Um that then means that and as I I think I mentioned before um I plan to be back with you in May so that we can actually lay out what the timeline will be. Um by then the district will have set um things like the the dates for back to school and so forth. We'll be starting right off with um staffing and so forth. So when I was with you on March 11th um you approved the posting for the interim superintendent position. Applications for that position closed on Friday. um and I shared with them with you over the weekend. Those are public. Um for any of you who've wondered why it says redacted, that's simply because we don't share um email addresses and telephone numbers of both the applicants and also those who um have submitted recommendations. That's the only thing I assure you that has been redacted from the applications.
We had a a few things that I just want to highlight that last week we had the Cherry Brook Primary School grade three performance and that was a a wonderful event. We had uh the um last week on Friday night and I don't know if anyone was able to attend. It's one of the events that I think the community should get involved in. It is the Canton's Got Talent and that was Friday night and it was Oh, Juliana was the the host, the MC. And what a great night that that was. There was talent from kindergarten all the way up to high school children. And the the kindergarten kids, they they definitely I don't think anybody will mind me saying this, they definitely stole the show. Uh ranging from singing a song to an alphabet uh type of a skit and then um a poem uh that that was written.
So I just wanted to uh to you know let people be aware of that and happy to provide that list of incentives uh if anybody is interested. I I can just make a a quick note which is that the the framework that uh Commissioner Burkwitz and I had assembled try I think tried to incorporate those incentives as well into into that and in some cases we folded them in and and and um and tried to to pull those and and Okay, good. Good. Yeah, I I noticed that there was a lot of overlap and I was wondering Yeah. So, I appreciate that. Thanks. Thanks a lot, Gabriel. Yeah, Commissioner Merski. Thanks. I I just wanted to uh make everybody else aware of the fact that um I had proposed since this was a working session to include um Larry as well as Jan Culbertson. Um there was some banter before the meeting officially started about the two of them.
Let me read to you some of the needs. These are needs that come from the day-to-day challenges that my team experiences that my staff experience. This is what we said no to. Additional paraprofessionals, three ABA autism teachers. Not because we just want three ABA autism teachers, because we need three ABA autism teachers, two middle school inclusion teachers, speech language specialists, a BCBA, a new child study team that's bilingual to address the growing number of MLS who come to this country maybe not speaking English and we don't know if they're not learning because they have an English uh lack of proficiency or they have a disability. Secretary Schools don't run with those without those. District doesn't run without those. Two preschool preschool disabled teachers. Three inclusion elementary teachers. Two instructional coaches, a an ESL teacher at the high school, an ESL teacher at the middle school, basic skills math, a new instrumental music teacher, two media technology specialists, one at the middle school, one at the elementary.
Can I add about the the state updated their ed uh education adequacy report? They do that every three years and they did that recently. So they hadn't been updating the numbers per student over time and now they have adjusted for inflation and other things. So now the actual number that the state says it should cost to, you know, educate one student jumped up and now we're below adequacy. That's how that all happened. Where prior they said we were operating above adequacy cuz those numbers were not being updated. Now we're below adequacy, but we're not getting any more money from the state. So due to their own recalculation, we are now below adequacy where we should have been above all along had they updated in kind and now they're leaving it to us. Okay. The numbers are updated every three years and they were just updated.
You're currently at an 87.4% medical loss ratio. That's the difference between the premiums and the claims that are paid. This exact time last year, you were at 140%. So, we can see that the claims are coming downward and trending downward based on the renewal. the majority of your coming out of 52% of the classic silver plan. So the claims your high claimments. So we track high claimments anything above $25,000. So this year there's only two high claimments um just under 30% of your total large claimments paid. This time last year we were at seven high claimments with a total of 55% of your total claims paid claims. So um really good things are trending downwards. So moving into our executive summary, our medical renewal with ASBAT for the calendar year of 2026 is a renewal increase of 4.7%. Which um is below trend. We're seeing trend anywhere from 8 to 12%.
