001All right. Call to order this meeting of the Stoen Area School District Board of Education. Miss Daramo, will you call the role? >> Mr. Tim Buban >> here. >> Miss Mia Croyle >> here. >> Mr. Jim Moser >> here. >> Miss Don Garcia >> here. >> Mr. Jeffrey Le Jeffrey Leverage >> here. >> Miss Lisa Pew >> here. >> Miss Allison Sorg >> here. Dr. Sharon Milin Bartlett is excused. Student rep Lillian Bremer >> here. >> And President Joe Patterson >> here. Next item on the agenda is public comment. There were no public comments received electronically and there is one public commenter signed up this evening. Uh Mr. Rob Last. Hello. Hello there. My name is Rob Last. I'm a taxpayer, a father, a high school teacher, and a member of the Stoen Education Association
002leadership team. After the proceedings of the last schoolboard meeting, I reached out to district leadership to extend an offer to work together to figure out next steps for reducing costs for employees. We acknowledge that collaboration leads to better outcomes for all involved. District leadership is aware of my involvement with the SEA. Here are some of the words from our exchange. Regarding regarding the offer to assist, it is presumptuous to insert yourself into this matter. No further action is needed from your end. District leadership doesn't believe that staff have a part in this conversation, but we believe we do. A tiered system similar to MMSD would definitely do more for our hourly staff who pay the same rates as district administration or considering one-time contributions to help offset the cost for this one-year change. On behalf
003of the SCA with all district staff in mind, I reiterates that being heard means having a seat at the table. Taking care of the adults who directly take care of the children of our district benefits all students and adults in our district. >> Thank you so much. >> Thank you. >> All right. Next on the agenda is item 2B, the legislative update. >> There is a new resource available from the school boards association as part of their setting the record straight initiative. Uh the new document that's up on their website is related to uh cost effectiveness of public schools versus voucher schools part three. Again, this is to combat misleading narratives um around public education. So people are urged to use those out in the community to discuss questions that they get about public education
004and funding. Uh you probably heard in the news that the the legislature, the state senate specifically failed to pass the surplus package that would have provided additional money for public schools and also lowered property taxes. This happened last week, May 13th. Um the governor and Republican legislative leaders had agreed kind of behind closed doors to use state surplus funds to uh to do those two main things. Uh the state has a projected $2.75 billion surplus. In the Senate, three Republican senators were joined by all Senate Democrats in opposing the bill. Uh earlier in the day, the assembly had passed the bill on a bipartisan vote. Um our uh Stoen Representatives, Representative Randy Udell and Senator Melissa Ratcliffe both voted against the bill. Um the deal would have increased special education aid. Uh according to the
005legislative fiscal bureau that would have been um an additional 290,000 in 2526 and another 785,000 in 2627. It also would have increased general school aids for the Stoneer School District by about a little over $1 million. Opponents of the bill said it would have um dangerously spent down our state savings money that's used and needed pay for programs and would have lowered property taxes but not in at the same time increased spendable monies for schools with the exception of the funding for special education which also did not fix that funding flaw that we've talked about here that ensures that monies are some sufficient versus some certain. Um so that basically means the amounts are not guaranteed. Um the school boards association issued a statement on this expressing de deep disappointment that the Senate uh defeated
006the special session bill. Um they thought that the bipartisan agreement could have directed state funds toward public schools and provided that property tax relief. Um they said it wasn't perfect but it and there continue to be challenges but it was an important productive step forward. Um the schoolboards association is calling on the governor and legislative leaders to return to the table. Um it is unclear whether or not that will happen. And finally um there's just a notice on the schoolboards association website about the office of school safety trainings that are uh new trainings being announced for this summer. So if you're interested in that, you can go to the website and check out the dates. >> Thank you. Any questions for Lisa? Seeing none, we'll move on to item 2 C, workg groupoup reports. I
007don't believe any work groups have met since our last meeting. So that takes us to a student representative report. >> Um Rachel, I think I sent you a different one maybe. >> Okay. >> Sorry everybody. That's even just reproduced two weeks ago. >> Yeah, >> I don't even know who that one was from. So, there we go. There you go. >> Okay. So, hello everybody. Uh, for activities, the 73rd annual honors ceremony was held on May 6th, awarding high school seniors, Hold on one second, let me think. High school seniors with I can't say that number right now. That's why I had it pulled up. Hold on. $386,360 worth of scholarships. Um, Sand Hill held its annual Stella fun run and AP testing just wrapped up at the high school after like two weeks. Um,
