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I'm very proud to tell you we have not uh turned down any trip. I'm hoping that we never have to be in a position where, you know, we just have a driver that's close to overtime and we say, "Oh gosh, you're going to go into overtime, so we're not going to provide that trip for the students." I don't ever want to be in that position. And so, our priority, as I've committed to you, is always to put our students first. Again, trying to balance everything as much as possible. If we have a driver available that's not in overtime, we would choose that driver first. uh but if we'd have no one else and the the there is no flexibility then we would prefer to send a driver that may get into overtime as to not be able to provide the trip. So under our operational considerations uh long morning routes cannot always be paired with the shorter afternoon assignments.
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That's all I have as far as the budget revision. Do you have any questions for me regarding um regarding anything I've discussed or anything else regarding the budget? Does that have to be turned in in the next hour? >> It does not. I've got until the 15th for this one. >> All right. All right. So, can we have a motion to accept the revised budget as presented? >> I move we accept the revised budget as presented. >> This item 3.2. Any second? >> I second. >> Second. All in favor say I. >> I. >> Any nays? Nope. All right. That looks to be passed. Also >> Courtney's like, >> yeah, I'll have to do that again. Uh, >> that is a big thing. I mean, you you make it sound so simple >> and it it's a big big job. >> I know you haven't slept for three nights.
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Another thing that is in alignment to achieving our SOFG goals is having district subs. And the district subs are crucial because when our teachers are sick or they have other commitments, we need a reliable sub to continue that continuation of high-quality instruction. And so, we know that our district subs were we like solely on on them to provide that service, and we know that we want to stay competitive, so they don't go to other places. Um As we are continuing with inflation and everything being super expensive for everybody, every employee, we were very conscious about the big priorities, but also ensuring that everybody will get some sort of a incentive or stimulus into their base salary. And so, the recommendation was with the leftover funds, at least 0.79, and you may be wondering why that number? Because it was the number that was left to to provide.
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Uh drivers assigned to the shorter routes frequently support those afternoon activity uh hours and that coverage. uh midday field trips also impact the overall uh driver hours if we have a field trip and then again that route balancing must account for the coverage safety and the operational continuity. So, some of the potential uh overtime reduction strategies uh for discussion uh would be to potentially reduce the transportation coverage areas for student pickup locations if you did some consolidation uh perhaps families brought their uh students into a more centralized pickup location. Um hiring additional drivers to increase staffing flexibility. Expanding route structures to distribute operational workload. uh limiting driver participation in midday field trips or uh continuing of course to review route efficiencies and scheduling coordination. So the considerations that we would talk about then on the next slide associated with those proposals um again reducing the coverage may impact transportation accessibilities for the families.
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>> Your plate's full right now. Appreciate all you do and the hours you put into it. Thank you. >> Uh, item 3.3. Uh, >> Mr. Rolloff, do you want to explain kinder camp? Yeah, this is this is an exciting one and you know, Miss Butler could maybe share shed some light into this, but we're able to bring in our kids coming into kinder. It's a fully funded program from United Way. They pay our staff to bring our kids in as a jump start to kinder. I know some neighboring districts that do not have this program are trying to get the program. United Way has been really good to us um with a few of their things, but yeah, it's it's getting our kindergarten kids in, getting them a little kickstart before the school year starts and getting them off on the right foot. So hopefully there's not as many tears when kindergarten starts for the moms or for the students.
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Of course, if there are other priorities that the numbers are less, then we like that number to be increased. There's one group of specific that you're going to see singled out in this page, which is educational secretaries, and to extend their contract from 11.5 to 12 months. I I closely with this group in Brussels, too, and this is the um one position, I think, that is responsible to accurately tagging in our system all of our students based on their needs, whether they belong to specific demographics or specific service. Uh and thanks to that properly identification of data, that's how our district receives allocation of funds. And so, the work of the educational secretary to ensure that there's accurately data recorded on time, so we get those funds to continue to provide services to our students. It's critical. And so, we believe that fighting the decline in enrollment and ensuring that they are there to provide the excellent customer service that they do will attract more students and more families and more funds to our our district.
