I mean, we >> like a puke green. >> We could try it and see if the >> That is honestly the most expensive part is obviously bringing the lifts in, protecting the floor again, getting up in there, you know. So, that was, you know, it was um the panels for the walls. They were they were I think they were calling for 70 of them. um you know with that and the install it was you know somewhere between that like 35 and $40,000 mark but you were talking way more money to bring a big probably articulating you know boom lift that you could maybe kind of put in the middle and be able to reach around you know what I mean um and then there was a question of you know go back to my my previous position and they talked about the sound company said well yeah they just screw straight to the deck and I'm like I don't like screwing straight to the deck because then I'm man, it's a whole lot of penetrations on a deck, you know, and ideally, as long as your roof's good, you shouldn't have leaks, but it's still penetrations on a deck, you know, shaking his head.
Um I I've also been a part of the um the hiring committee for uh department head when our department when our previous department head stepped down and we were in need of a new one. So going through that process of applications and interviews and sample lessons and questions. So I I have a fair amount of experience when it comes to that as well. Um I care right I care about students. I care about the district right. Um, I have a tendency to if I see that there's a need, I'm going to naturally want to come in and find a way to help. Um, like for example, this fall I was very much involved in the the library at BES trying to get in this huge backlog of books so that way students had greater access to um a wider variety of highinterest materials to them.
delivery next. >> Okay. And the the third thing is >> another another key thing is identifying students or or anyone for that matter that may have a propensity to be unsafe and what do we do about that? And I I mean I'm just throwing that out there, but it just can't be your two sets of eyes. It has to be everybody's and people have to not just say okay person's having a bad day. Repetitive stuff is a flag that flies high. So that's all I want to say. >> Thank you Mr. Lily. So um this year next I want to say this year we have as one of our initiative and part of that initiative was going to the conference that we have brought our crisis team together several times this year to look at uh our security in uh many facets of the school and uh to take a look at what are we doing good and what are we doing not so good and uh it's not as as uh Chad said and uh Brendan said that, you know, all the tools in the world are are not effective if the people using them aren't following the protocols and procedures.
20. When you look at athletics, educational technology, facilities and maintenance, tech services, professional development, travelers and meetings, that is a 089%. And then personnel move from grants as we discussed because we were losing money from our open choice in retirement savings, which we'll talk about, and personnel transferred from the town. That's 0.25. And then our small capital is 0.22. So all that is 5.92. When you take all those numbers and you add them up, it's 5.92. So when you compare the operational budget from 26 to where we are now, it's a 5.92. What's a little bit different and this is why I say we have two numbers is within our audit report two and a half years ago we received bonus money from the state for education cost share which is revenue to the town. So two and a half years ago we took the bonus money that came in and we put that right into offset the education budget at that time.
This uh next slide shows you one of the metrics that we use uh to measure academic achievement which is performance on the smarter balanced assessment which is part of the California assessment for student performance and progress also referred to as CASP. Um and here you see this table reflects uh the percentage of students meeting or exceeding standards uh for third through 8th grade and 11th grade in the content areas of English language arts, math and science. Uh based on these results, we do see uh that there's a gap in performance for our subgroups. Uh so we'll continue to look at data and analyze data to determine next steps. Um and we also identified that there is a need for us to strengthen math instruction across all grade levels. Uh during our um April study session, we'll be able to take a more comprehensive look at these results uh by specific um schools as well as by um subgroups.
So um I'm just going to move forward. Let's get right into it. Uh this is what it'll cost uh to replace everything across the district technology wise from the employee computers uh to projectors to the um to servers and the network switches that are needed and the battery backup as well. So um and the surveillance cameras that is an estimation from two different vendors that say that it's going to be in the 1.8 to uh 2.5 range for us. So about 4.3 for technology al together. So that's all I have tonight. Thank you. >> So thank you everybody for presenting. I know we have a lot of >> I just have one question we can probably get fit in real quick. Um override and bond. What can we spend in override monies and what can we spend in bond monies? >> So the three things we presented tonight are the three things that are beyond the age of failing for the bond.
>> Right. >> And that's going to be an expense we're going to have what every year Joe >> but that's where we're soliciting grant funds. Right. Right. >> So that it doesn't come out of district funding. So the court grant is for the renewal of um Chromebooks coming in for >> Yes. This last one was $22,000 worth Chromebooks. >> So like I mentioned to staff, it's like a shell game. And where are our funds, our pockets of funds that we can kind of be creative with in order to free up funding for capital expenses so that then we can truly carry forward the 3% that the auditor general expect us to to carry forward. So at the end of the day, the ESA money is it called that ESA money is current. >> Look at it like look at it like this. When they came out with the ESA program, they expected to spend what was it?