008River Bluff spent the month of April honoring military connected students and the National Honor Society induction ceremony was held on um 5:14. For athletics, softball is on a roll now conference jams and going 18 to3 this season so far. Girls track placed ninth overall at the Stone Invite and the boys brought home two um event titles. Uh boys golf took eighth at the Spartan Invite and shot second at the Nakusa invite. Baseball won two games at home, winning 84 8 to four against McFarland and 17 to7 against Luther Prep. And then for arts, the um spring choir concert was held on May 14th. The orchestra concert presented their theme concert on the 7th and River Bluff and high school band students participated in the SDI parade on the 17th yesterday. So that's all I have.
009>> Thank you. >> Any questions? >> Seeing none. All right. Very good. We'll move on then to item three, Dr. Kezer's report. Okay. So, I've got three items to talk about. Um the board um received an email with the update to um our school perceptions family survey. Just for new board members, um we do a staff and student survey annually, but we do families every other year. Um we recognize that um doing staff and student surveys there are they're closest um to us in our work families um we don't want we want their input but we also don't want to over survey them so we do that every other year um to give the board some insight into um their perspectives. So I realized that the summary here highlights what board members received but I
010did not include into board doc. So after the board meeting I'll put in this meeting. Um and then for the next meeting that PDF so if any community members want to see the PDF of the full um board report they can access that. But uh highlight um what we saw this year as compared to our very first time two years ago, we had roughly the same response rate, a little bit higher. So definitely statistically significant. You can see um kind of the breakouts by each of our buildings. Um you can also see the comparison because the board um always strives to get a good representation not only from our buildings but um demographically. You can see from our state report card what our percentages are demographically um and you can see what the response rate
011is um from our families. And you can see that it doesn't um match up, but still statistically significant. And coming off of Lynn Breedlo's um report around um community conversations, I think this is uh augments the information that board members gather through your in-person communication. So I think of these things as two separate tools to get to the same understanding. Some of the big highlights I think again kind of building off of Lynn's presentation last board meeting. Um the parents who responded to um the survey, we did ask the same questions around the board goals and again resounding support. um 80 80 plus% uh either agree or strongly agree with the board's focus on their goals. When asked about other um priorities that are top of mind for families, the top four responses, you can
012see here certainly areas that connect to um one or more of our goals. Um, and you can also see that as uh the same theme that Lynn brought up that family families concern for their students connectedness to the community certainly grows as the child grows through our school system. So does not surprise me when we think about um the third and fourth spots being around life after school and career and college um connect connectedness in schools and then beyond. What makes our survey unique compared to school perceptions kind of um template family surveys is that we actually ask specific questions for students who identify or families who identify themselves as having students with an IEP and access special education. This year we had 53 families um who filled out this section of the survey. Um,
013again, that doesn't necessarily mean that all families who identify students um accessing special education services filled out this section of the survey, but this is how many responded. And from school perceptions, they asked questions on a scaled score of one one to five with the middle being taken out. So statistically three is really good, four is outstanding and five is something we visit from time to time. Um and all of the scores within that section range on the low end of a 3.6 all the way up to a high of 4.3. So from um our 53 families, they feel strongly in regards to our um the services that we're providing. The one area that showed a statistical dip was in regards to providing information about the process, which is something we actually heard through our
014through our communications. And so that's something that um we can always improve upon and something that we can reflect on as as a group um moving into next year. How do we be better inform parents about what the IEP process is and um help them navigate that? As far as communication is concerned, again um our goal is always to um check in with our our um families around how we communicate. Seven 70 um plus percent of the families say we have good or great communication. However, one thing that um families have said is that while we have really good communication, we give a lot of it and through a lot of different channels. So, we've actually been or even before the survey results came came back looking at ways that we could um make that