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We could hire additional drivers and expanding routes, but there would be an increase in operational costs that would more than offset uh the savings of the overtime. Uh if we were to limit uh midday field trips, that could affect our opportunities for some of our youth to participate in activities if we tie that to again uh drivers not getting into overtime. And then of course any scheduling adjustments that we make must continue to support our student transportation reliability. We need to be reliable. We have to be consistent. We have to be on time. Uh a suggestion was made. Well, maybe we could take a driver that was on one of those longer routes and split it and have like a AM driver and then a PM driver. But I don't really like that. It may there could be some marginal savings, but our drivers bond with our children.
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Yes. >> Do they get to ride a bus? >> I don't think they ride a bus. No, they don't get to ride a bus. We we saved that >> grand reveal for for the first day of school. That's That's a whole new challenge. >> Yeah. >> Any other comments, questions about that? >> No, I think it's great. >> We have a motion then to accept item 3.3 regarding the outline for Kinder Cup Camp. >> Move that we recommend the motion for Kinder Camp. >> We get a second. Second from Bridget. All in favor say I. >> I. No. All right, that pass. Now, uh, recommendation to approve the purchase of teacher laptops. I think we've already discussed that just a little bit. So, we can we have a couple hours still to to discuss that. >> You want me to kill a couple work and what you've done.
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Uh last but not least on this slide is uh we know that as part of our SOFG goals and guardrails, we know that our most fragile students are our special ed students. And sometimes we're not competitive enough and we have to rely in contracted services. And so, hopefully by increasing the $5,000 to the base salary to the psychologist, we're going to be able to retain the ones that we have and attract uh uh other fantastic um psychologist. The next series of slides are going to be a rush I have a question. Can we go back? Yes. Um as I just wanted to go back to the point 7.9% for all employees. That's just like a um that would just be a pay a base pay increase, is what you're saying? Correct. And I know that you said that it had to do with kind of what was left over.
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They know them. And when you have inconsistency between drivers driving routes, then that puts the children in a position, you know, the afternoon driver may give have a certain rule, the morning driver would have a different rule, and it creates inconsistency for them. So there could be some savings from that, but in my opinion, it wouldn't be preferred because I don't think that's putting the kids interest first. So, our department is committed to continue actively review our operational and financial efficiencies resulting in uh effective resource management. Uh our student safety and transportation reliability remain our very top priority. And then all of our operational decisions will continue to balance the service needs, staffing, and fiscal responsibility. So again, uh, in closing, our overtime reductions reflect the effective operational demands required while maintaining safe, reliable, and consistent transportation services across a large rural district. I don't see our overtime going up, but I think that the overtime that we're using now is a wise investment for the district.
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>> So, yeah. So, teacher laptops been after that, Mr. Rollolof, uh, Miss Hoffmire spent a ton of effort this year really prioritizing, uh, the teacher laptops. Um, we were able to, uh, work with Dell. Um, we have a great relationship with them. I built up some really good relationships over the last decade with them. Um, and we have been able to negotiate a 41% off the MSRP on these um, items. And then once that was done and they thought they had a deal, we went back with them um, and got 5 years of drops, damages, accidental uh, damage protection. So, we have full five years of full um, liquid coverage. they drop it, break it, anything, that's all covered um under warranty for the next five years, which is a few hundred dollars on top of um the discounted rate we already got on that.
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Was that Were there other things discussed for that amount of money? I'm just thinking about, you know, depending on your base income and your tax rate, like how much worth it that is. And I'm not trying to like make a judgment call here. I'm just curious what conversations were had here and if this was like how we landed here for like the best possible use of that money. Well, as you can see in all of the recommendations, different groups, the most of that need the most which is our classified employees, they get a lot of benefits in in here, the teachers. And then we want to make sure that we appreciate and value all of the employees and so make sure that the 79% to all employees include the three groups of employees. And so yes, the money can be used for other priorities, but based on the stories that we receive based on the priorities collected on the survey that we put out for all of the employees, compensation keeps being the number one thing.
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And with that, I'd be happy to answer any questions or recommend respond to any recommendations you may have. >> Mr. B, there's a couple of links on here, but we don't have access to those links. Is that information that could be is it important information to >> Is that important information, Mr. Timothy? Yeah, because we can't access it. If it's information to view, then you can share it when you have time. But um thank you for bringing up the the the consideration about an AM and a PM driver. I was that was something I was thinking about. Um, and I think overall just being able to look at and see and again thank you for the time and effort uh to put the presentation together majority of the conversation or the communication that we get especially is that um that justification is always required and being able to look at your school year totals and now being able to see the kickoff was seeing it in the report to say overtime for transportation is this amount.