Um you can see that on here we are very low in we're low in administration, very low in plant operations. We're comparable in food service. Okay. So on this one, there was a clerical error when we submitted a transportation report. We did not realize the clerical error until I saw this and I'm like that's not right. So we have um submitted the correct numbers. We have done everything that we need to at Arizona Department of Education to correct it. We are actually in the comparable now. But this report once they issue the report it does not change. You can correct your information but they won't change the report. So I just wanted you to be aware of that. So it's completely fixed. Um and uh it was just a clerical error with an Excel spreadsheet. Uh all right. So then this is another um just kind of comparison of our years um overall.
Like if if I was measuring my height in inches and somebody else was using centimeters or something and we compared them, somebody might look a lot taller even if they were the same. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Because then you're looking at just numbers, right? That's true. That's true. Anyway, that's all I wanted to share. Are there any other questions? I have like a side question. Sure. Um which I know we're statutoily required to have the average teacher salary on a website. Which one do we have to post on that website? we are required to report it on our budget and then we have been very consistent. So generally we estimate what our average teacher salary will be on the proposed and the adapted budget and then when we do the first revision we use the October data because that's when the school district employee report is due.
Most people will come in here, maybe they don't come to see you, but when they get their tax bill, there's at least a half. No, I I get I get that because they're referencing you get the most. No, I I get that. So, what I'm what I was looking at was another comparing it to another district that I looked at and I did not and I spoke before I looked at our district to see how much. So I I can't bill, correct me if wrong, two years ago, I think they gave a re they gave an amount back because they had a surplus. I'm telling you, that's an audit. No, and I get I get that because it was during co and they got their transportation money from the year before and they didn't have to spend any on transport. And one of the other biggest things is we are a tiffheavy district, right?
Yep. Absolutely. And is there usually one person in charge of the team who does most of the instruction? Um, in the past there was. I don't With this team again, last year state, you know, championship team, we've got all new guys this year. So, um, yeah, they they're definitely some leaders in that group, but um, Yeah, I'm not sure. I think they take turns calling things out or So, right now teams are fighting for same same idea. You got to get control of the point. I saw a little cruise ship out there. Yeah. Yeah. That'd be a little nice cuz we're in Greece, right? Uh the f Yeah. Yeah. So, this is got some old ruins here. And Yeah. Old ruins but a cruise ship. Yeah. So, Norwell has control of the point here at the moment. They're coming after our healers, which is a good job that they're doing.
Um obviously we will share those with the school committee should individual school should the school committee decide to assign um pursuing the recommendations um individually. You have 11 applicants, seven are current superintendent. Um you have set um as your date for interviews next Tuesday. Um and thus before you this evening you have two decisions and let me know you're making both of these decisions in public session. Um because you're not using a screening committee. You have to you are required by uh state law to make your decision about superintendency and also about interview questions both in public session. Um the first decision will be who you interview next Tuesday. Um and then the second question will be what interview questions you ask. Um I did pass around to you the questions that were submitted to Lori and I want to apologize Jessica to you. I had already unfortunately run things off.
And then some of the things that we had relative to our high school students with the the musical performances ranging from a a rock band to individuals singing was just amazing and then the CIS kids that were singing and the middle school kids. It was a lot of singing that night actually and poetry which was different than last year. So I would invite everyone. And I'm assuming that's going to be a tradition in the the town to attend that event. We just have so many talented kids and staff members, especially one staff member the other day was pretty uh talented, I believe, at that event. The the last thing that I want to remind the community is that I know our students and our staff are looking forward to our break next week that um we go on break starting at Friday when Cherry Brook gets out and we have all next week and then we'll come back and then it's really a quick next uh month and a half, April, May and basically a little bit of June.
Um so like Larry said, he's uh dialing from out of state. Jan hopefully will um uh join later. But uh with this being a working session and both of them having a lot of experience, Larry leading this Wolfpack um effort and Jan u leading the uh the Washington County 2030 district. I'm hoping that that she can join. Um it's while I'm speaking um it's my understanding that it's not clear that the uh residential code is going to be the 2021 code or the 2024 code. It my understanding that that's still um up for uh discussion and debate um by JCAR. So um maybe somebody else has better information, but maybe Jan can comment on that later. Um so that's all from my side. Thanks. I can speak to that, John. Um Commissioner Murky. Um there are uh three session three joint session days between the Michigan House and Senate left before um those uh the residential codes leave JCAR and start going through the final approval process.
