Yeah. Anybody else? All right, raise your hand if you'd like to move her to the interview list. Two and one more. Tracy, who So, we just have three right now on the interview list. You do. So, I was impressed with that resume. um nine years at one place essentially five years at another place, one like two different positions within the same district and then the most recent district was nine years. Again, two different positions. Um but the current one being superintendent. Yeah. So he's got what three years of going on on two and a half or so years of experience as superintendent. He's also the only one who didn't actually list out on all the questions. He just said, "Yeah, just look at my resume." Everyone else actually listed out where that was asked. I mean, not a big deal, but does that say anything about you ask him a question and he's just going to tell you to look at his resume?
So, CAB is the Connecticut Association of Boards of Education. And each year they reach out to ask schools to nominate um students for one of the most prestigious awards that we give, the Cave Student Leadership Awards. We take this recognition extremely seriously and have very high standards for it. There's multiple rounds of voting within the staff um where they think through students um that show a willingness to take on challenges. They must show a concern for others and they have to show the ability to make the community around them a better place. Eleanor and Lucas certainly demonstrate those qualities and are very deserving of this one of Canton Middle Schools and Canton Public Schools highest honors. So, first congratulations to our Cave student leader, Eleanor Butler. And we save this also for the audit recipient Lucas Stemp. Great. Thank you. All right. And finally, I have both of our cast scholar leaders here tonight.
And that was put in letter form and it was sent to Missy and to Brett Leonard and Larry. Was it copied to anybody else? I mean those are the two key people but it was definitely definitely went to Brett. So capacity should not be an issue according to DCE for full electrification if the developer wants to go that way. I I just add that you know we have a good contact within DTE if you know questions like this arise that uh you know we can connect with. So if any developer has questions about capacity or whatever then um we have a good relationship with DTE um to address those concerns. Great. Um, all of you may note that I've been I've been sort of adding some of the notes from prior slides and things like that into the doc. Um, if uh what we might do is go back through some of those and and sort of discuss each of those.
Um, you know, what projects were you utilizing for this? Are the projects underway? And asking those types of questions. So, I think they're in the gathering information stage now. Although they should have that stuff because they approved it in June, but they're asking about like how how far along the projects are. I don't know if they asked anything else, but those are basically and the and the amount of money, which they know the amount, but they don't know how much we've already how much we've already spent because obviously they didn't refund us. It's just mindboggling to me how long it takes just to get a response. So, if the if if the education secretary, US Department of Education, uh, Miss McMahon, whatever her name is, if she she said she were to already review it on an individual basis, what, you know, can you at least tell us you reached out to her to see how it would affect these respective districts on here?
Yeah. And I would add to that point that uh, Mr. Yeets just made. If you put something out the bond referendum and it does not pass, you cannot you cannot pay for that out of your budget. So, that's another restriction. Right. So, so and just to elaborate on your question a little bit, $7 million this year helps gives us breathing room, helps us start to tackle projects. We know that if our tax levy were equal to our expenditures, our operational costs in 12 months would exceed our ability to generate revenues and we'd be at this place again year after year making budgetary cuts or budgetary reductions. So this board assigning or putting money into capital reserves almost becomes a necessity because it allows us to each year absorb some of those operational costs. It's no secret and the union would would nod their heads with me.
It's not a bad thing. It's not a good thing. Um, but I would say there may be some possibility. So, that would just be my my hope is that we can explore and maybe ask the question to Sylvia, you had a question. Well, I just wanted to comment that um you know, I agree that that we have a pretty good uh package, you know, for teachers and people that come in. Um I was just wondering because, you know, when years ago when IHS, the Don Austin um health center was IHS, actually you went over there, everything was free. how there's changes that are made within our system here on the reservation and when they come across that you know are you know I'm hoping that we provide all that information and you know what because I know now that you go there they ask you you know let me see your insurance card you know things like that so you know just ensuring that you know we're here for them you're there for them also and making sure that they're getting questions answered that they're not sure what's going on, you know.
They audited just the remaining amount of ESSER money that we had um which wasn't significant. Um and Title One is a pretty big audit. There's all kinds of um things that have to be done for Title One that are not just um monetary that are also programmatic. And the principles are shaking their head because we're going through a Ad Title One audit right now. All right. Uh so uh oh so we our USFR findings dropped from 16 to 14 this year. So that's great. Remember that's just a yes or no. Either it's right or it's not. Um and that's uh 16 out of 14. 16 and 14 is very low since there's 180 questions. All right.
