001Thank you for coming to our board meeting today. We'll go ahead and start with the pledge of >> allegiance. over. Do we have any need for translation today? Nope. Okay. Thank you all for coming. We are going to go ahead and get started. Uh at this time, I will accept a motion to approve today's agenda. >> I'll make a motion to approve the agenda. I second it. >> Motion made and seconded. All in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? Motion passes 40. >> We'll jump right into it with our student rep reports. I know it's summertime, but do you guys have anything you want to add in? >> Um I don't have anything. Yeah. >> Okay. Well, thank you so much for taking the time out of your summer schedule to be at our board
002meeting with us. It means a lot. So, thank you. Uh moving on to our board member discussions. Uh Director Gerber, do you have any thing you'd like to tell us about? >> Yes, we do have a legislative report today. Um last week we had a webinar with um Superintendent Real and he gave us some updates on federal funding stuff and so there are some things we want to update you on. We're going to start with the map. Let's do the map first. So basically the some there is some federal funding that's going to be being withheld from all districts um across the state. Now the funding is specifically for what's the correct terminology they use for which students is Dr. Press. >> Well the individual pots of money that come from the federal government. Some
003are for uh migrant and bilingual services those kinds of things. What what I think is important to recognize in a place like Oll is those funds pay for a number of staff and programs that impact all students. It would definitely be an impact across our whole system. >> Yes. So, because the funds are are for migrant bilingual students, they disproportionately affect school districts that have more of those students. So, that's what this map is depicting. The darker the red, the more your district is affected by these funding cuts. Can you hover over the Oll district? says Royal. >> Yes. So, with all the school districts, so total federal cuts proposed 1 million 100,000. So, you know, because we have more of those students, we are are more affected. And we'll get to a breakdown of
004more of those statistics later. But, um, a couple things that, um, Superintendent Reichel wanted to make sure that was clear to everyone is that this isn't just a Washington thing. All the states are being, um, affected by this by these cuts. He said, you know, there would be a tendency to think that, you know, the federal government is just picking on Washington, but that's not the case. Um, all the states are being affected by these cuts. Um, the other thing that he one of the other things that he really emphasized was that some of these funds have already been approved by Congress. So, the federal government shouldn't really be able to withhold the them as soon as they are. Um, they're we're going to be affected. These are funds that we should have already had,
005right? They usually come around July 1. Is that correct? So all of these funds have already been appropriated by Congress. Uh what the process that they're going through around not only public education funding but other um other entities uh public radio um USAD there's a number of activities that the administration is trying to pull pull back fun um they're going to resend the funds. So approved LA. So imagine you um you buy a business or you become the new CEO of a company and you've already approved the budget, but your new vision says no, we're not going to spend that money. I know it's been approved, but we're doing something different. There is a process and a protocol for the federal government to do that. Once they make that announcement, then Congress has 45 days
006to act on it. What's unusual in this situation is uh July 1st is when districts typically receive that money and begin planning for the next school year. our budget's due July 10th. All those things are currently happening. So, there's a bit of limbo right now whether or not um Congress is actually going to support this idea and not send those funds on. And not only is it not just Washington, it's every state will be impacted. >> Does this have that them anything that with them getting rid of the educational part of the federal government? is certainly part of the of the broader vision of limiting the um sort of federal control over the Department of Education. And I think the Supreme Court ruling on whether or not um the current administration could um dismantle the
007Department of Education. I mean, they've fired a number of employees. I think that got actually got supported today. So, there is some support at in the in the legislative uh house piece of government, but also in the courts. Trump won that piece today as well. So, a lot of uncertain. I guess the the best way to think about this is really uncertain right now whether or not these funds are coming. The problem for us is school starts in a month. >> When will we know for sure? >> I don't know. >> The first package of recession that that the Congress is considering would happen on July 18th. I don't know that this um content is in that bill. I think this one comes after it. Um there's a letter attached here that is coming out
008from education leaders in Eastern Washington. The ESD is putting it together. So a number of anti so think of WASA and WASDA and and all the organizations are advocating to say hey develop your budget next year based on your priorities but the things that have already been approved and we're expecting need to come through. And there's a lot of consistency and support around this. We'll see if it makes a difference. So, let's say this year they're going to, you know, business as usual. They're going to give us the funds. Does that mean by next year we need to have made another million dollars worth of cuts because that's essentially what we received from the federal government? >> Yes, we would we would well that's just in this piece of of of budgeting and Amy can
009show some and Dr. Meat can show some of the other details. What what it will allow us to do is have a year to prepare, right? that only seems like the fair thing to do in schools and and to say, "Okay, just know that next year this is the amount you should expect and budget for." So, yes, there would be some deeper cuts. If if this does not get um moved through and the funds don't come, then the uh shortfall begins immediately in September and October. And so then we would have to make a determination to keep programming in people to use the reserve that we have on hand. Superintendent Rectal was very, you know, plan as if you're not going to get these because we just don't know for sure right now, even as
010soon as, like you said, right now, July. Um, but they are doing things in the background to >> hopefully the stuff we should have already gotten will come through. Um, let's go to the spreadsheet now. Um, Dr. Meek and Amy of our finances. I put some of these together, more specifics about how this affects our district, especially compared to how this affects districts nearby and of um comparable sizes to us. Um this half of the state was definitely will definitely be affected more by this. Um Dr. M Amy, would you mind walking us through some some of these numbers that you've put together for us? >> Is there any way to blow that up. I don't know if I'm losing my vision or what, but I can't see it. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Thank
011you. >> So, so the amount on the map, the amount that they're saying is 1.1 million. That does not include the carryover from the school year. So, this current school year, what happens every year is that a portion of these grants get carried over into the following year. Uh, Superintendent Reagdal said that that's also in danger. >> That if we can if we can claim now, claim it now. So what I budgeted for next year was at 1.18 million plus carryover. If you scroll down, this is what is in my budget. So you have some OSSI, you have uh 21st century, which was uh that new grant that we were trying to get for after school. >> Then you have the title two, the um multilingual education, the migrant, and the LEAP, the ELLL portion.
