they're capable of making decisions looking at it and asking better questions when you have better data. >> Yeah. Uh I mean my my own philosophy is and I think it would make the clerk's office uh run far less uh what do you call it a staffwise. would be easier for them if all this information that people keep asking for that every other town has in their public reports if it could be online I think it would drastically reduce the time that people spend >> I mean that's that's a good point and they recently talked about charging but maybe you have like what's in the reports you guide people there and if they keep asking for something report then maybe you charge them you said you didn't look at the report right so you could actually save money and time, I think. Yeah. And and have people really be able to have a way to be more invested in understanding what's going on.
In addition to all their team success, we had multiple members of the program receive individual honors with Ryan Miller receiving the SEC player of the year and SEC athlete of the year and then head coach Anthony Gusto was recognized as the SEC coach of the year. So, a big congratulations to the boys for for a really terrific season. But as as our winter sports close, our spring sports are ramping up. pitchers and catchers reported on Sunday for both baseball and softball. And then on the 21st, all of our other sports programs will begin their seasons. Uh like the middle school representatives, I'd like to mention the number of students we've had participating in sports this year. As of spring sports signups closing, 914 Cheshire High School students were signed up to play a sport, which makes up almost 75% of our student body. And as someone who was a part of Cheshure High School sports, I think this can kind of speak to the testament of not only the success that we have on the field, but the communities that these sports teams create as well.
Uh we've had a really rough winter obviously and that has taken a toll on our equipment. Um, and our snow removal is done in-house, but it is also done um through a contractor. We use both. Um, let me just see that. I think that's Kevin, so I'm just going to grab him. There we go. I can also give you this share. >> Um, and you'll see on the back page there's um the facility services garage, some code compliance issues that are outlined. more extensively in the larger document and then Barnum the same thing with Norton having the storage building and the power equipment. Um those are new projects in plan year one. The sizable uh projects is the turf and field replacement which is about threequarters of the way down the first page. I have put in $1.5 million. We're going to be talking to Kevin at SLR today but that is the number I put as a placeholder.
Um, taking out these walls was really about just replacing uh flooring and then of course you have to replace the ceiling uh as well because that all comes down and and um and the lighting and then you have to do a very very minimal amount of HVAC um because you're not making it smaller where everything needs a supply and a return. You're making it bigger where now there's four or five different supply and returns in there. So really you're just uh uh you know making sure that the air is balanced within that space. you don't have to add a whole lot of HVAC and duct. So, uh we're very excited. Um this is going to be starting uh very shortly. Like I said, we're just waiting on um the zoning variance which is in progress. The total cost is about $255,000. Um construction is going to be March through June of 2026.
Um, E is to approve payment of the bills, which I think you all got lucky because I think Matt and Scott tag team that and got all the bills signed before everyone got here. >> Um, so yeah, so that's all done. >> Um, F is to approve our source for teachers listing for the month of February. The pay rates and the bill rates are listed accordingly on the agenda. G is to approve the um, cafeteria dispersements for the month of February, which we had none. Um H is to approve the care dispersements for the month of February in the amount of $22,720.76. I is to approve some travel and professional development for some of our staff members. J is to approve our tenative budget for um 2627. Um you'll see the the general fund, the special revenue. Special revenue is our grants. um general fund is is all of our in-house or special revenue is um ESA, IDA, Title One, all of those.
And then and then we allocate money towards schools. 416,000. That would be what you could consider our discretionary spend. We are also required to deposit that interest to capital reserve. So again, that's a one for one offset. $1,300 on the revenue side, $1,300 on the expenditure side. And then same thing with our capital reserve. The withdrawal from capital reserve matches the projects that we have budgeted for cap uh capital reserve 1 million23,000. All right. So the reality for us though is the goal is to produce a balanced budget. The reality for us every year and every year for the foreseeable future is that we will start with our expenditures outpacing our revenues. Our expenses increase at a rate greater than our ability to generate revenues every single year. If you'll see this presentation will be on the board agenda that January where it says MBR that's our midyear budget report that I presented to the board in January.
