001test. Test famous. >> Yeah, very more like an infamous I'd like to call this meeting to order. The meeting has been noticed to the Evans Print Media Group, WCW Radio, Magnum Radio, Lacrosse Tribune, Sparta City Hall, Sparta Free Library, and the Maplewood Administrative Building. Are there any changes to the agenda? >> No, there is not. I'd like to request a motion to adopt the agenda as stated. >> So, so moved. >> Second. A motion and a second. All in favor say I. >> Opposed. Could we please stand for the pledge of allegiance? >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Sam, could you remind us of the SASD mission statement, please?
002>> Yes. To educate all students academically, emotionally, socially to inspire curiosity and resilience. >> Would anyone in our extensive audience like to contribute public input? >> I do not believe we have any public input tonight. >> All right. Uh, we'll move on to reports then. How to read your tax bill. Miss Hower. >> Well, Miss Hower is not feeling well tonight. So, you have Mr. for us to go through the tax bill. And um the one thing that I do want to point out is we do have a web it does this uh there is a uh a document on our website of how to read it which uh mirrors some of these slides. Um, and we're not going to go ind depth with the uh with everything, but we're just going to give a
003high overview of that and we can answer any questions who might be there. But um, Miss Hower apologizes for not being be here tonight, but uh, wasn't able to, uh, make it. So, so we're continuing on. I do have some news. We are no longer 421 out of 421. And I asked how did that happen? And Miss Hower guessed that some people underleved. So once again, school districts do not have to levy to the max. They may underlevy. Um so we're in the bottom 1% of that right now. Um and um so the average state average though is over $1,000 additional uh is about over 12,500 per pupil. We get uh $11,350 per pupil. So we're well behind the state average and we're in the bottom 1%. Um to compare, we know we are the
004first year of the bianium budget. Um we did get the $325 increase uh for the as indicated in the previous budget for 400 years. Uh that stayed. Um but there was no increase to the general state aid, meaning that all of this 325 was put onto the local taxpayers through the levy. Um, and uh, this is the 17th year in a row that we did not get a cost of living increased. Um, if we would have gotten that, that would have been a $413ish uh, per pupil increase. Um, and the state budget says 325 for the next two years minimum. And, um, so we're going to do that. However, um, when you compare that to voucher payments, uh, two years for public education is $650. vouchers, they're over a thousand. So, that's just to give
005you and we'll talk a little bit more about the voucher part of our bill as well. This is just a reminder that uh we have the general revenue levy um of 10 and 27. 10 is general operating and 27 is um special education. Uh and then we have the debt service or the fund 39 and that is where our $87 million facility referendum. And then we have the community service uh our win our middle school athlet uh co-curricular programs uh our um weekend gym open gyms uh SRO's those are examples of fund 80 which is all uh recommended at the annual meeting and then approved in October from the board. Um so our budget and the property tax bill uh the our levy from last year to this year increased under 7%. Uh so we
006went from 14 million to a little bit over 15 million. Uh once again we had uh 325 increase but no increase in general state aid. Um we did increase uh we did levy about 47 uh 475,000 in addition uh in debt service or in fund 39 due to the uh facility referendum. And I said I'd talk about vouchers a little bit. Almost 20% of our levy goes to vouchers. So about 19% um so which is an increase of about 165,000 uh from one year to the next. And here's just a visual about our levy uh since 2020. As you can see uh between 2023 and 24 and 2425 we did have that big increase because we did have um our uh the two referendums pass the operating in April and the facility in November. And
007you can see uh the portions of each um when you talk about the buckets and the colors um in the district budget and the property tax bill itself. Uh one thing that I did want to put point out is is that the county and city tax on the assessed value of your home. School districts must tax on the fair market or the equalized value home. an equalized value is more than your assessed value. So there is a difference there. So we're not necessarily getting taxed on the same amount. Schools are on the equalized city and uh county are on the assessed value. Um our mill rate is determined by the fair market value of the property or the assessed value. Um and our average mill rate was $7.17. uh which about remain the same uh
008due to the fair market value increases. Our district is 14 municipalities and remember it's an average that town of Angelo may pay 707, town of Sparta 719, city of Sparta 716. Um so it is an average of the two. And here's a sample tax bill. I'm not going to necessarily go into it uh in depth. All the definitions and everything are on our website which I linked it again. Um but you can see from this uh example uh you have the assessed market value and then you have the fair market value. In this case it's almost $30,000 difference in this example. And then the last one just a reminder uh how to get the mill rate. It's not published on your tax bill, but using this very simple formula, you would be able to uh