015communication more streamlined through fewer apps so that families aren't feeling like they have to go through multiple different apps. Um so, more information to come out about that and you can see the rankings. Um I did the top five and the bottom two. Um and you can see of the rankings families could check multiple options. Um obviously electronic is the most frequent. Um print tends to be print and radio tend to be the least frequent. Um, and then I think this is the biggest highlight of of our survey, which is what do our families think about us overall and how might they um promote or not promote our district? And they get a 0 to10 scale. And those who work in um kind of marketing business, this is oftentimes what they call net promoter or
016people who promote um a certain item or entity or in our case our school district. And you can see from 2014 to 2016, we've increased the number of families that mark a nine or a 10 or what we would consider our biggest promoters. um reduce the number of non-promoters, those who mark us in the bottom um quartile or bottom half and then um our neutral who are our sevens and eights um have increased. So this that um distribution is moving in the direction that we want which is more families feeling overall like we are a good entity to coin uh board members uh comment being a destination district. This is our biggest marketing campaign. Our students and our families talking to other students and families about what we're doing here. It's far more effective. It
017never pits one district against another district and is our biggest ally when we think about how do we promote our district. We promote our district by taking um care of what we value and believe which I believe is our board goals. H having an organization where our students see themselves and are seeing and are growing so that we can um have a a engaged um young young adults and future leaders. So I'll pause here. questions about the survey before we >> done. Um, where can we find the the all of the the entire survey, not just the summary? >> I have the entire survey. So, if that's something that you'd like to go through, I can definitely >> Yeah, I'd like to see that. Thanks, >> Mia. >> I would as well. >> I assume
018you'll send it to the full board. >> Mhm. >> Okay. Okay. Jim, >> yeah, >> I was just going to ask it sounds like it's something you're going to kind of pursue more is the process piece and you're really talking about everything from identifying students through initial planning to reviews and I mean kind of from start to finish of that process. Is that when they talk about process or were there particular aspects of that that came out as a concern? >> The question just simply asks asks about process. So it could be it could be any or all of it. >> Okay. We'll take we'll take a holistic view and say if if you are new to the IEP process, there's certainly a lot of information, but I think it's also good that through the
019annual um progress monitoring and the annual reviews to just check in with families on their understanding so that they know like after the second year we're doing a three-year revel so next year's is going to look a little bit different than the previous two. And I'll never never go into the conversation assuming that everyone understands. But to simply ask those questions as a matter of course and knowing that for families who may have been in um our district and know our system really really well, that answer might be no, I'm good. But we don't want to leave it unasked and that that's a continuous process improvement for us. So >> sounds good. >> Y >> Lisa, um I think it's great that we're improving on the um people who are willing to promote the district
020and you know reducing the non-promoters. I'm still a little concerned that there is about a third of folks that say that they would not promote the school district, but I don't really know if there's any context. Then I asked you about a couple questions if there are state comparisons. I don't does school perceptions ask this would you promote your district question. Do we know that? Because I just would like to know because I mean there's going to be grumpy people, right? So, but is it a third of the school district? You know what I mean? Or third of responders, I should say. I would say of the questions that we ask this one school perceptions does ask though I can reach out to them and say for that specific question what do they have and
021again school perceptions doesn't they say they have comparisons but they're only comparable to the districts that use them. So, it's not everyone in Wisconsin. It's not necessarily every school district >> in um the nation. It's they're comparable based on the um the districts that use their services. So, I'll only give that as a caveat that when I ask that and report that back out to the board, just know that it's that context and they don't necessarily are give us um what is it compared to our comparable neighbors because they they might not be clients of our geographical neighbors or even demographic neighbors. >> Thank you. Y >> additional questions for Dan so far? Mia, >> I was just going to say I know that we have been intentional about um our media and sort of
