get their kids vaccinated, especially this 12 to 15 age group.

We know that they can get COVID, we also know that they can transmit COVID to others.

So I would recommend, if you've got a 12 to 15 year old, you can take them to any state site.

It has to be the Pfizer vaccine.

The Pfizer vaccine is the only one that's approved for 12 and above.

Moderna and Johnson and Johnson are still 18 and above.

But I just got my 13 year old immunized, and he said he didn't even feel it.

- We're seeing more and more vaccine hesitancy.

It looks like the state is approaching 40% totally vaccinated, but those numbers have definitely slowed down.

What are some of the things that the State Department of Health Services is doing to reach out to try and encourage people to vaccinated as those numbers seem to have slowed down?

- So you'll see our focus has changed a little bit.

Initially we were running mass vaccination sites 'cause there was a lot of demand and we needed to get people through quickly.

Now, we have reduced any inconveniences or barriers that people may have.

So you'll see us now more out in the community, and talking one-on-one with individuals to talk about any hesitancy that they may have, any fears, answer any questions.

And we're also working with private providers, because we know that our private providers are a trusted source of information for their patients.

So giving them the information that they need, in order to be able to answer their patients' questions and encourage them to get vaccinated.

- And that's all for now.

Thanks for joining us.

To get in touch, visit us on social media or send an email to arizona360@azpm.org.

And let us know what you think.

Arizona 360 is off next week, we'll see you again on June 4th.

(upbeat music)