001Okay. So, we'll start with roll call. Mr. Antonio >> here. >> Mr. Badger. >> Mr. Goolson >> here. >> Miss Keranikis >> here. >> Dr. Morris. Mr. Kelly >> here. >> Mr. Strauss. >> Mr. Walker >> here. Mrs. Ginsburg >> here. >> All right. Thank you so much. Um, and we'll now do the pledge of allegiance. >> Do we have a flag or no? >> No. >> Okay. I pledge allegiance >> to the flag. To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation under God >> under God >> indivisible liberty and >> justice for all >> and thank you for putting the flag up then. All right, welcome to everyone joining us this evening uh for this special board meeting of the WISH school directors. Um
002tonight we have one thing on our agenda, but before we get to that, we do have our first public comment period. Um and we'll be hearing from the community. Um we allow maximum of five speakers. As a reminder, in the same topic, please limit comments to three minutes in the interest of fairness and to treat all speakers equally. It's the board's practice not to engage in dialogue with speakers when appropriate. We do follow up with comments on board docs. Um, and since we only have one item on our agenda this evening, comments are limited to that one agenda item only. Um, so do we have any uh speakers this evening? >> There are no hands raised online. >> All right, then we'll close the first public comment period and we'll move on to our finance
003committee report. Steve, I'll turn it over to you. >> Sure. Uh as you noted Amy, we have one item on the agenda and that one item is approval of the preliminary budget. This preliminary budget is uh needed uh for presentation and approval uh in order for us to um go apply for the uh special education exception, referendum exception, which allows us to go over the act one index. And as a reminder, the act one index uh for the 2627 school year is 3.5% and we are asking to go to 5.1%. This allows us the flexibility to go over the act index. Um we do not have to budget all the way to the 5.1% tax increase. Uh but this allows us the flexibility to do so. Um and as is noted in the um subject
004line for this item, uh the preliminary budget uh put together by the administration um is for 140,939,281. Uh that's total expenditures with a revenue uh expected of $139,569,544. Um uh this does show uh a deficit within that and uh also explains the requirement to go over the act one index of 3.5%. Um so I am seeking a motion uh of the board to approve action item 4.1 um as this preliminary budget uh to send to the state. Um Tim uh or Mr. Burker, sorry. any anything I need to be adding on there? >> No, you have everything covered with regards to that. Once and if approved, we will then go through the process applying for the exception pending state approval. We'll then move forward accordingly. >> Right. So, do we have a motion? >> So
005moved. >> Second. >> A motion's been made and seconded. We'll now have questions or comments. Um Tim, uh just to start things off, I just want to make sure so we can state for the public. This is different than our process in the past. We typically don't seek exceptions. So this is is definitely a different process. Um by approving this tonight, this isn't the final budget. This is just a preliminary. So the numbers in here are not final numbers. Correct. >> That is correct. There's two subsequent votes after that before we get to the final budget. And we're going to have several weeks of meetings going over every line item in those meetings have already started. Public are are welcome to attend those. Right. >> That's correct. >> And um the 5.1 by voting on
006this this evening, we cannot exceed then that 5.1 though. >> That is correct. >> Okay. All right. Um Nol, you have questions as well? >> Yeah, this was a little bit confusing in the finance meeting, so I just wanted to make sure it was out there for everybody. Um, and Tim, this is to you, Mr. Breicker. This, uh, 5.1 increase still does not cover the deficit, right? It assumes that we would still have a little bit of a deficit if we go to the full 5.1. >> That is correct. >> Thank you. >> And Tim, is there a reason then that you're suggesting we cap it at 5.1 and not go higher than 5.1? 5.1 is the legal limit that we can go to if the exceptions are approved by the state. >> Okay. And
007when you said the legal limit um again for public benefit, can you explain a little bit about how that limit like 3.5 we understand where that comes from, but where is 5.1 like where's that limit coming from? >> Sure. So the 3.5 is the act index which sets the maximum that school districts can increase local real estate taxes. There are a couple exceptions out there. The most common ones is a peaser exception and that really occurred in the early phases of peasers when they were increasing the paser rate uh exponentially which is the Pennsylvania state employee retirement system. Um the most common one now is the special education exception. This looks at what you spent two years prior to what you spent the last year and then compares them. And if your spending exceeds the
008actin index and above it, the state gives you the ability to apply for an exception so that you can cover the increased cost associated with the special ed exception. >> And that's where that extra percentage is coming from to cover that increased amount. >> That's correct. So instead of being 3.5, it'll go up to the 5.1. >> Okay. Thank you for explaining that. >> Y >> uh Zeie, >> thank you. And do we know when we would hear back if this is uh accepted by the state and the part B of that question is um Gez, I lost it. Okay, start with that question with that question. So, I I'll give you a couple things. We have until the 23rd of this month to file for the exception, which we will start the process uh
009pending approval tomorrow because we don't want it's complicated. We want to make sure we get it done in time. Uh then we expect to hear back from the state in March and we'll also have a finance committee meeting in March, April, and May to review the changes in the budget and how we're proceeding. We will also then have a vote on a proposed final budget in um April and then subsequent to that 30 days after that we'll then have a vote on the final budget. >> Great. And and I I remembered the followon question. Is there a possibility they deny that they being the state denies this request? Has that ever occurred or is this just a formality? I can't say whether it has ever occurred before, but I do not believe it's a formality.