012So that 2.8 million is what is in my budget for 2526 school year. >> And if we don't use it, we lose it essentially. So the 1.1 we're already at risk of not getting. >> Correct. >> But the remainder we also could lose. >> Correct. That's what Superintendent Reichel said on Thursday. He said, "If you can claim it now, claim it. EGMS is open now. It may be closed tomorrow." >> So can we do that? >> How do we claim I guess is it is it for programming? Is it for teachers? Why haven't we claimed it I guess is my question. >> Every year there's a certain percentage that we use and then we um we do every year carry over what we don't use. Most of these grants are 100% carryover. We were never
013in danger of losing them. So whatever we didn't use like during during COVID, we used money for that. Um, >> so are is it is it could we could we claim it now? >> What we're going to do, >> we're going to meet at right after this meeting and we're going to put our heads together and try to figure this out for our district. >> Still all of those are represent. So we can't just >> Okay, that that's what I was asking. Is it for teachers teachers uh salaries? Is it for uh books? Is it for what? >> Well, the big one the big one is migrant. That's uh $1 million. >> So that can be used on migrant students. I I'm not sure what the population. >> So the migrant the migrant grant basically
014covers all things migrant services. So in fellow that represents all of our parent coordinators, our home liaison, uh the migrant staff. It also provides resources and support materials like migrant summer school. So, it's a variety of things, but the majority of that is sitting in staff. >> Okay. And so, is it something that you can that we can claim and get into our bank account to use in the fall or is it something that you you spend the money and then you get reimbursed for it? >> To claim it, we it would have to be spent already so that we we claim on the tail end of it. What we're going to attempt to do is to look at all expenditures and see what would be allowable to reclassify some of those things to to
015make it claimable. Um obviously you can't yeah you can't supplant so you can't just go back and say oh we're going to pay for this instead >> and it would have to fit the allowable like in migrants case it would have to be at at the benefit of migrant students or the other big one is the title three uh which is our multilingual federal grant. Can we go up to the stats about the like where number this and where it's up on the top? Um, right. >> We should know how much of that we can claim pretty soon. I mean, if you're meeting today, maybe within like the next week, you should know kind of what we're doing. >> They like like she said, it could be closed tomorrow. the superintendent rectal just said, you
016know, do as much as you can right now because we don't know exactly what's going to happen to this program or how long we'll be able to claim things >> and we have to spend it first and then claim like Josh said. So, for example, we're using uh title three and migrant for our summer school. That doesn't we're not going to claim that until August. So, we just and we don't know the exact amounts yet until summer school's over. So, we're it's all little pieces that we have to put together. So these numbers here are ranks our school district compared to everyone else. How many how many districts total? >> 295 in Washington. >> Yeah. So for So we're 23rd out of 295 highest in total money lost of all the school districts in the
017state. Um if you do that by student and by enrollment, that's what those numbers are. Um that Dr. Mik and Amy figure these stats out for us. Um, yeah. So, that's where we are with those. Any questions about that? Comments about that? More any more clarification on that? >> I I guess kind of what's what's our plan moving forward if we don't get that allocated 1.185 from the federal government? Are we looking at making cuts before August 27th when school starts or whatever our first day is? Are we going to try to prevent that or are we going to go into the hole? That's what we'd have to decide if we're going to use our fund balance for this, if we're going to make cuts, if we're going to do combination of both. And you
018have any more comments on on that? What would happen? >> I I think one additional comment is both of our uh our major contracts, the one with PSC and the one with OEA both have sort of a protective clause in there for the association and for the district that says legislative impacts create an opportunity to reopen the contracts for discussion. So, um, this might be one of those instances where you have to go back to the table and say, "This is how much we're short and this is why we we would have or like Aaron said, you you go to the the reserves to try and maintain programming for the year and then see what's next." Couple of more I think next two steps long range. Um, one is even if this money does come
019through because uh, Congress doesn't want to mess with it and they're going to say let's just let's just leave it for now and then moving forward make some cuts. um it gives us a year to prepare for that to know that they're coming. One of the other things that was discussed in the um session with Reichd Doll though is more longer term play about whether or not you could spend any resources on undocumented students. Right now in Washington uh you don't ask for um documentation from any student. There's no there's no requirement to collect and we don't collect that data. But there are states that have begun to do that. So then the sort of worst think about the worst case scenario where um if you're an undocumented student that you're not allowed to use
020resources at the school level. So can we transport you to school? Can we give you breakfast or lunch? Um are you allowed to participate in athletics? Right? This this um lots of unanswered questions and confusion that's coming. And what I think is is difficult about it is I heard the other day like the diversity in Adams County between Ritzville and Oll, even though we're not that far apart and we're in the same county, the communities are different and they have different needs, right? It's hard to for county commissioners to manage that. Now, put that at scale with an entire country where a place like Oll needs farm labor. Everybody needs it. The economy here needs it, right? It's what our community is based on. But then you don't fund schools who have those kinds of
021students in their schools. It's going to be u it's going to be messy and it's messy right now. So there's there's some big questions to be answered beyond just the funding part of it. >> Where did where did Washington state fall in that if we don't if we don't collect that kind of information for is it like is it a moot point for Washington state? I think it becomes it's sort of I think this is a reaction to some of the um culture wars that came out during COVID and around gender expression and gender identity where states like Washington and California had the support of the federal government to say if you don't do these things in your state we're going to take your money and some of the more conservative states they didn't like
022that and they were at risk of losing their money. now that the you know the shoe's on the other foot and they're saying you do these things or we're going to take your money and now it'll be it'll be um up to the state to decide whether or not they're going to get in line and and follow those guidelines. >> Are we in are we in jeopardy of losing the free lunch for all students? >> There is a qualifying standard for the number of students in your school district. Um if one of the requirements becomes that we have to ask folks for um residency documentation and families make a decision that they're just not going to fill that out, then that could put us at risk. You know, a number of people wouldn't wouldn't respond