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So, um coming to you now uh tonight to uh they call that Dell Pro support, by the way. Um and coming you to to you tonight um after the last three years of trying to do this to ask for your approval for our teachers uh laptops, please. >> Questions or comments or discussion? We have a motion then to accept the to approve the purchase of the teacher laptops as presented. >> So moved. >> A motion a second. I think that's true. >> Second Sylvia. All in favor say I. >> I. >> Again, this looks so easy that I know that a lot of hours went into this. >> You can go order them. >> Thank you so much. Teachers are very grateful to you all. Thank you. >> All right. >> You can leave. >> All right.
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And we all feel on the food prices, gas, as part of the rational that I'm going to give you is that um you just receive information from Sarabeth and director of curriculum Dr. Kim Karents that our teachers are concentrated on the science of reading. Well, sometimes they don't have enough time in the day because their salary doesn't stretch to all of the things and so they have to have a second job. And so what we're trying to this extensive and creative compensation packet is trying to bring the help to those groups of individuals and make sure that whatever we have, we put those resources to those individuals. And if I could add and I'm just setting up a prompt for Ms. Shapiro, but member Ayers actually asked the question the other day about, you know, when you look at this list, you see 0.79% there.
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Being able to look at this in a thorough report to see it's actually coming down in an effort that you you've been making for us makes me as a board member feel a little bit more better. And again, it's not something that I would say is is what it's probably not something we ever asked for because it probably wasn't something that was ever really presented in that way. So, of course, and I want to say thank you again for um um I don't know, putting up with me for sure in in in that response because it is concerning and it and and so I'm thankful for the thorough um presentation on what it is, what what what's causing it. Uh because we can speak to that now as a board member or is anybody ask a question? what is going on with you guys and all of this time and all of that?
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Next item on the agenda is our superintendence report. I think we have somebody would like to do a call to the public first. Is that all right with you? >> Chad Ashcraft. >> Did he leave? >> I was afraid of that meeting got too long. >> Okay, >> I'll just read what it says. He He'd like to express appreciation for a school employee. So, that's a positive thing. Chad Ashcraft, >> he didn't say who the employee was. And I I won't I won't put words in his mouth, but I actually had a meeting with him specifically. And so I'll I'll let him present at a later time and talk to us, but he had a meeting with me earlier this year, and he he wanted to share with me just how much coach Halmerson supported his son and did a great job with developing his son and really cared and made a huge change in his life.
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This is not just a 0.79% increase for employees because that's one element in this giant list. And so I know I know Ms. Shapiro spent some time today looking at some of these pieces because if I understood correctly like certified schedule repair for a lot of the teachers is I think you said something like $332 of an increase just from that certified schedule repair. So, I know you prepare >> One tiny piece of it. Yeah, one tiny piece. So, but when you start to put all the puzzle pieces together, this become this adds up and becomes a bigger number. So, um do you opening the floor for you to share anything you were I know you were scrambling to pull some numbers together. >> you know, I think I actually was able to effectively pull those numbers, but I I want to defer to the meet and confer team.
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Well, here we go. When we're empowered with that information, we can support you guys a lot better. And that's what I think I wanted that to come from. So, hopefully hopefully hopefully that's conveyed at this point. That's where >> I appreciate that. >> Of course. Um, Miss Vance or Miss Leonard? Miss Vance. Um, thank you for the report. I love it. So, but I want I really want to say thank you for all of you guys working together to make sure that our students are safe and and looking at different ways to um help the staff, you know, so that they won't be so um I think tired when they come back and and with the routes, the changing of the routes, especially that long route, you know, it does um it does this report does reflect the you know, the reduction in the um overtime time, but you're also making uh sure that like the activities like there there's still someone to um drive the buses and make sure that our students are safe.
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So, I I look forward to his his comment to the public, but he he's expressed that to me before, his gratitude for um you know, just the personal relationship and all of us who know Coach Halmerson just know he's a he's a he's a sweetheart of a guy and he he'd give his shirt off his back for you and and he really saw some great changes with his son. And so we we've talked about that before, but I'll I'll let him speak for himself when when he's available to come to another meeting, but I want to make sure um and I don't mean to speak on his behalf, but I know that um Coach Halmerson did some great things with his son, so he want he was very thankful for that. >> All right. Would you like to give us a just kind of a brief update on what's going on?
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