Um, >> could you read the motion fully? >> Yes. Um, I move that we dissolve as that the school committee dissolve the redistricting and reorganizing ad hoc subcommittee. Um, if we do that, then that entity, that named entity no longer exists. Uh, and then we can choose to have something come in its place that is roughly equivalent, which was item A under old business. or if we don't do item A, then we don't have a body that does that kind of work at all. Um, or if we choose to not dissolve, then that body uh would still exist and we would need to double check that the members who were part of it last time, which I believe were member Deniv, myself and the mayor would still be willing to serve on that. But like there would be a we would we would see if that is still functional and viable and if its mission is still aligned with what we need currently.
Mhm. That's nice. There's space for a cot. Does anyone have anything else for Stephen on the budget? And his presentation. No, I just One thing I'll say on this, Stephen, I just want to say thank you. And thank you to the administration as well. I mean, the amount of work that goes into doing this type of work is a lot and it's a it's time-consuming and I just will reiterate that you know, we interviewed you, tasked you, and asked you to do something. Not only did you come in and do it, but you did it very very well and you did it very quickly. And I just >> [laughter] >> um does anybody have anything else on the budget? All right, then we will move over to new business. And thank you again for this. Uh we have our calendar discussion and possible motions. And we were provided with um three options from the calendar committee uh with some information.
So, anybody else have questions? Hearing none, we thank you very much. We are in decision making. What is the pleasure of the chair? Any amendments? Chair, no amendments. We have good good reporting data. Happy with the reporting data that's been to be set given. Okay, with that recommendation that we for SR SCR 130, SR 122, that we pass as is.
As a unified school district, the the district's binding capacity is the greater of 20% of net full cash assessed value or $1,500 per student based upon the last fiscal year. And as you can see from this uh table, we we we do those computations. We subtract what is currently outstanding as far as district metades. And you'll see that the current bonding capacity for the district is a little over $983 million. And this is a a schedule that's um very important. As as Lena alluded to, this is a reflection of the district property tax rate over a 10-year history. And we've colorcoded these bar charts to to show the three primary components of your tax rate. We've got uh reflected the district's primary tax rate, which is reflected in orange, and then we have two secondary tax rates. One that relates to the district's current override that is in place.
I mean there's different ways to stand by your neighbor. Um, and the one thing I've learned by subbing at a high school is all these children know each other. Um, they are friends. It doesn't seem to matter where they go to school. So, I would say, um, I'm a yes for dissolving it because I think we're going to end up creating something that's bigger than that. >> All right. Thank you. member Deniv, >> I'm fine dissolving it. Um, but I think that something that has to be really truly digested is that this was the first subcommittee ever that reached out to the public and had listening sessions. and interacted with constituents and parents and teachers to find out what they really wanted. This is the first time that as a body we really interacted with people to find out what they wanted um from the perspective of a subcommittee.
So that's the consequence of the vote. We either dissolve it and move on and do something new which is related but a little different um or we don't dissolve it and we proceed from there. So just to give a sense. So I've made the motion to dissolve the redistricting and reorganizing ad hoc subcommittee. Second. >> We've got a second discussion. >> I think we already had a second. >> Oh, sorry. We had a second >> discussion. >> Yes. Sorry. Me have a good one. Member Denim. >> I think that the ad hoc was a good start, but now we need to look at all of the different options that are out there. I mean, so many people are having conversations about um buildings and, you know, declining enrollment. We're not alone. Um, and I think listening to there are people who've been talking the talk for 10 years and looking at all of the bigger picture of our county.
Um Stephen, if you would like, I pass it over to you and Certainly. Uh thank you. So, the top cover page are is just a summary of the meeting minutes. Right. So, you can kind of see on there some of uh toward the bottom just some of the calendar recommendations from committee members when we did some of the good work at looking at nine other school districts and comparing it to our own and really trying to garner some of the best of the information out there that we could find. So, with that, you'll see three options uh in your packet. Option A in the bottom corner uh and then option B in the bottom right-hand corner and option C. If we just go through each, um some of the things that we tried to focus on were creating a calendar uh that um navigated weather contingencies and um to the extent at which we hopefully aren't in school next year as late as we are in school this year.