And then if it's not there, one email and Peter in 10 minutes will get it to us. So it's pretty impressive. Are there any takeaways from that that you want to share tonight or do we want to that that you see from from our different programs from a traditional from uh accelerated from >> so I will share early on with the acceleration adoption um or implementation we saw significant gains in growth num growth measures at the accelerated campuses. Um we're now starting to see some differences between the accelerated campuses. So now diving in to see implementation wise what's happening in certain locations um we'll have a campus like Neely which is full traditional where we won't see as much growth but the proficiencies through the roof right so how do we dig in and focus on growth and what support do we need there um so each campus to your point I think has a little bit of its own story are we seeing trends of course and are those being you know addressed in both positive ways we need to replicate some things in some other areas where it's working and we need to be able to spread that.
It's truly we sample these transactions. If we found an error, we're required to answer no on the questionnaire and report that to the Arizona Auditor General. Now, what the Arizona Auditor General does with that is up to their discretion and uh if they were to uh use that uh to ask further questions of the district, that's their prerogative. >> Did that answer your question? >> Um yes. And then when you say reasonable assurance uh what are the specific limitations uh that would remain for the governing board to be aware of? >> Well, when we say reasonable assurance that's uh common thing used in accounting terms. Uh we uh we do uh a detailed audit of the district's financial statements uh and are confident in our unmodified audit opinion. However, we cannot provide 100% complete assurance on it. So that's it's just uh the technical requirements.
Hollyfield and his team, his administrative team, choose the date, choose the location. Okay. >> Uh and so we will do that again this year. >> Okay. And and again, apparently nothing we can do, but that just came up. I just thought about it. >> Yes. that I've seen kids they running I mean barely soon as their name is called they running putting their gown on with their track uniform on racing here from down state and I'm like wow what happened here maybe it's one or two kids I don't know but >> well while we may not be able to do anything but now that I know that the dates are published four years in advance that is certainly something that I can give to the committee Um, and then like uh Dr. Hall was saying, because it typically happens on the weekend, we can make sure that graduation date is, you know, kind of in that middle of the week like we normally do.
And so then we said, well, you could unistrut them across all the rafters and put them. But then now you're much more labor intensive and and you know, yes, cost, but um a lot more labor intensive to unistrut it across and unistruts are just the bars that you just go rafter to rafter and then, you know, bolt them onto those things. So um but you know, the the ones they have white. They were meant to stay white. You know, you put them up there, they kind of disappear. But they also talked about you could do the curtain thing and kind of ruins the concept of having the open ceiling, right? If you put the the giant curtains in there, I feel like it feels like auditoriumish, not gym, you know? And so again, I just thought if I can get all those folks together, um, so maybe next week if we can look at calendars to set a March work session so I can try to give them some notice to when I can get everybody here just so they can each share kind of their different specialty, you know what I mean?
Um, last year I was a part of the BDS school council month meetings. Um, I attend, you know, as many other meetings as I can. I've attended virtual finance committee meetings just to see what that was about, especially last year where the the um the budget was such a big the budget and getting everything under control was such a big um topic and an important one. Um, I I care about the district obviously. I care about Boilston, but I'm also fully aware of Berlin being a part and wanting that to be a part of it and the the idea of everybody working together and you know when we had the superintendent um meetings for what was the community interested in and I missed the one at Boilston. So I went to the one at Berlin and I was able to interact with parents there and some of them I already know from daycare that my students and my child attended prior to entering kindergarten.
And to be honest with you, in all our meetings, we have had a lot of discussions about how do we get staff to follow protocols and procedures? That's more important than any tools or equipment we have. How do we get them to understand the critical importance of following those protocols and procedures? And uh and that's a challenge because we get very lax about, you know, the dayto-day and nothing happens. But it's every day we got to be uh persistent and uh dedicated to doing it the way it's supposed to be done. And the only one of the ways to make that happen is for our leadership team to hold the staff accountable. That's the first thing we question ourselves. We look and say how can we as a leadership team not in a punitive way but in a motivating way and in a way to change the culture of what we do.