009figure it out. But it's the next tax plus the school levy tax credit plus the total assessed value times 1,000 equals your mill rate. So, any questions about how to read your tax bill or anything like that? >> Questions or comments from board members? I've got a comment. Um, I had the opportunity to uh attend a WSB meeting back in November and a number of school districts are uh making some changes to property tax bills where they show where the money that for voucher schools where it's going. And I thought to myself, this is something that would really educate our taxpayers about why we're having problems with, you know, increased operating, uh, funds that we need and where it's going. And I think that would be something that we should consider doing. So, um, in
010the news recently, Green Bay, Ashland, I believe Oclair, uh, other school boards have adopted resolutions to ask the city or county to say, "Hey, let's that's how do we better report the amount that's actually going to public education versus vouchers?" And they've passed resolutions. And the um I'm assuming I've not researched this that much yet, but the superintendent would go to the county and say, "Hey, we would like this change to the tax bill to better indicate." I'd have to learn a little bit more if the board wishes to do that, but that would be something that a lot more school districts are doing to ask their counties to be a little bit more um open to where this in specifically where our tax levy is going to the amount. So about 19% would be
011on the tax bill to say this goes to vouchers. The 81% would go to public education. >> Other questions or comments from board members? >> Miss Lopez. >> Thank you. Um Mr. Russ, I think I heard you say that school districts are levied on the um or we apply the mill rate to the fair market value. >> Equalized value. Yep. Or the fair market value. Yep. >> Okay. And in and um in the on the example, the assessed value is actually higher in this situation than the fair market value, but that's not I'm sorry. Is that >> I misread that. Yes, that's I read the the fair market value is 26. The assessed value. Yeah, that's not very This was also from 2022. >> Okay. So >> 21 it's it's not that much. Mine my
012I live in the town of Sparta. Mine went up 5% and I think there's a $100,000 difference possibly. >> Okay. Thank you. >> So I apologize for that. >> Oh no, it's no problem. I just um I just wanted to ensure that I did hear you correctly. In then in most situations, the assessed value is less than the fair market value and we're taxed on fair. >> Yep. >> Thank you. >> Other questions or comments from board members? >> Dr. >> I got another question. Um when do we ever get out of being near the bottom 1% of uh revenue >> from the state? >> Yeah. is when uh the one of the part of the binding budget that didn't get passed through was the low revenue ceiling. Uh it's currently at $11,000. Um when
013it did go up to $11,000, we had the act 141 penalty due to the failed operating referendum in 2022. When so when the uh low revenue ceiling went from 10,000 to 11,000, everyone went to 11,000. We stayed at 10. So until they change that low revenue ceiling, um the suggestion was 12,000. Once that changed, then we would be able to be caught up to uh and be tied most likely. So the low revenue ceiling is really is what we're tied to now without an operating referendum. >> Other questions or comments from board members? >> Actually, I do have one other that's >> fire away. >> Okay. Um I believe you said that there that that act 401 141 penalty is no longer uh valid even if we were to fail an operating referendum. >> It
014is still on the books. Uh I believe we would be penalized if we say hey we failed an operating referendum in in April. We'll just call it that. And then in May they said hey let's raise the low revenue ceiling to $12,000. I believe we would be in that penalty. There are so many caveats and asterisks that why we were the only one. I don't know that. It just happened to be timing or anything like that. So, and Todd may know a little bit more about the why, but um but no, we would there is a chance that we would be in the act 141 if they would go to the low revenue ceiling. Now, with that being said, the low revenue ceiling probably won't be addressed until the next bianium budget as well. >>
015Right. Okay, that's good. Um, that is a that is different than what I remember hearing from a couple weeks ago when I asked that question whether or not there would be a um a penalty. I thought that the answer was not really, not likely, but maybe it was just because of the low revenue ceiling, not likely to increase. >> Yes. Yes. because we wouldn't be penalized until they raise it up. >> Yep. Which there was talk and it didn't happen. So, moving forward, we're not anticipating that happening. >> And where we are in the cycle now, is it the same are are we in the the opposite year of the cycle than we were in 2022? >> Um >> because we're in 25 26 right now. So, yes, I believe we would be. >> Okay.