Any discussion? Hearing none. Uh Chair votes aye. Chair votes Aye. Vice Chair votes Aye. Senator DeCoite Aye. Hashimoto Aye. And DeCoite Aye. The measure is adopted. Thank you. Same recommendation for AEM.
And and the secondary tax rate has to do with bonds, and that is the blue portion of these bars. You'll notice on the right hand side, the current bond tax rate is approximately a dollar per $100 assessed value. And you can look at this chart and obviously see that over the last 10 years, the combined tax rate of the district has been steadily going down. That's a combination of a couple things. One, managing the amount of debt that's issued by the district and also the growth in the in the district's assessed valuation. So it's trending in the right direction. And next we wanted to just show that specifically with this series A 2026 bond sale u which Lena referred to. This is the first sale of 135 million from the 2025 authorization of $271,500,000. The remaining authorization following this sale will be 136,500,000. The projects to be funded are the ones that Lana mentioned and all of these imp uh projects were those that were reflected in the district voter information pamphlet.
There were other things before there was the star group. You all did work on that. Um, but the amount of data that we compiled and the amount of information and preferences of the people that we serve that we compiled is really valuable. And when I talk to people about redistricting, there's this feeling of like, oh, well, that was just like stuff you just did and we don't care what that was. And so, it's really left behind all of that work. And that kind of makes me really sad because we gathered a lot of good information and we really heard where people were coming from. So I would say that as this new entity moves forward to make sure that you get that information before you begin because we have sort of this history I've noticed of collecting information and then nobody knows where it went.
And I think we need to be part of those conversations. this was looking at within. Um I think it's not just within. We need to look at our neighbors as well. I mean there's different ways to stand by your neighbor. Um and the one thing I've learned by subbing at a high school is all these children know each other. Um they are friends. It doesn't seem to matter where they go to school. So, I would say um I'm a yes for dissolving it because I think we're going to end up creating something that's bigger than that. All right. Thank you, member Den. I'm fine dissolving it. Um, but I think that something that has to be really truly digested is that this was the first subcommittee ever that reached out to the public and had listening sessions and interacted with constituents and parents and teachers to find out what they really wanted.
Um we can't control the weather, but we were trying to do our best with that. Um looking at professional learning days, seeing some regional alignment if that helped or not, thinking about parent-teacher conferences, uh testing windows, holidays, meeting the 180 minimum requirements, and graduation. So, those are all the kind of things that were going through our heads when we were when we were looking at these calendars. So, what you'll see, if you could just focus on calendar A first is that instead of starting the first week in September we moved that back. So, in calendar A, you'll see that uh new teacher orientation is on the 20th 20th and 21st and then staff would come back on the 24th, all staff. Um and let's just call that potentially convocation, right? So, that's the 24th with uh either a staff meeting or some professional learning that day and then the 25th PL and the 26th PL.
Any discussion? Chair votes aye. Vice Chair On SCR130, SR122 recommendation of the Chair to pass unamended. Chair votes aye. Vice Chair votes aye. Senator DeCoite is excused. Senator Rhoads >> Aye. Senator Wakai is excused. Chair, you have um The motion is passed. Thank you very much. Okay, thank you. We're going to end the joint hearing. Call to order the Committee on Education. We are on SCR154, SR145, 154, 145. This I think we did that. Urging the Department of Education to add tax instruction to its financial literacy graduation requirement. Uh and we have DOE. Heidi Hi, good afternoon, Chair Kim, Vice Chair Kidani, and members of the Committee. I'm Heidi Armstrong, Department of Education. And the Department appreciates the intent of SCR154. Tax education is extremely important. I'd like to note that the requested tax instruction is already embedded within the mandatory financial literacy standards taking effect for the incoming freshmen in the 2026-2027 school year.
The bonds will be issued over a period of time. And what we're anticipating currently is that the maturity range will be from July 1 of 2026 to July 1, 2045. We expect that with the issuance of these bonds, the debt service will drive up that component of your tax rate from about a dollar now to a$128. And that was the tax rate that was referenced in the in the voter information pamphlet.