So, at that time it was roughly over $300,000. Now we're at $258,000. Through the audit report, it stated that they did not want us to do that anymore. They did not want us to take the revenue from the education cost share to offset the board of education budget revenue. They wanted that $258,000 to go directly to the town. So, what I'm here to share is that the $258,000 that was in our budget, it's going to have to go to revenue into the town, but it increases our budget. Does not increase the town budget at all. So, when the board of finance, and I explained this to the board of finance, and I explained this to our finance committee this morning, when the board of finance goes to put the entire budget together and they look at the board of education budget, the board of selectman budget, the board of finance budget, and then they look at the um mill rate and the the taxes that are coming in.
Another metric uh that we use to measure academic achievement is measuring third grade reading proficiency since we see that as a critical uh milestone as we transition from learning to read to reading to learn. Uh so currently 36% of our third graders and 35% of our fourth graders are um on or above grade level according to our I Ready diagnostic assessment which we uh gave to students in December. Um and this is midyear data. So we'll be able to update this data when they take the third diagnostic uh that which is administered in the spring. We are also tracking um how students are doing as ninth graders and who are on track to graduate uh by measuring the A through C rate. So what we're looking at is we're looking at of the grades that are given to ninth graders, how many of what percentage of those grades are A's, B's, and C's?
So all those three components, facilities, transportation, and technology infrastructure would all be bond issues. The override um going back would be to continue full day kindergarten, give our staff raises, keep the class sizes at a decent amount, continue to offer elective and honors classes. So those are all the salary components would be the override using bond monies. We don't have to use so much of our own personal money for maintenance and operations. So that money can go into the classroom into teachers into those programs into those classes and stuff like that if by passing the bond. >> Yes. So the bond money directly goes into the capital items. But if we're more efficient and have more efficient facilities, you're absolutely right. Our maintenance and operation money that we've been using to fix these things and keep them going. If we have newer, more efficient facilities, we don't have to spend as much maintenance and operations money to keep those working so we can yeah keep them in the M budget for all those other components.
$600 million on it. >> And now and they were overbudget by twice of what they actually budgeted. >> They came in. >> Because home school has been around forever. Yes. >> But now you start the money that private school charter schools >> and also look at it like that's $1.2 billion that didn't build the public education. >> But they didn't really cut. We just got cut in pension. >> Yes. Will there be more emphasis on managing and controlling and and auditing how that ESA money is spent by the individuals because right now my understanding is there's nothing >> I know that there has been a crackdown within ESA's expenditures. Um you know with all the fraud cases that were going on in Minnesota and everything else they were looking at ESA expenditures. You know, they found a family had taken their ASA money and used it for a vacation trip to Hawaii so they could learn about volcanoes.
But um certainly happy to sit down and go through detail at any point in time that any of you would like to to sit and really go through and see the work that we're doing on the back side based on what we're what we're discovering through any of those implementation processes. >> Great. Thank you so much. And again, congratulations. >> I had another question for the I think for the fifth grade. showed that there's a 10% uh jump from 2024 to 2026. My question is how do we track um you know that fifth grade class at 57% um which is you know now in seventh grade. How do you fill in those gaps? Because there's you know the 2026 um passing percentage is 10% more. So how do you um support those students so that they because there's maybe additional strategies that was provided later on?
We're only allowed to provide a reasonable assurance on the financial statements. >> Thank you. And then one more question. Um were any of the USFR areas that you reviewed directly tied to governing board procedures or statutory duties? Uh, thank you for the question. Uh, I am actually looking at that section of the questionnaire right now and no, none of those were answered. No. >> Perfect. All right. Thank you so much. >> Thank you. >> You have something to say. Go ahead. M. >> Since you're here, President Le, let me just ask. So the whole purpose of this I can imagine is just to establish district's health to see how it's running to see if it's accommodating and kind of rolling with its budget within its means and then also that we're utilizing the appropriate accounts right that is kind of the whole purpose of this right >> that is one of the main purposes of the questionnaire a lot of uh the questions are geared towards the accounting specific in in terms of the funding sources and the specific uh restrictions that a lot of the funds that the district has and the restrictions in terms of how you are allowed to spend those monies.
>> Like this year is May 28th through the 30th. >> It's a Thursday. We graduate on the 28th. >> Yeah. Every year. >> Every year. >> So our graduation is on May 28th. >> So our graduation is May 28th. And and maybe again, we don't have to solve it now, but maybe on that date that if we know the kids that's participating, we can put their names at the end or something that they can because kids have missed it. Again, names being called. Again, I don't know the answer, but I just out of fairness, I think all kids, seniors should have the opportunity if they meet the qualifications and requirements should have the opportunity if they so choose to march across the stage and get their diploma. >> So, next next 26 27, it's May 27th through the 29th. 27 28 is May 25th through the 27th.