So, I just I just want to point out that when you're talking about the increase for enterprise, the enterprise portion is saying that um nutrition services will pay the increase for their workers and community ed will pay the increase for their workers. Correct. That's correct. Out of out of the money that they receive. That's correct. That's correct. And then as part of this um kind of uh a little bit to your question too, Mr. Thompson, we as we did in the current year. Last year, you made a recommend we made a recommendation to you that we would like to award a what was it? Was it 3% increase last year? I can't even remember now. 2% or 3% last year. It was 2% 2% last year. And then if we were successful with the override though, that we would um go ahead and pay a stipend in December and January.
Um, and certainly to allow questions um if there's anything pertaining to a school district, we are happy to entertain that. Otherwise, you know, to the will county as well. So, um, I'm going to turn this over. So, will we have Alicia doing it? Alicia's not on this. I have the finance avatar now. Oh, the finance. Somebody said Alicia looks like somebody sitting in this room. It does. I I introduced them to Alicia. They said, "But does she talk? Does she talk like the one?" Do you talk like a No, she does not. This is good timing because they're coming out within the next 30 days, I think. Yes, sir. That's why he works to do this so fast. She's a wonderful asset to the business department. I don't want to put her on the spot. I think you have to realize this. You guys would like Come on.
All right, so as you can see, there goes the wrecking ball rolling around. Do we have a Bob or do they have a Bob now? Um, we no longer have a Bob. Aiden has switched to another ninja character. Okay. Basically, he's fish. Lazy Soul, Blue J, Exploded, Gavalon. Yep. All right. Okay. You think any of them in the future maybe could be called Baker? Uh, they could. Okay. I mean, they're always adding new characters. All right. Lifew weaver. See, there's lifew weaver again. Yep. Didn't show the scoreboard every once in a while. It just kind of is that automatic or uh I don't I mean when you die, it shows the scoreboard. Okay. For a second. And how many lives do we do does a person get? Just you keep coming back. Oh, you just re you re re uh kind of like Jamanji, but they only have three.
Well, I thought it's because he had his resume was uh very there was a lot of stuff on resume. again a lot of them had a lot of stuff. Did we Google Sorry, did we Google this one? I did. It was a very public Yeah, I did. That kind of seems timely given the conversation. Yeah. Oh, yeah. So, I don't know if that would be a wise decision. Could be. I I that seems given what I had read and the conversations in the last few days that seems like an odd choice. All right. Anybody else have anything to say? Would anyone I'm willing if if anyone feels strongly and wants to make another person, I'm willing to have him here is he would but Beth, he would be the one that you would be willing not somebody else. There was somebody else I definitely pick somebody, but I mean I don't want to do raise your hand if you want to move him forward.
I have Saraphina and Hugo join me up here, please. So, I'm pleased to have Saraphina Sri and Hugo EC uh up here as we talked about the Cass Scholar Leader Award. So, CASS is the Connecticut Association of Schools and each year they reach out to seek nominations for the Cass Scholar Leader Award. Another one of our most distinct and prestigious honors. Cast scholar Leader Award recognizes students who also like Cape have a positive impact on the school climate showcasing dependability and integrity. They also have to show the highest levels of academic achievement. So to be performing at the highest level uh academically in all classes and be giving back to their community and helping those around them uh these are certainly students who deserve to be recognized. multiple rounds of voting, passionate uh uh nominations from their teachers for their hard work and contributions to Cam Middle School throughout the middle school career.
But if if you're aware of things or have updates on those, please raise your hand um and uh or or just just speak up um and maybe we can revisit that. Yeah, Commissioner Burkowitz. Uh thanks Chair Harp. Um I'll just uh if like this is kind of a carryover from last month's uh energy commission meeting where we were discussing the carbon pollution impact fee. Um I had uh towards the end of the meeting volunteered to um potentially get some like external um review or analysis from coalition of legal groups that um you know might be able to weigh in here. It turns out the city of Ann Arbor and OSI are already in touch with those groups. So I just wanted to close that loop. Um and they are working with them and you know um have the latest intel and legal knowledge uh there as it stands.