016I think we were in the off year in the cycle in 22, but the issue was that we waited a year and DPI how they interpreted the law, which there were districts that failed that April and the budget was signed in July, but DPI ruled it so that it was at the start of the year that when that penalty happened. But we were the only ones that failed a year ago and we never we never put a opportunity to pass back on. So we did not get the additional low revenue ceiling because we didn't we were on a three-year period and we didn't pass a operating referendum at that time. >> Other questions or comments from board members? If not, I'd like to move on to reports B, the facility project report. Mr. Russ, >>
017um, we continue to move forward. Uh, tomorrow we have a, um, our our normal meeting. Uh, we are having a, um, let's see here, Monasuri, um, Meadow View and Southside are having their page turned tomorrow. Um, so that means we're Mr.'s 's going to be coming over with maybe some staff members and we're going to go what's going to happen with the electrical side, what's going to go with the HVAC, what's going to go with this, how's it going to look, what kind of flooring and that sort of thing. So really to understand what the entire scope is and then we're going to have Southside later in the day is our plan. So it's going to be an earlier day. Um and so the the page turned with Southside in Meview and then uh we're
018going to talk about the abatement process. We had a preliminary meeting um with um CISA 10 which is the abatement partner that we do with that we go with um and learning a lot about the abatement process. So um we do have some areas that have larger abatement than others. Uh it's just the the age of the building and that sort of thing. But you know there's other spots that nope there's no abatement at all. Like go figure it's the same. But it is what it is. But we'll make sure we have all the environmental uh precautions. Uh we talked about educating our parents, our families, our staff in regards to this is what's going to happen. Um but that abatement process is it's a larger undertaking for certain areas more than others. So we're
019having we're ending the day with that. Uh having the abatement u process planned there. So and then on Thursday we're doing the page turn at Monasuri. Uh we're not doing Monasuri tomorrow because Monasuri's scope of the project is much greater. Not to say that Southside and Mele View isn't that big, but when you talk about Monasuri, it's almost getting a complete gut. And uh they also have abatement that we have to be uh on watch for. And uh we're actually planning on abating most of uh Monasuri this summer uh to get to utilize the best uh spending. So when you throw the high school abatement project onto the monastery abatement project, more work usually means less dollars that it costs us. So we're trying to how do we gather those th those um opportunities to
020maybe save some money the best place we can. So just a lot of page turning this week and heading into the um into the holidays. On the 22nd, we are meeting with more abatement people and uh going walking the site and making sure that they understand uh what it's going to take and we'll get a better understanding of what they're looking for as well because now it's really starting, you know, for SHS specifically, what's it going to look like when we shut down that uh that welding shop? What is the outside going to look like when we start putting up that northeast edition? What is that gate look like? What is this? What is that? So really starting to be more real now. I put real in quotes because now it's the planning part and
021the fun part. Not that it hasn't been fun for a while. >> Questions or comments from board members. >> Moving right along. SASD announcements and upcoming meetings. Mr. Russ. >> Uh yes. Just coming into the uh the new year. Uh, a lot of people are excited for the time off. Uh, we survived the bitterly cold that just happened to be on a weekend, which is good or bad, whatever, but our kids weren't waiting at the bus stop during that time. Uh, we did have that delay due to the depending where you're at, 3 to six inches and uh really, you know, but our kids and and community did a very nice job. Again, the first time we always look through that communication, how can we do better and that sort of thing. So, we take
022that uh input as well. Um and the upcoming meetings um the January, February, and March uh coming in through there. Um concerts, we did have one concert that was cancelled on that Wednesday due to the weather. So Meadow View is coming up this week with their choir and band. Um co-curriculars are wrapping up here at Meadow View, uh ramping up at SHS, um and starting to transition to new things when they come at the beginning of the year. We move along to the consent agenda. If board members could please read through and when we are happy with the agenda as stated, I would accept a motion. >> I I do while you're looking at the consent agenda, uh I do want to u make note of uh the ones for approval for uh grants and
023donations. Culver's of Sparta. Uh we had anonymous in the JD Olsen Foundation gave very generous donations to the various uh purposes. And then we also had generous donations of from Spartekch Culver's of Sparta, Trinity Lutheran Church, Schneider Heating and Air, uh Frederick Green, American Legion Post 100, uh and Kathy Olsen as well. Thank you very much for your generous donations to the various purposes. Move move to approve the consent agenda as presented. >> Second. >> A motion for Mr. M Burns Gilbert. A second for Mr. Wells. Roll call, please. >> Mr. Burns Gilbert. >> Yes. >> Dr. Bernett. >> Yes. >> Mr. McKenna. >> Yes. >> Mr. Wells? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Lopez? >> Yes. >> Miss Barren? >> Yes. >> Motion carries 601 absent. Moving on to business discussion and possible action to approve
024a 2026 operating referendum. Mr. Russell. >> Yes, just a quick summary from the last meeting um on the committee of the whole just last week. Uh we didn't have a recommendation from the committee for tonight. Uh we did have some discussions on some financial impact for the community and we're going to show some of those um slides as well. And they had uh some um I some requested information about additional savings eliminations. I think I spelled that one wrong. I apologize. And uh non-staffing areas that we also um have taken a look at in regards to the last uh several years. So just made a quick list of non-staffing areas or program reductions, changes or delays. I'm going to take a look at those delays first. Um, we've delayed quite a bit of our capital
