This is the the $2 million that the the treasury department took and moved out of M and into capital. So that giant hit to the to the fund balance. I am still trying to get that corrected. Um I do have a journal entry that's in with the county. Um just waiting on that get approved. There we go. >> Good job. >> Um, so general fund operating margin ratio. Um, some of the things that we identified with this was the increase in the special needs cost, how much more it cost to educate a special needs child than it did just a few years ago. That as well as rising operating costs. Um, so far we're spending all just over $900,000 a year to educate our sped population. Um, we received just over $600,000 of that to cover that from our state funding. We receive $133,000 from federal IDA.
Teachers are figuring out that that out too because they're figuring out what works well for their students. So when we think about what our commitments are is really looking at our curriculum, ensuring that everything we're doing is aligned with our state initiatives because we know that there's a reason for our state initiatives. They're grounded in the science of reading. They're grounded in evidence-based instructional materials. So I think that um our continued commitment to that as well as um continuing our cohorts. Our professional learning um professional learning is vital with this cycle. It's not just a sit and get. They learn professional development. They have coaches who also sit side by side during the professional development and then can walk alongside them again when they're implementing the theory to practice in their classroom and we just are going to keep keep working on it and keep revisiting it.
>> Any questions from the board? >> I think you've made it pretty transparent, so thank you. >> All right. Thank you. >> All right, I'll call for a motion. Is there a motion to approve the fiscal year 2026 budget revision number three? >> So moved. >> Thank you, Ms. Humphreys. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Thank you, Ms. Murray.
We they they it's very, you know, they're back and forth between uh the House and Senate, Ways and Means, you know, will come up to some compromise on things. Um, but you know, I I don't to to the point I mean there's some ability I want to comment on the the donations item. I I can look at the the state approves certain accounts, you know, for certain purposes. So we So, you know, for example, we have a school choice account where school choice money comes into. We have some other accounts, a circuit breaker account, things like that. There's a list of of accounts. I'm not sure if banned would be on that list. I can look at that if there was some appetite. Now, keep in mind that would be a district account. So it'd have to be with the entire district. Someone can't, to Megan's point, just give money for one school for one purpose, what have you.
Financial sustainability in efficient operations. This this one I is just going to continue to grow and we've made significant progress this year. And we created a system led by Mrs. Robbins and our new superintendent of buildings and grounds for tracking small and large capital projects. And and I got to thank uh Mr. Bush for really pushing us along the way with the the finance committee and really pushing us that we need to take care of our buildings and ongoing meetings with town officials and the formation we're hoping of a task force this spring. One of the things that we spoke about in the uh middle of the year in January when I reported was where are we relative to putting the committee together to look at the the the facility plannings for our school and I've been told by the the board chair that he's been in contact with the first selectman that we anticipate that starting later in the spring and into the summer.
Here you can see um so in totality um you know you're at a place where you could do one of two things. you could um just adopt the budget you um you recommended in January with a $3,000 $300,000 reduction to the medical benefits or you could do the um you know adopt the I'll show you the other This is the sheet with the totals on it. Um where you could adopt the the full a lotment of them. Um can you guys see that? Okay. Or no? >> No. Can you make it bigger? >> Yeah. I mean, I I did look at it ahead of time, but for right now, we can't really see it. >> Yeah. >> Is that better? >> Yes. So, you know, to um make it easier, I think we would say that the motion would be to adopt um the budget incorporating the superintendent's uh recommended budget adjustments for the 2627 school year because to read all of these line item by line item um would be a bit absurd.
>> Contact school clues. When my mom cook greens and broccoli, I despise it because I don't like greens and broccoli and >> and it also smelt bad and tastes bad. >> Okay, I have my word is my sentence is competit. >> Okay, so my word is attend and what I feel >> I like your I like your sentence but maybe you could add a little more context cl. Okay. So again, >> since we are on the day two of our cycle, our vocabulary review is going to be a little bit different when how we do day one. You can choose from among using the concept map. Draw it out, act it out or using examples or non-examples. I want you to choose a word that you all rated as plus. That means a word that you all >> No. No. >> No. Very good. So, I'm going to give you two minutes to decide.
Where it starts tapering off after that fourth year. And um so if we were able to pass both the override and the bond, the override would kind of get us through, but then hopefully some of those bond savings we'd be able to use wisely. And so then if the override tapers off and the community says, "Look, we supported you. will support you now, but then when the override tapers off, we expect you guys to be more efficient with your new resources that we're giving you. I think that's a fair thing to ask for. But once again, I don't think we'll see a lot of the bond savings on our um Money for probably about another year and a half, two years before those construction projects come to completion. >> Are you done? >> Go ahead. I was just thinking since we talked that the last time we had I think we had three levels that we suggested and we knew with the first one that all we were going to do was like stop things, stop the flow of everything decaying at once, but we weren't going to get that far ahead and so we didn't consider that.
So, that leaves a shortfall of $170,000 that needs to be subsidized out of our general fund. Um and again we come back to the rising operating costs where you know the increase in state retirement fuel repairs everything is outpacing the amount of an increase that we receive. Um even within food service you know we're seeing you know just just the cost of food has increased to a point that we are going to have to be raising our meal prices for the upcoming school year. So you'll see that as an agenda item sometime soon as well. Um some of the mitigating actions of that, you know, is when we're looking at our special needs cost, we need to, you know, look at our the roles of our pair of professionals, you know, but we need to also when we're looking at them, we need to make sure that we're not going to provide them with the opportunity of burnout.