023or reply. Um certainly there have been some cuts to um uh nutritional supports and and the SNAP program and those kinds of things. like all those things lead up to um how the federal government is going to have to cut in a number of areas to um manage the recently passed um tax cuts. So I think it's all at risk. >> Something I do want to draw your Would you scroll over a little bit, Marissa? >> Yeah, those titles of those grants probably don't mean much to most people and so I do want to just kind of draw your attention to what that represents. uh because some of them are um standalone programs or and then some of them have multiple funding sources that come to them. So title one part C that's our migrant
024grant. Uh it's the only migrant funding we get and so if that was eliminated we in essence uh have no resources to fund supporting our migrant students. Uh, title two part A is a is really focused on professional development and growth of teachers. Uh, primarily in Oll. It funds our uh, new teacher teacher mentoring. Uh, a lot of recruitment efforts. It's it's really about uh, sustaining the pipeline if you will. Uh, title three is our multilingual it's the federal part of our multilingual grant. uh we get both a state and a federal uh grant and so that one would be more likely to see a significant reduction in in the services versus uh completely eliminated. Uh, title four, we're fortunate. We actually um blend that with title one. And then title two certification. We this
025year have been a grant recipient of districts getting um to enable to help teachers get uh multilingual certified. And so it's a it's it's a competitive grant. And then if you scroll down below a little bit, um one of the other groups of grants that are at risk in this whole thing are those school improvement grants. And those are the grants that uh go to schools that are um not making the progress of of kind of the norm if you will. Uh we have a number of schools obviously involved in that and so those are also at risk of of just being eliminated altogether. One of the big topics of conversation on that call that day though too was uh what happens to the expectations for these things. So, for example, if all of a
026sudden um Luda Kaga no longer gets school improvement money, uh do the expectations around school improvement shift or change or do they stay the same? Um and that's yet to be determined. So, >> well, I mean, in a in a perfect world, I think all of our goal is that none of our schools qualify for that, right? I mean, essentially that's our goal that we're our kids are doing so well that we we don't qualify for that. That's a small, >> right? Right. >> So, still a lot of yet to be determined like we've been saying, but it will affect our funding. Um, honestly, it'll affect a lot of other districts worse than us. Um, like in a worse, you know what I mean? >> But, um, it is something we'll have to prepare for
027and think about and talk about. Well, thank you for preparing this for us and please keep us in the loop as you move forward and let us know like kind of what our plan is going forward with that. Anything else for board member discussion? Okay, we're going to move on to required approvals. At this time, I'll accept a motion to approve the required approvals. >> I'll make a motion to approve the required approvals. Second. >> Motion made and seconded. All in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? Motion passes 40. >> Um I will accept a motion for required approvals by early accounts payable warrants two. >> I'll make a motion to approve early accounts payable two. >> I'll second that motion. >> Motion made and seconded. All in favor? >> I. >> Three approval and
028one abstain. Uh moving on to superintendentform informationational items. We'll turn the time over to Dr. Perez. >> All right. Thank you. Uh before we jump into the levy uh planning update, I do want to in the uh approvals that just happened, you'll notice an interlocal agreement between the school district and Adams County Sheriff's Office. Uh that's been in the works for a number of months. Uh the county is now has access to a a trained uh K9 unit in the U for our county. So, I wanted to um let you know that that partnership that we're trying to develop and maintain with Adams County Sheriff's Office is represented there. It's also part of part of our broader approach to always thinking about ways to make sure that our schools are for our staff and our
029students are safe. And so, you'll see some other approvals and discussion items coming up in the in the coming weeks related to fencing and and thinking about how we monitor movement in and out of Ollo High School in particular and some broader safety enhancements for a number of our staff members. So, thank you for for moving that through. >> Will you will you dive into just a few more details about the agreement with Adams County just so that the public can know what that what that's about? What will that look like? >> So, um we were approached by Adams County Sheriff Dale Wagner and uh we met several months ago to talk about the training and the development they had with their new um K9. and the district had a contract in place for several
030years, but then when the county didn't have the services of the dog anymore, um we didn't have the agreement anymore. So, the the sheriff's office approached us. We bounced it back uh and forth a couple times after conversations with our principles about how we would access those services, when they would be accessed, and how would we track whether or not we would get a return on our investment for participating in their program. So, it really is just saying, "Hey, we're going to bring in the K9 um 10 or 12 times a year. This is how much it would cost for you to participate and to support that program so we continue to offer it to everybody in our county." And so, it was just an opportunity for the school district to partner with the county
031on a project. It's not unlike some of the agreements we have with um Oll PD and our school resource officers and them teaching law and justice. It's maintaining those partnerships between our our local law enforcement. >> Is it mostly for drug detection? Yes, exactly. So, we can bring we can uh there are parameters and requirements that we have and there's board policies in place for how canines can be used in schools and in parking lots and in different areas. But, yeah, it's it's a a layer again of of making sure our schools are safe. >> Great. Thank you. >> So, now jumping into the um levy planning presentation, if we could call it that slideshow. Um, I know that there there was conversation at the last board meeting about uh where we're headed and um
032what we should be thinking long term and certainly some of these conversations about federal funding and and all the um sources of revenue that come into the school district have to be considered. But really three broad questions we want to discuss with the board today. It's when should we run the levy, how long should we run it for, and and how much should we ask our community to um to kick in. So, uh, this presentation will be, uh, shared between myself, Dr. Meek, and Amy Suarez, and we're going to just jump right in and would hope you'd have some some questions or commentary along the way. Uh you've seen this before at our retreat back in June and today we're going to really focus primarily on those those three bullets or buttons if you will
033on the far left and that's aligning with uh you know what is the plan and and how do the pieces fit together before we get to an election. And so I we just wanted to to take you back there um to remember we're still talking about the same thing that we were a month ago. Now, there's some things we're asking you to consider and I think would be part of our conversation today, and that's really um how do our local voters feel around multiple levies. Um, we know that I was able to attend the um fire district. Uh, they had a a their public meeting and said that they rarely have folks attend, not unlike some schoolboard meetings, but there were probably 40 or 50 of us in the room to hear about their levy