022celebrating our big wins. >> Um have you gotten any feedback about those things? like we've got a big banner up at the high school around the front. We made those uh information sheets for realators to >> distribute, you know. Have we gotten any anecdotal feedback about how those are received or if they seem to be making an impact? >> Don't know about the impact piece. definitely anecdotal and I'll give you a conversation that I had with um realtors and builders at the community expo at the Man Center just this year >> and they appreciate them because to the to prospective um families who might be looking at multiple communities being able to have a takeaway as what they call it um about our community and about our school district is helpful. Even if it even
023if it is, oh yeah, we looked at three different communities and what did they say about this community? What did they say? Oh, well, here's what Ston has and here's the information. So, I know specifically one conversation I had with a realtor had a family that was looking at four different communities in this geographic area. And I handed that individual our one pagers that we we brought to that and he was very thankful that he could just take those and I said, "If you need more, >> reach out to Abby Sharp and we can get you more of them." And then one of the three builders that's in in our area, they asked the same thing. So, anecdotally, I think it anything helps just to be able to have the takeaway for for families. But
024as far as tracking those efforts to open enrollment seats or new enrollments, we've not looked at it and I don't know if that would give us um useful as useful information for the amount of effort to research. >> Yeah. And there's probably so many confounding variables too. So >> yeah, >> but yeah, I would Yeah. you know, wanting to know like feedback. >> It's a good it's a good question. Nothing in the school in the family survey jumped out from an anecdotal, but definitely from my experiences of just being out in the community. >> Any other questions for Dan? >> Nope. >> Can I make a brief point? So in my employment, I worked for the statewide teachers union and looked at different resources. Uh and um there is research that documents that um people
025move to communities because of amenities and also the quality of education. And there's language that says it's one of the first things a realer is going to introduce to a family uh is hey this is good community for your schools. So I think in addition to what you stated um I think there's also you know if we wanted to look into it further we don't have to but there are uh research pieces that have been done that kind of support that in a way it's kind of common sense logical too when you think about it I mean parents with kids want to find a place that's good for their children. >> Okay >> moving on. All right. So, I um foreshadowed for the board that um actually was foreshadowed at the conversation at the last
026board meeting that we would be bringing information back around world language. um based on the interactions um with families and students about choices and updating um students who were taking German that German would be not in person but um online a uh synchronous or asynchronous options. we heard back from um both the middle school and high school around that shift. And so looking at the options and um Kate and I are happy to answer any questions as soon as I I wrap up my comments here that we had a couple of options available to us. Um the option that we are moving forward with is taking the staffing allocation for world language um and use uh use that to meet the needs of our students enrolled in world language either in Spanish or supporting um
027the online German. So, we still have a few students that we're trying to connect with just because it's the end of the year, field trips, events, um, and so forth. So, as we finalize those numbers, that's what we feel is the most, um, responsible way moving forward try and still having the having the committee convene and have the conversation. So that is the approach that we are going to be moving moving forward with and wanted to give the board and the community an update on what that what that looks like and then be able to answer any questions. So I'll pause here and answer any questions specifically about world language. >> Allison um so when you are saying 1.0 know FTE world language that is it that is can you just define what that is
028I mean is that any of the languages it's Spanish it's German it's ch you know Mandra like I'm just trying to understand is that like a category or is that a class >> so I'll I'll kick off and then do if you don't mind um circling back and making sure that if I missed any nuances that you fill in. So we had we had a resignation in German. So that's the 1.0 position. >> Okay. >> In lie of doing anything either reducing it and trying to live within within that reduction. We feel like we want to use that FTE to meet the needs of students currently taking world language. Right now it's Spanish and German. German being online. knowing that students still taking things online may need some support. That support needs >> okay >>