025improvement, our vehicle replacement in technology. Uh, kicking the can down the road is probably the best way to put it um because we've used that as uh as savings to u make our budgetary needs. Um, other areas where we've eliminated um or reduced um they're labeled there um you know deductibles for health insurance. One of the biggest changes that we used to have mayo. Uh we no longer have Mayo as an option. Uh we went to Gunderson where we've got better um better um we still have good quality care at a at a lower price. Our reimbursement rate is much different. Um we've closed Cataract School, uh High Point Edge, um reductions in technology apps, student accident insurance, um reduced professional development opportunities, um just a lot of things. and we eliminated midday prek. Last
026year we did offer that as an option and transported kids. This year we did not do that. Um so this was just a just a quick list of some other things that we did. Um and I put this is about 30% of our budget non-staffing. Um so when we do look at staffing for a large portion of budgetary reductions or savings, it's the largest portion by far in our areas which includes health insurance, WRS and that sort of thing. Um and then I just wanted to touch base on the slides again uh that we shared just to kind of set the picture of where we're looking uh possibly for uh mill rate impact. And on this slide it shows um if we do wait a year if we don't go in April of this year
027and we'll talk about the the the ramifications budgetary with that uh coming up here. But uh we would have a decrease in the mill rate about a 35 decrease and then we would have an increase of about a $1.22 to get to the 2.25 million. And I picked 2.25 million because that's what we were looking at as a deficit at that time uh when Bar ran that. But you'll also see we don't get any incre we don't get any state aid that year. We do lose some state aid. Um so we do need to uh take that into account. So you have a dip and then you have a larger increase the following year to ask the community. Uh we did update our 2627 budget projections. I mentioned originally we're looking at 2.25. Uh when
028we went back and looked at some things uh we're looking at a 1.65 65 deficit and we would need to use um big picture once again as usual we have to use the rest of our budget fund 10 budget stabilization or 1.5 million I'm sorry 1.1 million which means that we were looking at about a $550,000 reductions to have a balanced budget. Um, and the things that we discussed uh as a board, if we wait until 27 uh 28 or an April referendum, uh do we ask for community input through school perceptions? Uh we have a little bit more time. Uh the downside of waiting is is that if we do not um if we would have to about double our um our reductions that we'll need, which we will look into a uh we'll
029have that in chart road mode as well. and we could delay it by a year and reduce $550,000, use all of our fund balance, and then if we don't, if we aren't successful in 27, then we have a we have a big cliff there. We have a big cliff. So, what happens if we go in 20 in April of 26? And this only shows fund 10. Okay, this does not show the fund 39, which we're going to get to in a little bit. So, if we went from a 750 to a 2 million, as you can see, we still have that um state aid to get the 2 million and we're looking at about a 60 cent increase in the fund 10. Sorry, looking on it on my screen was fine. So, we have about
030a 60cent increase uh for a $2 million referendum. And then you can see the state aid that we get on it and then it falls and then it flattens out because we get consistent state aid. This is assuming a $2 million operating referendum for the next four years. However, we do have fund 39 and that's part of our financial plan is how do we use both fund 39 and fund 10 to our advantage. So part of our financial plan, if we had this already going, when we put fund 10 and fund 39 together, we're looking at about a 21 cent increase for a $2 million operating referendum in April. That's again, once again, that's when we put them together. Uh we had a couple board members ask what happens if we want to increase it
031or decrease it. for basically every one cent you get $25,000 or less than that one of the two. So $100,000 more in operating possible operating referendum would cost 4 cents or if we reduced by $100,000 you would reduce it by 4 cents on this chart. Once again, this maximizes our financial plan, which we're we could we can do, which we're planning on doing. So, it's with a 21 cent increase. So, now here are some figures with um fund balance and uh reducing of expenses. Even with a $2 million or we delay, we're still looking at continue reductions. Continue to use our fund balance, continue to use the operating referendum, and continue to use reductions. So, a $2 million operating referendum, for example, in April, we're still looking at $250,000 in reductions. If we wait, we
032don't go in 2627 as we talked about before, it's about a $550,000 redu set of reductions. And that's assumed that we use all of our fund balance. And as you can see, if we wait, we can't use a lot of our fund balance or of all assuming that we keep the 18% policy on fund balance. So, if we go in 2026 and are successful, we're still looking at $250,000 of reductions in year 1. Year two, we still are looking at about $250,000 in reductions. Year three or 2829, we're looking at about $550,000 in reductions. And then you can see in year four, we're looking at 2 million. So realistically, if we're looking at this and you want to go in April, a three-year referendum is looks like the most logical I'll say just based on
033the $2 million jump. That's a pretty high jump. Again, just hypothetical numbers. We needed to start someplace. If we waited in 26, not go in 2627, we have the 550 reductions. We get 2 million. Now we're looking in the left column of the the years. We would reduce then by $250,000. But in year two, we need 1.25 and then followed by year three, we would need 1 million. The difference is is that we don't have fund balance to use. And then you can see the change in fund balance on the bottom as well. And the last slide that I have before we take questions and have some discussion is I know we was asked about you know hey what about you know a possible campaign and PR and that sort of thing. Well I can