034and and where they're headed. So, we should consider that. We should consider voting behavior and turnout in November and February. So, we have some data to share with you around that. >> So, that that fire one was the county or the city? >> That was with the county. That was the county. Yes, they are running. >> Can you give us some details around that? >> Yeah, so my understanding is that the county is going to run what they call a levy lid lift. They currently collect around 62 or 63 cents per thousand and they are asking the voters to approve um 90 cents per thousand. Uh it's to um fill the gap that they have identified that was left by the city opting out of their services moving forward. So the city is simultaneously trying
035to hire a chief and start their own fire department to provide fire services. Meanwhile, the county wants to maintain their fire district services and their their offerings. And so, they need some additional revenue to do that. So, they're going to they're going to try and increase theirs by about 27 cents. >> And they're running it when? >> They're running theirs in November. >> In November. >> Yeah. And and so there was some urgency at their meeting to try and get that done. You know, our meeting is a week later here. for meeting today and would have to consider it at the next board meeting as well. Uh so there's some urgency to try and get it done if if you all decide that that's the way we should go. >> Do we think that our
036community will have um like levy fatigue like thinking about that? Because if it's both of us, we I mean we need it, but >> yeah, I think that's an that's an absolute consideration and that's an excellent term for it. I think that phrase or a concept of levy fatigue is reflected in these considerations. multiple levies. How are voters going to feel about that? Um, you know, there's one school of thought that says, "Hey, let's partner with the the the uh the fire department and think about how we demonstrate value and and and all of those things." And there's another that says, "Hey, maybe we're going to confuse our voters and and maybe we are going to have some fatigue for uh especially if there's an increase on their end, but not on ours." So, lots
037of things to consider for sure, >> Pete. And it was a it's a it's going to move forward regardless of if there's a change in mayor or change in city council. That is still a the uh the vote for the levy and the vote for uh local governance are on the same day. Yep. So it's it's moving forward. I got a flyer in the mail, maybe many of you did, as as a came from the county describing the process. So yep, it's moving forward. I'm just trying to figure out how they're going to get so many volunteers to work the city and the county. So, we already have enough problems the way it is. So, >> that was a question that came up in the forum that they had and and from folks who had
038been in our community for a number of years who are worried about splitting resources, particularly manpower, and the county did indicate they would not stop their current volunteers from volunteering at both departments, but that that it would be a challenge for sure. So competing interests for sure. Um the next slide is uh just a little bit of a reminder about where we've been with our uh levies the last few times. Oello's had a strong history of supporting levies. We ran them at about a$150 each, right? And um you can see that the number of votes that typically happened in the last two cycles and the level of percentages of approval. Uh just a reminder that in Washington it's 50 plus one. So um simple majority needed in in Washington. Now uh voting data. This is
039something that we also wanted you to to be aware of and to think about. This is the general election and the the turnout for those um election cycles. And so you can see the numbers in November particularly when you have a contested race the presidential level. And we'll it'll we'll see what this mayor race generates. But I would expect there would be a little bit higher turnout than you see in uh 21 or 23 there. Now the special elections on the right, those have typically been for our bonds and levies. And you can see the voter turnout in those races as they apply. So typically fewer voters that turn out in uh in February. Uh so then we're going to talk a little bit about the pros and cons about when we should run this.
040So obviously looking at that uh voter participation data it starts to to indicate some things that are both positive or negative. And so let's first focus on what would be some pros about running in November. Uh the first of those as you see from the previous slide that uh November has higher voter turnout. more people typically vote in those uh November elections especially during uh things like a presidential election and and locally as Pete said um you know there's there is definitely a buzz around the mayor race in in Oll right now and so that will probably indicate a greater participation um there's also some cost efficiency uh remember that uh each jurisdiction pays for their uh portion of a ballot and so the actual cost of printing and distribution and the whole And so,
041um, when you run with multiple jurisdictions, that cost is shared among everything that's on the ballot. If we run in February, uh, chances are we would be alone on that ballot, and so we would incur the the entire cost of it. Um, some cons or some things that would could be a challenge. Uh, one is obviously the as as Mariah just said, the the ballot competition, uh, of having both a school district levy and a fire levy on the same ballot. uh might uh stir up some opinions for tax sensitive voters. And then um that compressed preparation time uh you know that as we've moved through this quickly is uh in order for a November election to happen which is actually the next screen. We might as well just go there. uh is that today
042after today's meeting uh you would need to take action at your next meeting in two weeks from today in order to get it on the November uh ballot. So that uh it's just an identification that uh we would be uh moving quickly to get the pieces together which we're both prepared to do but also say so with a word of caution just in uh communication and with all the other things going on uh just around um school funding and taxes and different elections is is now the right time for us to um quickly move through some communication pieces to get in front of our community. Uh if you look at February as the next opportunity to run uh some things that would be uh positive for that is it allows um really the attention to
043be about education and to get to a point where that February special election you typically don't see many things on February elections. It's kind of a traditional school funding ballot if you will. Um and so would that be positive for us to be able to focus the attention and then it gives us some extendedformational period. And so, um, it's kind of back to that original chart of the the pieces coming together that it still is going to require a lot of information this fall. Um, but we would have the time in the fall versus not having it right now within November. Some cons, um, typically February elections see lower v voter turnout and so obviously that, uh, brags a lot begs a lot of question about the community support behind it. And then uh because
044we would most likely be by ourselves on that, it would the cost to the district would be a little bit higher being uh solo on the ballot. Do you know off the top of your hand? >> It's about a $35,000 uh bill for running an election was the most recent one in 2023. So it it is a it is a chunk of money is the bottom line. Uh this goes to Is this for you, Pete? >> This one's me. >> So, uh, deciding how long to run a levy, as Dr. Meek indicated there, the timing of it certainly makes a difference in and trying to predict how voters are going to react. But we just had a conversation a bit ago about um predictability with our budgets and how that gets when you lose predictability