We said no to two reading specialists. We said no to um an assistant principal. We said no to interns. We said no to additional maintenance staff. So when we came here and said, it's my fault. We came here and said we need 2% to maintain current operations. But we didn't tell you that we also need all these other things. we said no to because we wanted to give you something that you could say yes to. Give you something that will allow us to keep making the progress that we're making while also while also keeping the taxpayers in mind. And then remember I got frustrated last month because I said, "Guys, it's March 13th. We don't know what's going to happen between now and May 1st. We don't know. So, you vote tonight. You're just voting to give us permission to send this budget to the county.
I I I would go back to uh in terms of what we can access and look at. It's all publicly available, but that 15 million number and that 16 million number are almost identical. And if you go into that taxpayer guide, you can see exactly how woefully inadequate our budget is. However it got there, however it got to that point, and we can and that is of concern and interest, right? Also though, is what do we do now? Right? because where we are is where we are and tonight is about where we want to go. And that's Dr. Smith, I I I totally understand. You know, you're trying to keep us on the track of the conversation. It's just I'm I'm pushing back on the idea of of what this adequacy is, right? Because to me, they pulled this $15 million number pie in the sky, right?
So, it does take in account that the plan is trending downwards. We're going to see deductible and co-pay changes on all the plans that are offered this year. Um, that is something that I'll note later, but ASBET, this is the first time in a decade, over 10 years that ASBY has made any plan changes. There are some emerging new trusts that are coming up into the marketplace. CBIS has gone out and requested proposals for the district on these new trust. However, due to past high claimments at this time, there was no competitive data from those other trusts. So, we are going to continue to monitor, meet with these trusts to see what availability that they may have a potential fit for the district in the near future. Just some of the trust, the ASBET, which is your current carrier that's um established, they partner with the Banner Etna network.
And you can see that we have increased our student spending at the bottom line. We've increased our student spending $1,600ish dollars. And you can see in all those uh all those little different categories. All right. So, uh you can So, because I know that um people on the mountain want to know about other schools on the mountain, I've just added um Xolo and Snowflake here so that you can kind of have an idea of where they're at with their classroom spending. And you can see that of the school districts um on the mountain and above the state average, we are spending more in the classroom than our our mountain friends and in the state overall. All right. Uh per pupil non uh non-operational spending. So that's our land, buildings, equipment, and other stuff. Um you can see uh Xolo's number is huge. I'm not sure why and call them or research it, but their number is huge.
So that's a point in time that we believe our staffing is um is accurate on an FTE basis and then we pull and calculate the average teacher salary and then we keep that the same for all the budget revisions and then also report that on the AFR. So that's what what's required to be put on our website. So this is obviously published you know the auditor general is publishing it the um but we we are not required to use that average teacher salary. All right. Thank you. Okay. Yeah, you bet. So on our website, we can post We don't have to post the DSR. The DSR is available because available for people that want to go to the state, right, look at it, but on our website, if we post it, we can post the AFR. Right. Right. That's what the obligation was. Yep. The other thing I wanted to point out, remember that the data is coming from the annual financial report.
Neighborville and places like that are not tiff heavy. They have businesses paying it to the district. I just for a clarification if that teacher felt strongly about our athletic programs and wanted them here move into the district. Well, one, could they move into the district? Is there what is that a barrier? But two, could they pay the out of out of district tuition like we suggested for some of those parents that No, they can't. That's not been a practice for us. No. Okay. Well, then that's or I was just looking if like they wanted to foot the the bill. That would be something different. I know those families, few of those families offered to do that, right? I just wanted to Yeah. So, is it doesn't sound like I guess we have it up for a vote next week, but I'm not sure there's the support for it.
We kind of talked about a little bit earlier. Instead of just attacking our high the guys with high hit points like our tanks and stuff like that, they went right to our healers. And the two people that got killed right off the bat was Blue Jay and Fish, which were our two healers. So, sounds like the kids are pretty excited over there. I can hear hear some yelling and cheering over there. All right. Do you think it's about my jokes? They want I I do think I think they want more. They want more jokes. Well, I you know, I just happen to have a few. But anyway, before that, Scott, have you played this game? I've played it a good amount. I'm terrible at it, but Yeah. Yeah. A couple of kids. Do they do they play this? They do not play this. There some other games, other Okay.