034tell you Miss Wilcox is we we we've been eyeing this possibility for a while and this is just an example of uh of a visual that she's already created. We have a lot more information already that are behind the scenes but this is just an example that she put together the what we would do. This is modeled after our uh last April one and we learned from our November one as well as well. So, just wanted to put that in there because we are we are planning if the board does go, we're ready to go uh the best we can to be proactive. And that's all I have to share. >> All right. Before we move on, I want to ask you, Sam, I believe Mr. Leverage arrived a few minutes late. he would like
035to speak. Is that possible since it's out of order on agenda? >> That's up to you if you're if you want to if you want to have Mr. Leard speak, that's totally up to you. I'm fine with it. >> I'm perfectly comfortable with allowing anyone to speak at any meeting at any time. I just wanted to make sure we're okay with Robert's rules of order. >> I think if everybody's okay with it, >> you can make a motion if you want. >> I'm perfectly comfortable, Jim. I'm gonna I'm gonna have to hold you to the three minutes, but I would be more than more than willing to allow you to speak. Is that on? Okay. Yeah. At our town board meetings, we allow people to speak when we get to a topic. It's a little
036different than you do here. Um, the only reason I'm here is because I had a good conversation with Sam the other day. He told me your budget was 48 million. Is that correct? Okay. So, if you're if you're going to go up on by 2 million, that'd be 50 million. So, then what I did is I asked Sam how many kids are in a class. He told me there was about 20 on the average. So, I took that 20 and I divided it into the 48 million and I came up with $18,000 a student. Okay? I mean, I didn't I took the 2650 and divided into that and I come up with $18,000 a student. I take that times 20. I come up with $362,260 a classroom. Then I was going to use a h
037100,000 but he told me 75,000 for teacher and benefits. So I take off $75,000 off the $362,000. I come up with $287,000 per classroom. That's not the immediate teacher. It's other programs, other staff, all kinds of things going on in the classroom. As far as I'm concerned, the system's broken. Because if we got to spend 287,000 besides the main teacher, why aren't we just hiring more teachers and cutting the class size down to 15? We have plenty of room because you built this building. When I was here, there was over 3,000 students. Before we built onto the high school, before we did all kinds of things. So, I'm trying to get the board to think out of the box. The system's broken. The way we're spending money, just saying we have to keep spending more
038money to get good education is not the answer. We're not managing our educational resources very well. So keep that number in mind. 362,000 take off the 75,000 you're spending for that teacher and then there's 287,000 going somewhere. I want you to figure out what that 287,000's going to and think about refigur configuring the school because like when I went to the Angela school there was three teachers. There was a custodian that came in and there was a person that came in and cooked the meals and I got better education then you're giving them now. And there was uh two glades two grades in each classroom and the teacher had probably 15 students. They indivi individualized the instruction. They gave that professional teacher the opportunity to take those students and do like the homeschool individually address
039the education. So I'm going to stop with that. That's all I wanted to talk to you about tonight. And the other thing that's wrong except you're talking about the mill rate all the time. That's deception. The reality is that it's the actual revenue that you're spending at the school. That's how it's supposed to be in the budget. That's how it's in the state law. So, anytime you go out and you advertise to people what you're doing to the mill rate, you're not telling them the whole question because all the mill rate is is division. So, I would say you should start talking about how much money you're spending and how much you want to budget, not the mill rate. Thank you. >> Thank you very much, sir. >> You know, I didn't need to come
040here, but I'm concerned about the state, the local area, and the federal government. Our kids are going to be busted. They might be lucky to not go through a huge depression. And it starts right here. We all have to take responsibility. Moving along. Um, questions or comments for board members? Yes, sir. Um, Mr. Russ, can you go back to what slide was I looking at? 28 there. So, in that one where we go uh the green box. So, even if we go in 26 for 2 million, we still have to reduce 250,000. Correct. >> That is that is the plan that we would do. That would be obviously with no new things either, you know. So if we would um we have a if we say hey we want to add two behavior support specialists
041for example we would need to start that would be through that budget. So to if we this would just be in reduction if we don't add anything. Yes. And are is that table using the most updated numbers from B? >> So how do we still have to cut 250,000 if we have a $1.6 million deficit projection with a 2 million operating? >> You see what I'm saying? >> Because on 20 slide 25 it says the updated numbers from B. >> Yep. We're $1.65 million deficit, but yet if we get a successful 2 million, >> I believe that's when we blend the the 30 the fund 39 because we are a part of our financial plan is to is to pay years one and two. So we don't have to pay years three and four. So
042the wait until that doesn't include the payment for the prepay I don't want to call prepayment but our financial plan calls for an additional payment in year one of probably a large amount that makes that difference up probably uh one point probably 300,000 Um we go I'm trying to find the this one in bigger tables. So we're looking to prepay um 1.8 in stabilization fund. Okay. So part of that process says that we need 2 million to only reduce 250. So it's an addition. So you you can't necessarily just w look at it as a silo. It's more of in conjunction with fund 39 if that makes somewhat of sense >> a little bit. >> So it's not necessarily once again the complexity of school finance and being able to and this is why we