045like we are with federal funds. It can be unnerving. So three or four years allows us an opportunity to forecast ahead. We feel like the three-year window uh is more accurate and gives us a better chance to uh behave the way we have the last several cycles with our levy, which is get really clean audits and and balance our books the best we can. It's also important that levy equalization, that's a consideration. That is one thing that uh hurt us this last cycle. Uh immediately after passing the levy, Adams County uh reassessed all of our property values. And as you know, those amounts went up significantly. That decreased the amount of of local effort assistance that the state sent our way. So, we actually lost money in that. locally we didn't pay anymore but the
046state didn't view us as being a property poor district as at the level that we were before and so that had an impact as well. So staying with that three-year cycle also um limits that risk that we you know as the assessor comes out and and changes our our our values that we wouldn't be stuck in that four-year cycle. If we if we just did a three-year versus a fouryear, would that put us at risk of needing to run a levy the next time we're ready to run a bond? >> And I think getting back to this initial slide right here, it's it's it certainly factors into that. How long should we do it and for how much? And how is that going to tie into what a bond might look like? >> So, let's
047say we run a levy in February of 26. It kicks in in 27. >> Yes. >> So then our let's say if we run a three-year levy, we wouldn't need to run another one until 2030. >> Correct. >> Okay. And we would try to go to a for a bond potentially before 2030. Don't we get state match in like 29 >> 2930? Yep. >> So they they would come at about the same time. So, it's that it's that consideration of voter fatigue and and also there's some strategy. Many many districts are finding success running a bond and levy at the same time. >> The yes voters come out for for the levy and those same folks show up for the bond at the same time if if folks are really able to separate and you
048can communicate that it's a maintenance tax and a new tax. So some folks are actually using that strategy as well and I think that's broad of a part of a broader district uh planning process for bonds and bonds in particular. And so another reason that we are advocating and I think we'll share with you in just a few minutes um the process and the path that we've been on to do it in in February allows us to generate that pro and con committee which we're required to do but also a levy committee and partnering with our associations that may in fact at some point turn into a bond committee. It also specifically to your point um we've talked about lining up those different potential elections and there's still a lot of unknowns on the bond
049side of things and so we've talked about things like a capital levy and so we want to make sure and be careful about where they calendar out into the future before we just make some assumptions and jump into it. >> Okay, why does the $150 matter? So a $1.50 if we pass our levy for a $1.50 the state will give us in the local effort assistance the maximum amount. So anything less than the $150 the state gives us less money which we learned the hard way in 2023. Um right now we're projecting um the amounts in the next slide based on an 8% growth in our property values and our um student enrollment um projected out um based on what I budgeted for the next four years. So what makes uh the levy the LEA
050amount less is if our property values go up too high more than the 8% or if our student enrollment goes down. On the flip side if our student enrollment increases so does our LEA the amount per student that we get from the state will increase so long as the levy passes. This is an I think want to draw some attention to this based on what I heard at the county presentation the for the fire district. There was an understanding in the room that um the state schools fund like we all get taxed and we send it into the state of Washington and then they you know we keep our little piece locally. I think it's important to and this will be a part of education for our voters and our staff that that highlighted amount
051there doesn't come back to your district unless you chip in the part on the left there. And uh that's a a function of the state trying to equalize access for all students in Washington. So really is a good value for a community like ours. And I it also is important to highlight we were just sharing with you the stress that everyone's feeling over about a a $1.3 million loss in federal funds. Imagine an 11.3 million loss in in local funds. And that's what our friends just north in Moses Lake experienced. And again, the community's been so supportive over the years and and understood that. But it'll take some reminding and it's it's different political times to let folks know. >> Well, we're on that slide, too. And and I want to remind us of our
052June retreat conversation. Levies are one of those weird things in education funding that we talk a lot about the $150, but what you're actually approving in resolution and what voters approve is the is the tax amount. So in like in 2027 the 4.3 million. And that's why sometimes the rate can go higher than the $150 or lower than the$150. So it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter what happens to assessed value. the district is maxed at collecting the 4.3 million. It's just a matters of how it's divided among the taxpayers. And so, um, but in some ways that$150 number is irrelevant other than it it helps communicate to individual families, business owners, farm owners about what they can expect to pay. So the amount of the levy will not change but the amount of the LEA
053does change based on values of the property and the student count. We have no control over those those things. I wanted to give a little bit of history before this slide. Um the reason why if you go to the previous slide if you can see here we're we're going to say that in the three years the 27 28 29 we're projected to get 34.5 million in levy Leah that is based on the projections that we have what we know today the last time we ran the levy we did the same projections the same growth student count and stuff like that and um like I said we had no um we didn't know what the assessed value was going to do. And because of the increase in 2023 of 30 some% to our property values, it
054lowered our LEA amount to about 3.8 million in the three years. So, we said we were going to get this amount like we're saying now we're going to get this amount and actually we we got $3.8 million less. And that plays a big number factor into our budget >> which usually another reason why districts. >> Yeah. The other piece to that then uh in 24 and 25 and what we're projecting in 26 we're our community is going to be playing paying $123 per thousand not a$150. So, they're getting a little break. Any questions on that? Now, we can go to the next slide. So, this is my four-year projections starting with this current with the upcoming school year 2526. And I want to point out that this is um as if the levy passes and
055we get the amount in the LEA that we're projecting. Okay. So if you can see in the 2526 school year, our revenues are going to be 84.5 million and our expenditures 87. Our revenues over expenditures will be 2.6 million. Our beginning fund balance is projected to be 13.8 8 million and our ending fund balance 11.1 million. The reason I wanted to bring this to your attention is because this is as if our levy passes when we go to vote. Also, in that $84.5 million in revenues, that includes the $2.8 million of federal money that is in jeopardy as of right now. So, we're in even bigger trouble if we don't get all that money. >> Correct. >> Basically, by 2829, you're telling me we're going to have 300,000 in the bank. >> We're broke. We're