Um, good evening Dr. Nolting and members of the board. Thank you for letting us be here. And um I just want to add a couple of notes that this is a record-breaking year for Stag. This is the first time we've sent nine students in one in one year. >> Two of these students returned for a second time and for the first time and as as far as I know. Uh Katon Kasin, one of the seniors is back for his third year in a row. He's the only senior who's ever done that. So congratulations to these two here, Alexi Fonelan and Caroline Shifa and the other seven as well. So great job. Thank you for mentioning tonight's contest play. And then um the other two uh students are also at the Youth Symphony of DuPage in case anyone was wondering. Um and then also another one is currently traveling in Barcelona, I think.
In your packet, I shared a little bit of prorating the days since she's transitioning from the PAR position into this position, which will be 195day position moving forward. Um, we're going to do a little bit of proration for finish out the current school year. She'll do her summer help and then next year it'll start off as 195 days and we have it worked out to where her summer help work will be included in those 195 days next year. So you have that information in your packet. So again, if you want to do those as one motion, you are welcome to do that. And then they would be listed separately. >> We can do both, >> but we can we can do them together or we can do however you guys would like to do those. >> Seems like that. Are you guys okay with that?
They also organized a food drive on Halloween, October 31st, and they collected over 300 cans for the Johnson County Inner Church food pantry, which is awesome. Um, and then if you could see what they do within our school, they are the cheerleaders for our teachers. They are always thinking of fun and exciting ways to make them feel seen, whether that's breakfast or they came up with these snaggle boxes this year where teachers could go and decorate their little snack boxes. And if you haven't heard the snaggle boxes, it's the whole thing. And then put their treats in it. And that's just an one of the many ways they send notes to teachers. They just really help make sure that our teachers are seen and felt. And we appreciate their hard work and dedication. And finally, not only do they focus on the student body, but they also give time back to their own group by developing leadership skills so that what they have done can be reproduced by the years that are younger than them.
>> And as I recall, Bill, when this came up a few years ago, this was one of the >> one of the roadblocks we ran into. >> The the workman's comp thing. >> Yeah. >> Yep. >> We'll figure that out. >> Yeah. We we've reached out. >> You're testing You're testing my memory. >> I told you I barely remember where I parked my car, Scott. So, um, trying to remember that far back is a stretch. >> Yeah, >> we got a message that the streaming is garbled right now. I don't know if there's any technolog I don't know. Ask the tech guy. >> I got I got one too that the computer didn't work on their laptop or whatever, but it worked. >> This is the same >> camera. Well, I I texted back Is it better? >> And guys, I I'm I'm actually participating on both my phone and my laptop at the hotel, so I'm I'm not having any issues.
>> Yeah. And if look, if you want an engaged uh citizenry, then they need information because how can we interact with nothing, you know, just like the absence of anything? I don't even a vacuum. We're supposed to we're supposed to we've been given the power to legislate, but we don't have the we don't have basic information to even know what we're legislating. Um All right. So, uh All right. We are we we have these action items, too. I think that that should be looked into about the report. >> I think so. That's a simple >> If they're done, fine. List them on the website. >> Put them in the library. >> Yeah. If they're not, where are they? >> Um, and the economic development revenue form is also supposed to have a a required report. Um, and I've tried for a long time to get it and it's required and again, you know, it's it's crazy.
So yesterday, Pure Health was at it again. We hosted our annual unified basketball tournament. Uh I had the opportunity to attend and you know, it really is a special event because it it gives you some perspective into kind of how good it is to just be around people who are always happy. I think one of my favorite things from being there yesterday is almost all the unified athletes. I don't think I saw any of them frown once. They're all so happy and I think with everything that's going on, it's a great great reminder for us to kind of just take a second, smile, and appreciate what we have around us. Anyway, going forward, Chesher High School has a lot of exciting things happening. We have our Spilled Ink, our literary magazine. They'll be hosting their gallery walk on March 25th. It's a great opportunity for I think our our students to see what their peers are doing in the art and literature realm.
Um, and then there's also the south parking lot loading dock. We have an updated figure for 874,000 up from 800,000 last year. That also failed at referendum. So um and then some other things are some stage renovations um at Dodd and Dittle um since those campuses aren't really seeing other upgrades. Um and then I would say that those are those are pretty big projects. So that is plan one, plan year one. Um, we have our comprehensive plan, we have our EPC. Um, I don't think that we're going to get to a place where we've confirmed where all of these where the entire outlay is for the next five years, but just wanted to kind of provide these documents with the hope that we can have Kevin talk to us about the turf. Um, and then we'll probably have another meeting uh next month to start to um make any shifts that we want to for the capital.