010It is something that they will review and go through. >> Okay. Thank you for explaining, Matt. I appreciate it. >> Steve. >> Yeah. And and just um thanks for posting the finance committee presentation that was given last week at the finance committee meeting. Just a a reminder to everybody that on the 10th of March and the 13th of April, the finance committee will be meeting to try and make sure that we um are balanced in our budget uh through work with the administration um and uh hopefully uh either at or slightly lower than the 5.1% that we have uh that we're seeking the exception for. So just a reminder that that's where those discussions uh will take place. >> And Steve, where are you posting this online for anyone that is watching and may want
011to go look at those materials online? Where do you post that information? >> So that is on board docs. Um so uh for the meeting uh tonight, the special meeting is posted on board docs. There is a uh budget presentation that was given uh last week at the finance committee meeting and that buzz excuse me budget presentation includes the dates of the next meetings as well as information on why we are applying for the uh 5.1% exception. >> Great. >> Any other questions or comments? Um, sorry, I I don't know how to uh raise my hand while I'm on my phone, but I have a a comment. Uh, so, um, the preliminary budget that's before us this evening, uh, assumes a maximum tax increase of 5.1%. Um, and even with that in place, there is
012still a deficit of about $1.4 million that we have to deal with. So, um, this, uh, vote is really just kind of a formality to start our budget development process. Um and over the next several months leading up to adoption of the final budget, which will happen probably May or June, um we as a board working with the administration have a good amount of work to do to figure out how we bring our revenues and expenses in line in order to balance the budget. Um it's it's not that likely that we can increase revenues, but um what we're left with then is uh and more likely that we're going to have to explore some cuts to our expenses to bring them down to uh the level of our revenues. Um so yeah, we have a
013lot of work ahead ahead of us in the next several months and some tough decisions that are going to have to be made. Um this is not like the final budget. It's far from it. Um but uh I trust that um we'll make some good decisions although pain maybe painful to bring all of us into a balanced budget by the end of uh May or June. Thanks. >> All right. Anything else? All right. Seeing no additional comments or questions. Um, all those in favor >> I should I guess should we all like use the raise hand feature? >> I know there's like just make sure there's no delay. Does everybody just want to use the raise hand feature if you're voting in favor? >> Joe can't do that. >> Oh, Joe can't do that. Okay.
014>> I would suggest a roll call. >> Roll call. Let's do roll call. That's a good idea. Yeah. Amanda. >> Okay. Mr. Antonio. >> Yes. >> Mr. Badger. Yes, >> Mr. Goolson. >> Yes, >> Miss Keranikis. >> Yes, >> Mr. Kelly. >> Yes, >> Mr. Walker. >> Yes, >> Mrs. Ginsburg. >> Yes, >> that's seven yes and two absent. >> All right, so it passes. All right. Um, then let me go back to my agenda. Um, so now that opens us up to board comments. Any board comments this evening? All right. Seeing none, I'll take a motion to adjurnn. >> So moved. >> Second. >> All right. All those in favor? >> I I >> I >> All right. We're journed for the evening. Thank you everyone. >> Good job, Tim. >> Thank you, Tim.
015>> Have a good night, everyone.