056broke by 2829 if we don't do something different. >> In the in these projections, if you can see the percentages um after the school year, those are the IPDs. Those are just projections. What we know for sure is the 2.5 for the 2526 school year. The 26 and and forward, those are our our projections. The higher the IPD is for our for the state of Washington, the higher the amount that we go in negative. >> Explain to me what the revenues over expenditures like. Like we're >> we're gonna >> I'm just I'm thinking home. I'm thinking if I make 10 bucks I'm I'm spending seven not 10 or 12 >> here it keeps every year it seems like we >> obviously we're not getting money back from the state or whatever but at what point
057do we sit there and start making cuts so that we are under the 84,000 or the 88,000 or the 89,000 or the 90 or not 90 million I said it's at what point do we decide that We're not going to keep going into this fund balance and and and at the end put us to where Lindsay said it best. >> This is where we start the conversations moving forward if where does our district go from here. >> So this and this is this is um I'm trying to think of the word I feel right now. >> Um this isn't unexpected and this isn't um I don't think it's shocking. This is where 10 or 12 school districts in Washington are already in 2829 status. They're already in trouble. There's a number of others that are
058on the same path as us headed that way. So, it's going to be because what you can do here is you can either decrease expenditures, which we've we've done, right? We closed Desert Oasis High School. We we limited um um um we we we took away some staff at different levels. We've been thoughtful about programming. all of those things. At some point, the state's going to have to intervene on the revenue side and decide whether or not they're going to rescue 200 of the 295 school districts. Right now, it's, you know, 10 or 15, but more are headed that way. The other thing that I find comfort in is Amy runs this out and we just show you really transparently where things are headed. She showed me a couple the other day that have been
059submitted to the state of Washington. And what those districts did is they copied and pasted column one. They really didn't make any predictions. They just said, "Well, here's here's what it's going to be." And I'm assuming the state accepted that. But this is where a number of schools in WA districts in Washington already are and where we're headed as well. We've just been trying to slow the path and the pace to get there at a pace that the associations can tolerate and that and that our kids deserve, right? We don't want to dramatically cut things from one year to the next. So, we're slowly marching down that path and we're hopeful that in the next couple of years, revenues will increase. We'll we'll they'll we'll more that red that iso smartly called out will begin
060to go away and um you know, we can start putting some in the bank again. >> There is one more piece. The number of operating days in fund balance if you'll see in the 2526 school year it's 46 days. So that means in our fund balance we have 46 days of operating money. So if you took your total number of expendit your total expenditures divided by 365 days that's how many days we have in the bank. The SAO the state auditor's office says for for a district to be healthy we need to have at least 60 days which we have had in the past. Now we're moving forward. When a district goes into uh the state average is 48 days and then once you hit 30 days is when you become unhealthy. So if you
061can see that'll probably be in school year 27 28. So, it looks like to me if if I was running this as my own business or my own home, >> we need to do exactly again this year what we did last year, which is after the beginning of the school year. We we got to figure out how we're going to trim $2.6 million out of our budget so that we're not we can't keep robbing our our savings account or we're going to be in big trouble. I I I get where Pete Pete you're coming from where the state has to come in and say, "Hey," and I'll publicly say, "They're idiots. I don't see them fixing this problem. It's been going on for how long now?" I I honestly believe that because some of the
062schools have done the correct thing and and tried winding it down that it's going to take a lot longer than those four years to get themselves into trouble before the state ever does. I'm just not trying to be at 319,000 trying to figure out then I I I rather when you come from nothing you work your butt off. And you're always told if you make 10, you put four or five away and and you use the other. At some point, we have to It's going to hurt. Nobody wants to make cuts. Nobody wants to to put kids in a in a bad spot or not offer them, you know, things that we can. But at some point, we have to start making taking care of ourselves because I don't think that the state is going
063to come in in time for us to be healthy those those 60D healthy I yeah >> what one more disclosure that beginning fund balance 13.8 8 million. That's as of what I know right now. That um what we're going to spend this summer on professional development, summer school, national board payouts and stuff like that. That could be a little bit more. It could be a little bit less. I we won't know that until the end of the school year. So >> to to go two to 300,000 is one thing. I'm looking at going from 11 million in four years being at 319,000. That's the scary part right there. >> Yeah. >> I mean, just looking at how I would I would run a business. I I I could never depend on someone else to bail
064out my business to say, >> you know, I'm going to lose $3 million this year, but and then $2 million the year after and then almost $4 million the year after and then almost six million the year after and somebody's going to come and bail me out. I I mean I feel very insecure in feeling like the the state is going to come and bail us out of this at some point. >> Yeah, I I appreciate the the um the way you all are viewing it and it makes sense to me that you even if it wasn't a business, it was just your your own balance sheet at home. I think the the the other factor for us to consider is um these numbers are going to be the same across the entire state for
065every student, every teacher, every school board. And I want to believe um that the state which has demonstrated a commitment to and uh in the constitution their paramount duty to appropriately fund education is going to have to respond and that the voters and the state will make them do that. Um they haven't done it in the last two or three. We certainly didn't get a whole influx of money this last year, but the M uh MOC was $50 per student. >> Yes. >> Yeah. So we we celebrated $50 per student >> and then you saw the federal impact in Oll was 270 per student lost, right? We're 220 in the hole now. >> So um yeah, I understand. And we why we're sharing these with you is we're telling you here's a path we're headed
066down and we're working feverishly every year to say what can people tolerate. Um because you don't want to cut all at once and you don't want to cut more than you need to just like we did last year. So if that 13.845 turns into 14.5 and I have another 700,000 now I only have to find two million not 2.7 million. And with 700,000 that's a lot of people in programs for kids. So, we'll we'll be presenting to you again. Here's how we're right sizing this next year, right? That's what that conversation was about. >> And and like I said, Pete, I I I I totally understand, but our state's in its own deficit. I mean, we're they're in their their own hole trying to dig themselves out with overt taxing for that. I just don't