Not just saying, "Oh, that didn't work this time. We're done." Nope, didn't work this time. What can we do differently so it can work better next time. So, it will take some time, but we do have the resources and we have the human capital to the for the most part to help us support our teachers. Interim measure 4.3 looks part two, it looks like our kindergarteners. What are we going to do? We're going to prioritize that weekly support from our coaches and they have been very flexible with their caseloads traveling between campuses, meeting in person and virtually with teachers in any way, shape or form. I'm strengthening those data conversations. We have a lot of data. It's a matter of helping teachers also learn something new. How do I analyze this data? What does this even mean and how do I plan my instruction because of this this data that I now see and then making sure we have those resources that thankfully we have been able to procure.
Is there any discussion? Seeing that there is none, I'll call for the vote. All those in favor of approving the fiscal year 2026 budget revision number three, say I. >> I.
But I I can look into that and see if that's an eligible fund. I mean, again, you're talking about bringing in, you know, enough money to cover effectively some amount for what would eventually be inevitably be able to both schools. And I think to some degree we're seeing the regional agreement handicapping us, right? I mean, we've talked about it. We could treat this like one district, right? We could be sharing more of these resources. We treat ourselves like a region for some purposes, >> [clears throat] >> but then individual school districts for others. I mean, I know kind of when I got here there was a talk, well, okay, Boylston had more money, so things got approved to Boylston and not to Berlin. Now that's kind of flipped, right? The voters in in Berlin approved a budget and then Boylston approved a budget. Um, you know, I I guess, you know, I look at the community and also say like you know, that this is this is your opportunity to then go to the town and really push for what are your priorities.
the district has really looked at a multi-inancial plan um looking at updated in enrollment and one of the the things that I I'm proud of and number two is really looking at our our staffing and where we are and um we hate to lose staff that have fidelity and longevity but if we could do a creative way of opportunity of utilizing funds. That's when, if you would recall that we created a incentive, early retirement incentive that saved us $250,000. And I I just don't want that to be unnoticed because the board and the administrative team and the union worked really hard on that. Uh our district has three has really begun a comprehensive needs assessment and audit of all our school buildings. the the individuals that were at the finance committee today saw the beginnings of our our long range plan and really looking at it and that's a fluid process and something that will evolve continue to evolve over time.
Um but these are the different um pieces that I shared earlier and I can scroll a little bit for you. So these are the totality of them. And when you when we adopt all of these, this changes our budget by $300,000 less than what was um adopted by the board in January, which is what we were required to cut. Math. >> Um, two questions. One, I think the bigger picture elephant in the room here, how how does what the state has done at the ECS level and the legislation on the additional funding they're going to provide, how does this, at least in today's version and whatever news we have today from them on how it works, um, affect this budget? I mean, if we pass this and then there's what, an additional 1.2 two there that they can't change the mill rate and they can't change the budgets and you have to spend it.
>> Why do you answer he was thinking about going off to live in some different country, have a job. He was thinking about what his dad said. last last we've done >> and uh that's where he got the idea to go live live and do a job somewhere else >> like in Spanish like right in like hello how are you questions or comments from the board. Miss Pay Lewis, thank you so much again for your report. Much appreciated. Miss Anubbury Secondary Campus. Hello again, um, governing board president, um, board members, superintendent Diaz, everyone in the lovely crowd. Um, I hope you had the opportunity to, um, take a look at our principal report or the principal report. Um, our highlights, and this is a big one, is we had 100% students who completed the ACT test. One thing I might add, we received our highest score in a while.
And then the second one gave us more to work with because at the time we didn't think the feeling in the community would support the highest one. Um, it would have been nice because then we wouldn't be in such dire straits now, but it did give us a lot at the time, but we don't want to approve something that's just going to stop what's going on and eventually slide backward, especially if we didn't get an override. So, if you can explain an override so it doesn't sound like a bad thing. >> The funny thing to the public, >> the math works. the math asking for 50 mathematically is the thing to do. It doesn't it it it's it's not as big a jump. I mean, if we're already going to go 30 that they go to 50, I mean, on your taxes, it's not that big of a jump.
We don't want to overburden our pair of professionals as they are working with our most needy students. Um so just just as a as a side note over the last three years we spent just under 600,000 just over 600,000 and again just under $600,000 just on salaries and benefits with our pair of professionals. So when you're talking a budget of $7 million, that's still quite a chunk of funds. And a lot of when we first started here, you know, back in 2020, we had five pair of professionals that were being paid out of grants. Now we have one. So just you to kind of give you an idea of how our operating budget has had to take over, what the shortfalls are in the other funding areas. Um, scroll on down risk area four, the general fund change of fund balance. Um, again, the transferring funds from Emerald to capital, you know, so we won't be doing that on this upcoming budget, but depending on how long it takes for the auditor general's department to say that we're back to being good.
I have a question. As we're learning some of these, I guess we can call them pivots [clears throat] that we're learning and these learning opportunities that we have, what are we taking from here and actually putting it towards when we have like, let's say, our new teacher orientations or if we know that we're going to have teachers that are going to be dissecting data and they might not be comfortable, is there a procedure put in place even beforehand that that could be part of a Creighton teacher orientation? I like I think one of the things that I think a lot of us struggle with is that when we're in this new movement of a framework, we can't continue doing the same things. We're going to have to start thinking of what works for Creighton regardless if it's Scottsdale, Osborn, Roosevelt, Phoenix Elementary is it, right?