And uh we're hoping everybody will move in uh July and August. We're going to be ordering some new desks and furniture and everything just to make it uh make it feel like a really new whole new building. and uh we'll be vacating the space uh that they're currently using on Crosby Street. So that's the big the the big uh thing that happen is happening right now.
Um as well as the preschool expansion grant is under there as well. Um debt service is I think we only have three more years of our debt service payment. So, um that's kind of nice. Um if you all remember me saying initially when I created the budget, we were about $2.2 million in a deficit. um healthc care increases really hit us hard. Initially the initial proposal was for 19% um for a health was a 30% increase for prescription costs and we put in about a 6% um for for dental. Um our brokers kind of went back and forth. We're going to kind of explore another option for prescription that falls under our health care. Um, so we ended up at 16 for health, 10 for prescription, and zero for dental because we're going into a two-year um, contract. That being said, that still landed me that only took about $270,000 off of um, that $2.2 million um, deficit.
I go in depth in some of these categories these major categories of expenditures that are drive putting pressure on our budget driving up costs and also decreasing our ability to produce a balanced budget. Please go and uh watch that presentation um for some more details on the pressures on our expenditure side. Here we go. Where does our tax dollar go in efam? So, we took a dollar, we broke it down to dollars and cents just to kind of highlight just how little we have in discretionary spend in our budget. The big thing to take away is that 75% or 75 to 80% or 75 to 80 cents of every dollar goes towards the salaries of our staff and their related benefits. That's the medical, prescription, and dental benefits just to get our staff to walk in the door. And that's all of our staff, including your administration, your support staff, and your teachers.
Is that where Carolina is? >> You don't know. That's okay. Either way, thank you for letting us present these students and show off our wonderful talents at Stag. And thank you for your continued support. Have a good night. >> Thank you for all that you do. Congratulations. All right. So, I am going to keep going. Um, if I could have our uh DuPage Countywide Institute Day presenters please come forward. The DuPage Countywide uh institute day uh is a single day in-person institute of presentations, activities, and workshops centered around supporting students in PE, health, and driver's educ. ation. The goal of the event is to bring leaders together from across the state. Stag High School in District 230 was well represented at the conference this year, showcasing our staff's leadership in the field. Our staff presentation topics included enhancing behind the wheel instruction with BTW booklet, success criteria for safe driving, making learning relevant with singleoint rubrics, and ESL in driver's education.
>> Do when they wash those buses, do they max them too? >> I don't know about that. >> That would that would be hard. I don't know. Do you know? >> I don't know. I've never been I've never participated. >> I mean, I've gotten pictures and videos of them, you know, with the brushes and all that, but >> I'm just trying to imagine wax on a whole big bus. >> They're pretty clean. >> They do a very nice job. >> Well, they keep you pretty clean throughout the year, too. But, you know, they got gravel and dusty, dirty worms to >> I remember uh when C was doing that, Chuck made her go back and clean the wheels again. She was bad at it. He said, "No, they're not clean. See, you got to go back." She couted a little bit, went back over there and did her.
This year alone they've held two student leadership conferences. The first one was on communication by coach Liv Schmidt and then the second one was just yesterday and that was with Lilian Prada and they focused on empathy. So two amazing traits that are great for leaders to have. I would also like to congratulate Miss Alice Thompson. She has been recently um awarded the Thomas E. Sterling Advisor of the Year Award. This award is given yearly to the top student council adviserss across the state and she was nominated by um her students which I know makes even more of an impact for her knowing that as a sponsor. So these two ladies go above and beyond for the things that of our school and we're super proud of our senior leaders. So thank you guys together. I'll go behind. I'm tall. >> I had a I had a fail on the first one.
>> I was going to say, are we garbled with you? >> No. Okay. >> He probably is garbled for the audience. >> You think it's through the Okay. Any other questions on this um on the reserve program? We'll again we haven't >> No, just please let us please let us know once you get the insurance figured out. >> Sure. We'll bring the policy like we do all policies for you know two readings to do that and we won't move forward until we have the answer on the um the workman's comp part of it. >> Okay. Fair. >> Okay. Okay. You can leave or you're welcome to stay for the next >> You have more. You have more slides. >> My son is home alone. >> Did you need me to go with you? >> He's already asked me what's for dinner. >> Yeah, >> we're going to Subway right now.