067see how they get out of their own hole that they're in now and also help the education part of it. It's just a it's a mess. And so I get where you're coming from. I just the the business part of me, I guess, or the the personal me is is always protect to make sure that there's something for tomorrow. And and I understand not to cut too deep, but at some point, yeah, we're definitely going to have to start really looking at it. You don't want to say that. You wish you could take care of everybody, but at some point those numbers are really stra like like they hit you in the face and you're just like, and Amy, thank you because like I said, I think we had seen something similar to this last
068year, but man, this one there's too much red on this page. And just >> when when will we have a plan for for what we're going to do for right sizing for the 2526 school year? >> Know that. >> Yeah, we're already working on that. I think last year was such a focus on um the people part of it. And what I think you'll see this year is uh maybe a more nuanced approach that includes people and programs, maybe supplies, other areas where we think we can tighten things up a little bit again to keep as much impact off of students as possible. >> Uh so we're already working on that. >> Um Pete, question. So let's just say we were using the $150 amount and for the levy. If we were to just say
069we got we we come together and we we you know, let's go to, you know, two two and a quarter. How much does that affect us? Can we use some of that to help us out there? I mean, if we made a suggestion of saying, hey, we need to go back out and tell our our people, hey, you know, we're we're trying to offer the kids the best that we can, the most that we can if we get this to a $2 assessment. >> What I think >> how big of a Yeah. How big of a would that that be? You know, >> I think the danger in doing that is then um people are already tight. They'll have just passed the Adams County levy when and asking for an increase and then when we
070go to ask for a bond, they they'll say no. the the the bond part. Listen, no, I I want this place to burst the bubble that we've always talked about is the stigma here. But when you go to a bond and hopefully you would sit there and say, you know what, we want to build a school, but but the funding matches are there. I think that our the people around us will say, okay, if the state's going to give us this amount, we're we're only better bond. I think the bond has more to do with how much money the state will offer us. This one here though, if we could show that, hey, you know what? We're >> basically I guess does the state give us more money if we for so the state's going
071to match us with our with our levy money? >> Yeah, but if we go up to $2, really quick calculations, uh we would go about $1.5 million more in in levy money. But that would all be local money. None of that would come from the state. So the state is maxed out at how much they're going to give us. That would just be local money >> per year. >> Yes. >> That still doesn't help you if you look at that. If even if you if you get that extra 1.2 or whatever, you're basically going to drain it by the time you get to 2028 29. >> I mean, it would help. And like I said, it it all depends on on the tax values as well. Student count. >> Well, I mean, I guess I
072guess at that point, Amy, let's just say that we rerun the bond and all of a sudden they come back out and they assess all these new homes that they put in and and we all of a sudden >> So what are we out again and back down to $127? >> Correct. >> Do we change the language on that? I mean, can we change the language on that or we just can't say two bucks and that's it or a$150 and that's it? the current the current laws around this and the current dollar50 thing was the last time the state redefined a basic education. So the these rules that we're working with now was the last attempt in 2018 I think when they they attempted to restructure education. So no you don't get an opportunity um
073you can go out and run another levy for the difference um to go to that that maximum but >> most places don't try and attempt that. people. >> So, if we keep it the same, we need 50%. If we raise it, do we need more or does it stay the same? 50 stays the same 50. Well, thank you, Amy. Um, do you want to share with the board after our considerations? Um, we think it's our these are just our recommendations, but certainly a conversation for the board to have. We have included a draft resolution for a potential first reading uh which it would be required if if the board does decide to move forward with a November date. Our recommendation is a three-year levy estimated at around $150 using that 8% um assessed value growth
074rate and we are recommending that we maintain the pattern of our February special elections. So, those are the recommendations from the district and I think would welcome any any additional questions or comments from from the board or direction for us to um consider the uh draft resolution that that is attached in this item but not in the approval area. >> I have a question Pete. Let's say you do it in February and you get a 100 people to turn out. Is it is it 50 plus one on on those 100 votes >> or is it is there a certain number that you have to hit to be considered? >> Yeah, there's a required voter threshold for from based on the last election and so ours would be based on the mayor's race. I don't think
075we've ever had an instance where we didn't meet that. Um but yeah, it's 50 plus one for whoever turns out to vote. Can I can you let me know what that threshold number is? Just out of curiosity. I'm just Yeah, >> I think it's come up before that whether or not something like this passes also partially depends on how the teachers are feeling about it. Do we feel like one of these is better or worse for that? >> One of the options, >> right? February. >> Um I I I don't think so. It's it's um certainly our our both both of our large associations PSC and OEA play a part in helping advertise and and whatever they do. The district is limited in how we can promote and and advertise a levy, right? We can
076just give facts, but um we have had conversations particularly with OEA about um their role and what they how they might participate. So I I don't think either model is other than the health of the district. how do we how do we maintain what's happening here locally? And so I want to believe that they would agree with our recommendations >> and and typically teachers well the unions are are behind a levy 100% because it's their jobs and and their programs on the line. So I I think we've always had really great teacher support when it comes to running levies regardless of when when they're run. Um, Mariah, do you have a anything outside of these recommendations that you'd like to see? The only thing that comes to my head is that if we're going to
077ask for more than one dollar.50, we have to be we have to hold it ourselves accountable and also let the community know that we're listening to what you're saying. You need to come and tell us if we're asking you for more money. So, I think that's something that we have to take into consideration as a board. It's like we're asking them for more money. We need them or get more people involved in decision making moving forward because I think that's the only way we're going to get them on our side when they're already going to do the Adams County one. So, I just feel like gas is $4. >> People are already stretched thin like how are we going to let them know your return on investment, right? So, kind of just thinking of maybe
078communications plan for later on because >> I just I like the I like the November one just because it's going to bring there's enough people that are upset already over this fire department deal and this mayor deal that they'll look at this school district and say, "Okay, we've we've gone with this. We know this. This is all new. We don't really care for it. We're upset." That's that's the intriguing part of doing something in November. I know that it's it's a short window and it's narrow, but I think there's so much >> what concerns me with the November timeline timeline is that people are frustrated and I I would hate for them to go to the to their voter pamphlet when they're feeling frustrated by by paying for, you know, a levy lift in the