029so needs an adult to do that and here's a way that we can can do that. How how did I do, Kate? >> Okay, >> Kate, your microphone. >> Oh, >> I always forget that. That sounds like what we discussed. Sorry. >> So, like the current um online um that we're doing right now, the virtual instruction, is that considered an FTE? >> Oh, for right now? >> Yeah. Well, right now we're engaged in a a different structure than we will be next year. So, right now we have partnered with um a a organization that will pro that provide is providing right now German language instruction and in the room we have staff supporting the instruction but there not our SASD staff is not leading that instruction is not is not the teacher of record right
030now. So next year even if it's German >> online >> that would be I'm just I think I'm just trying to understand where this FTE >> Sure. Okay. So where where it comes from. So right now we have because of a resignation this spring we have a 1.0 0 German, >> right? >> U FTE >> and we would like to very likely use part of that to meet the needs next year of our students who will now be enrolled in Spanish instruction. These are students who are now enrolled just in the last month or so and well really a couple of weeks since we talked last. Um and also those students who are now enrolled in online German instruction which is asynchronous which is watching recorded instruction. It requires a level of support um that
031is that is relatively intensive especially for students who you know prior to a couple weeks ago weren't planning on engaging in online instruction in German. So, we want to be able to support that really well, that type of instruction really well next year. So, the the um the FTE that's available is the current existing 1.0 German um FTE that we have due to a resignation earlier this spring. >> Okay, I'm going to let somebody else have the question. Um my question is if somebody takes German next year >> Mhm. >> So like is German going to be third period or is it actually going to be a class period? And then do like everybody in all four grades take German at the same class period to get that um use of that person that one
032point FTE or is that person going to be working more than one period in German I guess is what I'm saying. >> Sure. No, it's a it's a good question like how will logistically will that work when we have a few different sections of German for example at the high school that will be offered online. This is asynchronous. So it means that you can go in at any time theoretically and access that instruction. But that period of the day uh that they would have available will be what the time that they will use to complete that German instruction. And your question is will that all happen second hour or will it all happen seventh hour? Um, those are a couple of questions that we really are still ironing out, but what we do want to
033have available is that FTE um, available so that we have some flexibility within our current staff to be able to support those students really well. So, I'm not imagining that the stars will align and they will all that will all happen second hour, but we're going to do our best to make the best possible use of the aotment that we have and our, you know, very skilled educators who are are prepared to support. Did you have a question? Go ahead. >> Yeah. So I think would it just be fair to say this is almost like a like a learning facilitator like they're more of a facilitator which absolutely more common in schools now because of budget cuts or or shortfalls where you you can't offer all as many languages as we want. So we have
034to we have to get creative and and so it sounds like this is a good good move to hire a person like this who can do that >> right well and this would be just you know a one time just for this year as you know our committee is going to meet and which will be comprised of board members and our world language educators and we'll make a decision uh about the future of world language in our district but for right now for our district we think this is the right way to meet the needs of students. Um we as you know we have students who are enrolled in online learning right now but those are students who um who really have gone through a process and have decided that online learning is the best
035pedagogical or instructional match for them and our students right now in German are also who are registered for online German next year have also decided that this is a match that will work for them but part of what we've also said what we shared with the board a couple weeks ago is that we want to provide some extra supports for those students because this is a this is a turn of events that really we didn't foresee. So, we want to be sure that for this year, for this very temporary one-time sort of nonp precedent setting um situation, we want to be able to meet the needs that are existing. >> U Mia, go ahead. >> Um you may not have this information in front of you. Um, so a follow-up would be fine, but I'm