Nobody compiled it and nobody has put it out there for the public. So we really were diligent about compiling that information and it is there and there are outlines and information and bus routes and walking routes and lines, you know, um school boundary lines, all of that was done and it is all compiled and available. And so do not turn away from that information because a good portion of the work is already done for you and you could build upon that in a new way. and do not reinvent the wheel. >> Noted. Thank you. Any other comments, discussion? Seeing none, member web, will you please call the vote? >> What am I call >> item E? We're we're calling the vote. >> Sorry. Item E under >> vote to dissolve the redistricting >> reorganizing ad hoc subcommittee. >> Secretary Webb, I am a yes. Vice Chair Childs, >> yes.
This is the first time that as a body we really interacted with people to find out what they wanted um from the perspective of a subcommittee. There were other things before there was the star group. You all did work on that. Um, but the amount of data that we compiled and the amount of information and preferences of the people that we serve that we compiled is really valuable. And when I talk to people about redistricting, there's this feeling of like, oh, well, that was just like stuff you just did and we don't care what that was. And so, it's really left behind all of that work. And that kind of makes me really sad because we gathered a lot of good information and we really heard where people were coming from. So I would say that as this new entity moves forward to make sure that you get that information before you begin because we have sort of this history I've noticed of collecting information and then nobody knows where it went.
First student uh first student day would be the 27th. So, we would start school in August and they would have 3 days in August. I I struggle with how the calendar is, but if you see Monday, it has the 31st in it. Yeah, the way he Oh, but then the 31st for August is when we talk about August. I know. I know. Cuz we couldn't do a fifth row there, so we just put it on where it is. So, it's the same for all three models, A, B, C. Correct. So, that start of school is for all three models. And then uh everything else kind of remains the same here except what you'll see is that the last day is June 9th, right? So, that 9th. June 9th, right. And so, we changed some colors just so it would be clear what's first, what's second.
Thank you. Okay, uh let's see. We have Johnny May Perry. No, I'm sorry. Yeah, Johnny May Perry in support. Anyone else wishing to testify on this measure. Hearing none, members questions. I have a question, Heidi. So, when you say that this tax portion is already embedded in the financial literacy, is that why they have the four choices? Well, the financial literacy Well, the the what what standard is is the standards. And so, when um reading this resolution and looking through the standards, um tax information is in included in um theme one, earning income in the standards. Also in theme three, saving. Theme four, investing. So, then I looked at the programs and the curriculum um that can be used that um is vetted to fulfill um what these standards are asking for. And when I looked at the um um Banzai and EverFi and TurboTax, the vetted curriculums, the themes in there that um relate to taxes are what are taxes um and why they exist, federal income tax, tax brackets, filing status, paychecks and withholding, the basic steps of filing a tax return.
I'll pause there for a minute just to respond to any questions that the board may have so far. >> Thank you. And I see Miss Matson is ready with her question. So, um it's April 8th and if we are we really having a bond maturity on July 1st of this year? >> We are. It's going to be a very short maturity and basically we've uh we've structured that Miss Mustin to absorb some additional cash that's currently in the district's debt service account. So there's some surplus money there and we're basically going to use that just to pay off debt uh right right after the bonds are issued. >> Okay. >> And that will reduce the amount of debt that's amvertised over time. >> Yeah, I thought it was a little unusual because it looks like really short term. I have the same question myself. >> Okay.
>> Member Deniv, >> yes. >> Member Dyman, >> yes. >> Member Goodwin, >> yes. With an honor to all the information that came before. >> Chair Ston, >> yes. Absolutely. >> Passes unanimously. >> Great. Thank you. All right. At this time, we will have a fivem minute break. uh or generously 6 minutes. Please come back at 8:40 uh and we'll get get on to the rest of our business. >> So to answer the question about the majority of the votes cast, if two people vote yes and one votes no intent of states, the motion will pass. However, it says if it's a tie vote with more extensions than actual voters, it fails. But it says local organizations such as city councils, etc., etc. have rules that treat an absention as a yes or a no vote. >> I found our rules um BF voting methods.