079county that they don't agree with because our fire department's being split. So they want to say like, "No, I I want this to be one fire department. So quit wasting my money." They're frustrated in the mayor race. So they're going there upset to because they want change. They want change in city council. And then to throw this in feels like with a with a volatile voting base feels makes me a little nervous about people saying no to certain things and then being like, you know what, no to you too. Um, >> hey, >> Jesus. >> I mean, you know, do you know what I'm saying, though? >> I I want people to go in a good mood. >> Juicy, Joe. >> We do already have an the validation percentage is 40%. So, that what that
080means in February is that 40, you have to get 40% of the votes that you got in November in February for the February election to validate. And then it has to be 50% plus one of those that would show up. I can work. >> That's reasonable. I was say >> we could we could work with that February. >> Just out of curiosity, you said it's 35,000 roughly, you know, to run the deal in February. If we were to run it in November, what does that break down to? >> It'd be 35,000, but split between >> I mean the city, >> split between fire and us. So it would be like a third of the cost. >> It's don't don't assume it's a third because >> um usually each of those jurisdictions have a different um
081voter base and so we're responsible for the >> county. >> Well, we're we're responsible for the entire school district boundary. >> Oh, >> where the um county voters may only be so they it's kind of prrated on what part of the the ballot you're paying for. So, um, so it doesn't always prove to be like a third of the cost, I guess, is my point. >> Does that make sense? >> Did they say if the pool was going to be on the on this? >> Probably the pool, too. >> Because if it is, a brow February for sure, we're out. >> I I didn't hear officially from the city, but I did hear uh through another source that I I believe the city is considering an April um ask for the the pool. >> February,
082it is. Erin, are you comfortable with the recommendations? Do you have anything you want to add? >> Sounds good. Yeah, I asked all my questions. >> Okay. >> What are you comfortable with? >> I'm good with this. I I I'm I'm good with their recommendation. It just scares me the$150 with the only the 8% growth because I don't want to get stuck again where we we're supposed to get a$150 and we're getting a$120. How bad or how good and I know it's a projection Amy and by no means we'll ever hold you in the water but like how close does that be? You honestly think I know I know that really threw us for a hole last time when they went and they did the evaluations of our homes afterwards. But how how how comfortable
083do you feel with that? >> Let me before she answers that because she's flipping through her numbers, let me offer this as a little bit of understanding. If we run in November right now, there really is no opportunity to do what Mariah just talked about of of kind of researching that and figuring out and playing with that number and seeing where the right place is. A February election does give us some breathing room to say, do you want to consider it at two? What does that really mean? what does that look like? What what more specifically is looking at assessed valuations? And so, um, >> that's part of what >> we won't be locked in at the dollar50. >> And to be honest with you, it doesn't even have to be two. I mean, a
084buck 75. I mean, it doesn't have to be just maybe just a small increase so that if we do end up getting what we did this time around, we get closer to that really what that about 50 that we would really need because that really hurt us. Uh these are actual. So in 2022 the values went up 8%. 2023 they went up 35%. 2024 they went up six and 205 they went up eight. >> Linds >> and we're projecting 8% for next year. >> 35 was that when we had the house boom? Is that what it was? All those new houses or what was it >> statewide? there was a momentum to better align assessed value with real property values. It's a district that numbers it's kind of completely irrelevant because it's you know if
085an assessed value of a home is 200,000 but you might be able to sell it for 400,000 that all the counties tried to get those numbers closer together. The way that I uh had it explained to me at the the fire district meeting was and it was a county commissioner who was sharing this that that jump was statewide based on the discrepancy between market value and assessed value and that the state had made uh uh I guess threat's the right word to say if you don't go out and appropriately assess property values in your county we will set them at 100% of market value And so the state forced the hand of county assessors to go out and do that. And that's that's why the big jump. And so when they were calculating the math
086for us the other day on a webinar, the folks who help us establish these numbers and and do the math, they recommended 8%. See kind of how I have a hard time thinking that the state's going to come save us when you've had, hey, you're going to take a shot you don't want. Hey, you're going to raise this or I'm going to do this. I'm going to go do this and if you don't do it, I'm going to slap you. Now, we're supposed to sit here and wait and say, "Hey, you're going to come save the day." I highly doubt that. I just >> Okay. I I think we're good with the recommendations and >> stick with the timeline. >> Yeah. With the timeline. And we'll kind of see as time goes on >> if
087we want to keep that dollar50 or say, "Yeah, as long as they can give us an update on the$150." >> Yeah. Thank you for the conversation. >> Okay. Anything else on the superintendent information items? >> Uh I don't believe so. >> Okay. Perfect. We'll move on to public comment. Did we have any public comment? >> No. >> Okay. Um moving on to upcoming events. It looks like we have nothing until our next meeting on July 28th at 1 pm and then our other our next board meeting August 11th. And then you can read on the calendar. We start getting back into back to school mode um with student registration and then another board meeting jumping into new teacher orientation. I know we we probably don't know at this time, but um just a plug to
088keep us in the loop for new new teacher orientation or the staff orientation if you want to invite the board to that so we can kind of have that in our heads or if we're not invited that's okay too. >> Just whatever. >> Pete, was it was it going to be like years past where it was going to be every individual school or are we are you guys going to do a whole all school? Yeah, I I think the current plan is to continue the model that we started last year, which is to visit each individual site. >> Okay, we'll move on to the board self assessment of the meeting. >> I appreciate all the work that's done in the background by people like Superintendent Press and uh Dr. Meek and Amy with all the
089numbers and stats and figuring things out. It's a lot of work in the background that we couldn't do without. So, Thank you very much. >> No one likes to talk about money. I've heard it's like the number one reason people get divorced. So, sorry if that is uncomfortable. I apologize. Uh, thank you for bringing us the facts and and giving us all that information and thank you for the um update on the levy information so that we can move forward with as much information as possible. Thank you. Missing Ken will be a delta for today. Definitely appreciate all of you leaving your summer vibes to come to the boardroom on a Monday in the afternoon when it's nice and hot outside. So, thank you for coming. Appreciate it. And shout out to our old school
090board member, Jen. Happy to see you. Yeah. Okay. Anything else? At this time, the board will recess into executive session for 90 minutes to discuss potential litigation and performance of a public employee. This meeting is adjourned.