043have bar of how do we manipulate fund 39 to our advantage. But then in that green box scenario then the the fund balance of 610 means we can use that fund balance throughout the next couple years. Is that okay? >> Yes, that's how it is. So that one one is spread out throughout the years. >> Okay. >> Which allows us to do 250 reductions, 250 reductions and then 550. >> And by the time we get to 550, ideally we're budgeting conservatively. So maybe we don't have to do as much similar to what we did this year so far that we haven't had to use our fund stabilization. >> Okay, that was my only question I have to add. Yep. Thank you. >> Yep. >> Other questions or comments from board members? >> Um Mr. S,
044I understand why you chose 2 million. Um, but in talking with other board members and um some community members, I'm curious um you know, our previous passing operating referendums have only been 750,000. >> Um this is a significant increase in that and over the course of three years. Um, I understand the importance and I'm not I am not necessarily opposed to the referendum from a personal perspective at all and understanding the the budget to the limited, you know, degree that I do. Um, I don't know that anybody can fully grasp it. At least I don't. But, um, I'm going to admit that. Um I I recall that there were three things after the failed operating referendum that the community asked us to do. They asked us to reduce our expenses. We've certainly done that. Um
045they asked us to um be more transparent and I think if anybody's listening, if they're out there um that is obvious that that has occurred. They also asked us to use our savings >> which we have planned to do but we never have needed to. Um I I understand that in if we use our if we do not go to referendum or if it fails this year we will have to use that 1.1 or at least that's the projection. >> Um >> but that is in keeping with our with our commitment to do so. um which also comes with a cost on the other end for the community members that after a low mil rate using that word um a year of a low mill rate it will have to go up again. Um but
046it is it is trusting our community to understand this to be engaged enough to grasp it. Um I feel like we haven't necessarily given them that opportunity. We always say this will the inverse relationship between state aid and the mill rate or um yeah the more state aid we get the lower the mill rate. And even if we do have a lower mill rate with the increase in property values, the fair market value, um we're still levying more every year. So it's like our constituents never get that break. Again, personally, I'm not I'm not opposed to it. I understand. Um, but I I feel like if we have if we have a stellar product, people will clamor to support it. We're not I'm just I'm going to say it. We are not delivering that for
047our community at this time. I don't believe that people are satisfied with public education in general. It's a bigger problem than our piddly little $2 million referendum potential. But it but it is a problem and it is it is what's causing a lot of the discord and the division I think um in the community with the people that talk to me about it. At any rate, um we didn't mention the Jerry Awards um that the um music department or theater department is was they were um what's it called? They didn't win them, but they were nominated. I mean, people clamor for that, right? They clam clamor towards success. We need to focus on that. We need to figure out a way to produce more. We're we're trying our best with the facility referendum to to
048provide more than we promised. We have to do the same with the operating. I don't know what the answer is. I I do know that, you know, with Mr. Leverage, 20% of that needs to come off the top for the voucher program, right? I mean, that money isn't coming to us. We things there's a lot to consider. Um, but they did we did they asked us to use our our revenue stabilization our our savings account for lack of a better word for our fund balance and we have not done that and that concerns me um that in the $2 million ask for three years >> and part of the reason why we have that first column to wait is because this is what it would be. And then um it's all placeholders right now. And
049if the board wishes to say, you know what, let's follow through with that. We'll plan on $550,000 worth of reductions, which would be the same as if we go in April and aren't successful. So, the plan works either way. Um and going into this we would have to plan on 550 um one way or another just in case we need to have a plan for that. So that's perfectly fine if the board wishes to make sure we follow through on our prog promise that's fine. We've talked about you know is you know 2 million's a big ask if we wait until April of 27 for example we can ask the community and say hey what is the tolerance you know similar to that too. So, um, there's that, but there's also the the risk that
050we're going to have a big ask in 27 as well. >> Yep. >> Other questions or comments from board members. >> If no one no one wants to, I guess I'll go. I guess to answer Jim's question, even though he's not here right now, is that how the equalization aid formula works is that if every school district spent the same, their mill rates would be the same, believe it or not. So, it allows for a So, if we spent the same as Bangor, a $100,000 house in Bangor would be taxed at the same rate as a $100,000 house in in Sparta. So I think that's a very clear thing to go ahead. Um I just want to share what what my thoughts were. Uh I'm because I'm focused on meal rates and meal rates are
051also an indicator of success based on how we communicate individual tax bills to to community members. Uh I've been advocating for a 729 mill rate and just running the numbers that would be either a 7 uh 1.775 referendum or a one 1.8 if we wanted to round up. Um I also did some research because I I wanted to and we we have talked about stepped up referendums and I don't recommend it. It seems like the the the recurring thing based off 2020 uh 2025 numbers is that districts with with deaf referendums seem to fail more likely than the ones with just straight referendums. I think it allows us to tell our story better. Right? At year three, we're going to be making more cuts. At year three, we're we're going to be able to tell
052our story and and portray that to the community. and as Amy said, have an 18% fund balance if all goes according to plan, which it never does. So, I mean, but whatever our story is, we're going to tell it then. And I think a $1.8 million or whatever we decide tonight is going to put our best foot forward. >> Other questions or comments from board members? feel free. Um, yeah, I think uh that was the two things I was concerned about a month ago were the fund balance spending and the community input. And I think reviewing the school perceptions really helped um from when was that fall of 23 into spring of 24 because we also promised them it would be a 834 mil rate in that and that's what that education that literature that