036just curious roughly what the breakdown was in terms of how many students chose to switch to Spanish, how many have elected to do the online and then how many are sort of taking a different elective altogether and leaving world languages. >> Yes. Um, we we do have those numbers and when they're finalized, we can share them. >> Yeah. And I don't even need like >> exact numbers, you know, like if it's >> 30 3030 or, you know, >> 50% chose this and >> that's fine. I I'm just curious kind of what that breakdown looked like. >> Absolutely. And that will be part of, you know, the the committee when they come together, we'll take a look at that data as well. We're going to we'll be looking at a lot of data sources, but we're
037we want to understand the the choices of our families right now when we're at the thinking. Lisa, >> will you be including family members in the committee that's meeting later to discuss the future of world languages? >> That's something we can certainly consider. >> Or sorry, Allison, it's okay. Um I I know the committee is expected to meet in the fall >> and not really knowing what this looks like. It just to me it just seems a little late. Although um you're saying if we're going to have um our world language instructors or educators potentially be >> part of the committee, it's hard harder to do that in the summer. Is that what the thinking is? >> That might be true. But if we're if we're looking to get started earlier, we can always consider
038that. We want to make a really good decision. So if it if we think we'll get a better outcome by starting a little bit sooner um while considering that of course it's it's you know really critical I think the board has established of course that board members be involved um and then also our educators take part as well. So um I think you know we're a small enough group that we could start looking at dates um pretty immediately. Uh once again, we we want to make sure we're not rushed in this. Um but of course, we also want to be sensitive to to our our schedules, everyone's schedules. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Any additional questions on this topic? Seeing none. >> Okay. >> All right. >> Thank you. >> Uh thank you. >> Thanks,
039Cakes. Um, last but certainly not least on your calendars, um, and followed up, um, from Rachel was, uh, invite to Sunday, June 7th, 2026, Collinsfield, 11:00. board members who uh wish to be a part of the ceremony um can arrive at let one let us know so that we can get that to Cassie um who who is planning um but for um board members who would like to sit up on stage please let us know as soon as possible so that we can get that to Cassie and then please arrive at 10:00 to the high school main office. Um, and then we'll all walk up together with everyone who will be standing on standing and saying on stage. So, any questions? >> We've heard we've we've heard um from many of you, but it those
040of you who have not um who are still thinking about it, please get that to Rachel ASAP. >> All right, that takes us to item four, the consent agenda. Move approval of the consent agenda as presented. >> Second. >> Moved by Sorg, seconded by Bubon. Is there any discussion questions? >> Lisa, >> I just had just a couple of comments. I'm just unfortunate to lose two counselors at Riverbluff. Um and and and I'm just going to say this this the payments for out of school placement of kids at the Richardson school is just an ongoing concern for me. But that those are just my comments. Thank you. Anything else? All right. The consent agenda has been moved and seconded. All in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? Extensions. Consent agenda is approved. We are on
041to item five discussion. >> All right. So coming out of the last board meeting um there were several questions that the board members had asked and so working with um Jill and Lisa. We are scheduled this to be a discussion item so that we could build the background knowledge and understanding around fund balance for board members. Um and making sure that uh one everyone is kind of level set on what fund balance is, the nuances that surround fund balance, how we look at fund balance and track it year-over-year and then open up the conversations around what are what have been uses for fund balance and and have the board have a conversation around um everything that was presented. So talking with Erica, Erica provided an executive summary and some documents that I shared out. I
042appreciate board members who asked clarifying questions and reshared those um questions and answers out with the full board so that you can build background knowledge. Um some of those questions may be questions that get reasked here or asked in a different different way. Um and again as always is part of our board policy when information is shared electronically not responding to um to questions because that becomes a walking quorum but it is to build background knowledge and understanding so that board members feel comfortable, confident and engaged in both the topic and um being able to answer questions um at the board table. So with that, any questions before I have Erica start? Erica. >> So I didn't prepare a presentation or anything. I mean, I think a lot of this information has been pieces that