They they can't even get our city correctly. They call Clifton a township. So, Mr. Bronziac, I don't I wouldn't try to make too much sense of it because you'll drive yourself crazy. Uh we're dealing with a government bureaucracy and it's unfortunate, but these decisions impact ultimately kids in our district, but you're you're right. Um I did see that that that statement came out from the US DOE, but nothing yet from the Department of Education. Thank you. Anyone else? Commissioner Kenova. Um, what do we currently have in our cap reserve budget in this? I'll I'll defer to a med. Mr. Kova, to be to be clear, are you asking capital reserve? Yeah. Uh, about $12 million. And and of that, what do la let's say let's take last uh fiscal year. Do what do we spend in that cap reserve? Like what are we generally spending?
48% of our certificated staff are on the top of our guide. So this gives us an opportunity to hopefully reach a point where we're going to see some of those we love those staff members. They're excellent teachers. But we also having these proceeds year after year after year. We might get to a point where some of those staff members start to retire and then we're the expectation is we're hiring staff to replace them lower on the guide realizing breakage within our budget. That wave of those teachers is going to reach retirement ages soon. This gives us an opportunity to absorb some of those operational costs each year moving forward because it increases our base. It permanently increases our base. Can I ask a question? One second, Mr. Fox. Um, Miss Bram, to your point about the $7 million, the idea here being like we're not deciding on a number today, right?
So, yeah, I just want to add that. No, thank you, Miss Silia. And again, I know this is I mean, over the past six years, I think that this has been something that's been I I will say routine and you know, again, I think I've raised the question, and I don't mean to to be difficult. I just really want to make sure that as a as a board we're we're we're advocating especially on behalf of our employees, but I understand especially that we have very special um some very good partnerships that I feel like I you know I I would never want to um call the question, but I think for the sake of making sure that you know those questions are asked and we get some responses and they're able to hear Um, I'm all for it. Um, I guess the other thing I I wonder and this is just kind of shooting and I know as as I'm going to say as chaotic as things can be at this point, I would also wonder if we have looked at any grants andor programs that might help to offset some of the costs for better coverage.
Are there any questions about the audit? All right. So, are there any questions about the audit? Are there any questions that it was presented properly so that we understand it? We're all good then. Okay. So, we have to have a roll call vote. We I'll call your name. You'll say yes for accepting it and no for not accepting it. Not ex viewing it, right? Accepting. Accepting. Okay. Michael Gil. Yes. Bridget Good. Sylvia Stibbons. Yes. Margaret Gobby. Yes. And a yes for me. David Murrell. Thank you. Thank you. We appreciate the work you do and we're scared to death that you're going to leave, but we have confidence. We have confidence in the new employ the new hire. And I'll help her. Okay.
So, we were able to do that that stipend in December and January. So, comparable to that, if we can beat that, 1300 um ADM loss, if we only have a,000 or even less than that of loss, then we would like to recommend to you today that that we that you award a 1% pay increase on January 1st. It would wouldn't be retro. We would just start it January 1st, but of course, it would be ongoing then because it's a pay increase. And um so then the it would result in a two and a half percent pay increase for next year overall. So and just note that all these values include all the payroll benefits to include social security, Arizona State Retirement, etc. And then um and then on the on the gifted and ELLTE, it all also includes their medical benefit increase as well.
Come on. Thank you very much again. the second presentation as Dr. K alluded to uh pertains to understanding tax bills. So u before we get started I'd like to share some common terms with you that are mentioned when discussing tax bills. First one being equalized assessed value. The rest of the presentation I'll be referring to that as EA that's the property assessed value multiplied by a state certified equalization factor. Exemptions uh exemptions are reductions in the assessed value that lower your tax bill. Some common homeowners exe common exemptions are your general homeowner homestead exemption, my apologies, commonly referred to as your homeowners exemption. The senior citizen exemption, which also includes a freeze at times. Um, say that say that again. It also what includes a what? Includes a freeze at times. At times I'd have to Right. It it's predicated the freeze is predicated on income.
Okay, we got more than three. Yeah. Have you ever seen Jamanji? I have not. Okay. The rock is in. Yeah. He's in everything, though. Well, I I was going to get the part, but again, I don't want to talk. I don't want to talk about. So, we we've got it moved up a little bit here. We're after initially getting wiped out, we came back here and because we got to get to that first checkpoint. Yeah. We got to get up to that checkpoint. And we got uh say two minutes. Two and a half minutes. Yeah. We got to get a bunch of checkpoints. You notice every once in a while the time uh freezes. Is that right? Or am I just Well, it only freezes. Not until you get to the overtime. Okay. part. Okay. So, they got to get and that's to get all the way to the end.