053community engagement is what they said yes to and it came in considerably lower because of the budgeting good stewardship practices we've we've shown like our test scores are improving right our staff retention is down all of our board goals. Even with all of these cuts year after year, imagine what our team can do if they get the funds to be supported in some of those ways that we haven't felt in a while. So, I guess that's that's kind of where I was coming from, being able to look back at some of those and and um be more okay with that piece of of asking. I I was playing with those numbers, too. In my head, I was landing about 1.9 million with um those updated numbers to give some of that buffer for that cliff
054um coming down the road. Um I I'm I don't think it's the right time right now to ask for more than that. The the the wherever that lands, I was pl the cost of I just remember in 22 when we were setting the board goals, it was what's SEAL's number one biggest thing? feed all kids to feed all kids is $800,000 which is what did you just say an extra 16 cents or whatever that would be. Um so like to me that's completely within range but I don't think this is the right year to go that route right now. I think knowing some of those other variables the next state budget how that year three really will look a lot different than what's on the screen right now. I think that would be a better
055conversation um at that point. So I I think for me it's it's waiting. There's too many cons on waiting to we heard from two community members here over the last four meetings, right? Similar to the um blanking July Title N conversation, right? Like we had we had really good engagement at that at that last one. Um, but but I also feel like that's in my head a a vote of confidence, right? Like we're doing some good things in a lot of different areas across the board. How can we keep moving that forward if we wait? There's too many cons on that list in my mind to outweigh um at least asking that ask in April. Um because we know we'll have to cut anyway. We know we have a good idea of what some of
056those reductions would look like if we have to, but if we don't ask in April, then it's a guarantee plus compounding, not interest cuts and stuff down the road. So, I'm going to leave it at that for now, but um yeah, I would I would definitely be in favor of of 1.8 1.9. Um I I don't think over two will go over well with the community. I think that makes sense. Um, and also continues that model that worked well of continuing reductions, continuing that plan for fund balance and then the referendum as that third piece. So, I'll stop there. Other questions or comments from board members? Uh I'm going to I think kind of reiterate what I said at the committee of the whole meeting and that I think this is you know compelling story
057that financially we need we don't really have a choice. We need to go to operating referendum and we need to keep it as um low as possible. But I think, you know, what we're seeing is people look at their property taxes. You know, I don't think they care about the miller rate to be quite honest. We heard that from, you know, Mr. Rasmmanson. Um and uh uh the legislature is tied in near here with with a despite having a budget uh of overhaul over you know budget excess of uh that we still didn't get an increase in that revenue limit. Um, and we need to, I think, tie that into our story here as we explain to the community what kind of position we're in. >> Other questions or comments, Miss Barren? I guess my
058big area of concern is getting the information out to the community and in a way so that they understand these numbers and I guess I don't know how to do that. It would be nice to hear maybe some of their suggestions as far as reductions and what what they think we we could cut back on. Um I I don't know that they are really aware of all that we have done and communicating that to them as well. I'm not sure the best way to do that. Anyone else? Todd's waiting the tabs. >> If there are no further comments, I'd like to move move that the district goes forward with a 2026 operating referendum of $1.8 million for three years. >> What date in what date in 2026? >> In April. We have a motion. >>
059I'll second that. Motion from Mr. Wells, a second from Dr. Bernett. Any further discussion? Should be all right. I I do have a a couple things I want to say. Um and and um I've kind of math this every way you can math it. Okay. um 750 minus put in the cost of living of 750 for the 15 years that's been around minus the the little bit of a gap and you know I've looked at what that looks like. I've looked at the roll adding in roll back of vouchers. Um I've looked at this next year and I think next year would be okay regardless of whether we went or not. it'd be the year after that where you get the uptick um where there'd be a very large increase in in whether you look
060at levy or you look at mil rate whatever it's going to be painful that year either way um I I have no doubt that in the next year we're going to end up here. Um so the only question that I have really is what's the right amount and and I have been between 1.65 and 1.9 and my 1.65 65 was figuring in what Amy was talking about with which we have talked about using contribution out of our savings account that we really have not used. So when you look over the four years and we take what we haven't spent in the last three and you roll that back that put that back in that puts us closer to 1.65. But that doesn't mean we want to use savings. That's saying we had promised to use
061this and we haven't had to and because of it now we can reduce this amount slightly. So I I don't think your motion is wrong. You know um the only thing I I would I would ask Sam and it's the same thing that I said I think the first time I sat up here and we talked about this five or six years ago. How much does a district need? What what I I do not want is a dart that says, "Oh, we get by with 2 million. That works." Is 1.8 the right number? Is 1.6 the right number? Is 2.2 the right number? Make sure that the number we go for is the right number, not the number that'll pass. What's the number you need? Because you're not going back in this period. Nope. Do
062we need 1.8? Yes. Do we need 1.9? I'm going to say yes. Do we need 2.0? I'm going to say yes. Um the reason why is is the amount of reductions that we've had. There comes a time when we have to say enough. We we have to say enough. We have um we have our our class sizes are reasonable in my opinion. We're looking at you know average 20 you know especially at the uh 4K through 8 level. But we reduced a lot of things. We don't have a lot of extra supports. We have our instructional coaches. Yes. We have some behavior coaches. Yes. But we've talked about a lot about behaviors are are the largest concern. And we have to do something different to combat those. We need to help our staff. We need
063to help our students. We need to help our families. And when we want to look to do those things, we look to add. And when you add, trying to say, when you add and we're on a on a fixed budget, that means you need to subtract more. Right or wrong? Uh you have to plan for it. However, when we plan, we've been planning for all these reductions. We've been planning for um the use of fund balance. At the end of the day, we haven't needed it because some we can't fill the positions we need. So, they become a reduction and we can't fill those. So I think with going to 18 we'll say that that adds a re reducing expenses of $450,000. Is it doable on paper? Yes. I think it is doable and I
064think we can we we will get by. But eventually then it gets to how much of the student experience do we want to do? We have our priority areas. You know we have our staff. We've we've had a wonderful run of reduc of having decreased, as Colin said, decreasing staff turnover. That's after four years of of reductions. I don't know if we can continue to do that and say, "Hey, our kids are are behaving this way. We need some help." And unless we lower class sizes in half, and once again, it's still not going to necessarily solve the issue. So, how can we maybe utilize our funds a little bit differently, but and you know, and remove this, remove that, stop this, but ultimately we're ending up we're we're getting rid of things to stop
065and we're really looking at how do we in how do we impact the student experience? you know, we have 24. We we added um an additional fifth grade class, fifth grade teacher because we had the opportunity to because we said, you know what, having 25 26 in a transition year wasn't ideal. So, now we're at 2122. So, it's really we'd like to stay at our our class sizes where I think we're at right now, but when it becomes when we're cutting again, we're reducing, and when we're adding to priority areas, I think it makes it difficult. And that's when and that's when we have those critical conversations that people don't like. And not that they don't like to have the critical conversation, it's I I I I don't want 26 27 kids in my class
066for a support that I may or may not get. So 18 I would say is the bare minimum in my opinion. It's less than what we would have to do if we would um fail or not go, which I think is something to say and say, hey, if we if we fail, we would have to reduce another $100,000 minimum minimum and we're using all of our fund balance. Is it worth the future of say we go for 2 million? Well, if we go for 2 million the following year and we said it wasn't. If we go for one, we stall 18 for one year. Well, we have 450 in the fir we have 450 in the first year and then we have over a million in the second year. So, when you look at the
067big picture, that's where April makes sense in the big picture wise in our finances and our large our strategic scope. So, can we get by? Absolutely we can. and our staff is going to do the best they can with the resources that they have because that's what we're staffed to. That's what we're challenged to do. I just think if we can help that a little bit and add some things that maybe we haven't had the opportunity to add because we have been in more of reduction mode, how can we be better utilize, you know, our high high cost aid even though it's not what it's going to be at? You know, we're now fighting instead of 42% special education guaranteed, we're now at 35%. So those are the things that that would be fine, but
068we just lost 7% reimbursement. That's no fault of ours. And hopefully we'll get that back. But I I think we need 2 million. I think we can need 1.82 at the same time. I'd be hesitant to go less than 1.8. roundabout answer. >> I think that roundabout answer is what Ashley's looking for in like about a paragraph on a website. >> So, if you could figure out a way to condense it >> and that's what we're going to have to and that's part of and Ashley was right. This is what the story we have to tell. How many years are we going to continue to do that and maybe throw out some uncomfortable things that we're going to have to do? Because every penny we save, if we don't go in April or we're not
069successful, every penny we save in 26 27 helps offset 2728. We don't have a choice. So that's why doing things in the past helps us in the future that we didn't fill that position because you know what we we a we couldn't do it or b we're just not going to do it because we can't because we know we're not going to be able to fill it possibly the next year thinking strategically. We have a motion and a second on the floor. Any other discussion from board members? Roll call, please. >> Mrs. Lopez, >> no. >> Miss Barren, >> yes. Mr. Wells, >> yes. >> Mr. Burns Gilbert, >> yes. >> Dr. Bernett, >> yes. >> Mr. McKenna, >> yes. Motion carries 511 absent. Uh, moving along. >> One second before we do that. So,
070what we're going to do now is is I'm going to talk to Corals and Brady in Baird and say we have a we have this direction um and we're going to start those resolution processes. So, we'll have a special board meeting uh where the board will have one more opportunity to say this is what we want to have happen. So, uh, it'll be a lot of legal lingo and we'll go that way, but I will contact Baird um and Corals and Brady tomorrow and we'll do that. Uh, it'll be a special meeting on the committee of the whole and then we'll get those out and about and uh we'll also start planning uh we mentioned the the the referendum planning overview. We'll continue that discussion. Liz and I already have a time to meet just
071in case we were moving in that direction. So, >> thank you. Thank you very much. Look forward to um moving this forward to the community and uh letting people know. >> In that case, I would accept a motion to adjurnn. >> So moved. >> Second. We have a motion and a second. All in favor? >> We are adjourned. >> Thank you everybody. Enjoy the night. Thanks guys. Thank you.