043we've talked about a little bit in the past here and there, but never really had like a full discussion around um fund balance. And um I had a a nice opportunity to just think about what might be helpful. And I um appreciate some of the questions that I got in advance because um you know as some board members have been on the board for a long time, some haven't been here as long. There's just you know there's some historical context that I think is is kind of important. Um, when I looked back at what our balances were and and I before I get there, I should probably just pause and just ask if anyone wants me to elaborate on any of the information I provided. Um, provide any additional context in terms of people understanding
044what exactly fund balance is? I mean, should I talk to that before I start talking about kind of where we're at? And >> I just have a comment. I think this was an exceptional summary. Um, I learned a lot and I've been on the board a while, but there's stuff I never realized. So, I really appreciate the work you did on this. It's very helpful. >> Well, thank you. Um, I do think that, you know, again, I I'm hoping everyone had a chance to to read a little bit, but I I one of the things I do like to share with people is that, you know, I think we tend to think of fund balance as what's in our checking account, which isn't necessarily always the case um for people who may own a small
045business or are involved in sort of a business environment. It's it's essentially the the the public sector equivalent of owner's equity. So it's your assets minus your liabilities. And in a school district, our biggest assets at times is our cash because we do um a cash basis accounting method or modified acrruel. But um but it's not always that our fund balance represents our cash. And that's why I included and I don't know Rachel if you want to pull it up um like the the cash uh fund balance comparison chart. I just included this for some perspective when we levy our taxes in the fall that is is was recorded as a receivable which is an asset. So all of a sudden you can see at that point in time our fund balance if you were
046to take a snapshot at that point in time is really really high. yet. That's the same point in time in which we haven't received a tax levy payment or an aid payment from the state for a few months. So the cash we have on hand is actually quite that's when it really starts to dip. And so when we think about um when we say things and I do this all the time, but you want to maintain a fund balance sufficient to avoid short-term borrowing, understanding that if you looked at the point in time when we might need to do short-term borrowing, it's actually a point where our fund balance looks really high. So, I think um just having a little bit of a deeper understanding that cash at certain points in time in the year
047is our largest asset, but not always. So, when um when we have those periods of time where we're paying our staff and we're paying our bills, but we don't necessarily have resources coming into the district, that's when those cash balances start to dip. Um, so I think that that is a piece that is easily lost and sometimes, like I said, I can be just as guilty as anyone when we talk about spending fund balance. Well, what that really means is that our expenses will exceed our revenues in a given year and then our fund balance will will go down. Um, so I I hope that that you know that that there is an understanding of that. Um that said, we we do have um our fund balance has increased over the last few years in
048terms of total percentage of our budget. Um when I look back dating as far back as the 20145 school year, um and again when we're looking at fund balance numbers, we tend to take our snapshot as of June 30th when we have our audit. So when I look over that 10-year period of time from 2014 all the way up to the 19 201920 school year and we all know that at the end of the 201820 school year is when the pandemic hit and we essentially we left what on March 13th and we never came back. So the the years leading up to that point in time our fund balance increased over the over a total of four years by one point 1 1.03%. So, we were really kind of hovering right around that 26 to
04927% threshold. And that was really where we hit a point where we um we didn't need to do any short-term borrowing. We used to actually get a line of credit from our bank just in case, you know, we had um we had concern about that where we could access cash for a shortterm period of time without having to borrow for like a full uh 12 months. And that was right about, like I had said in an email last January, kind of that sweet spot where we felt pretty comfortable that at our lowest cash point, we would be okay and still be able to pay our staff, um, pay our bills. When the 1920 school year hit, we had COVID, we shut down, and there was a lot of uncertainty. Well, there was just uncertainty everywhere
050in all the things, but there was a lot of concern that we could have a budget repair bill. We just didn't know. And when we all went home, we kind of just made the decision. We're like, we'll we'll spend if we need, but at that point, we're just going to kind of lay low and and honestly, when everybody went home, we weren't making copies, you know, just some of the things. And we didn't do some of our normal year on purchasing because we just didn't know what the next school year was going to look like. So that year, we had a pretty significant jump in our fund balance because we had a surplus of almost $1.5 million. So our fund balance went up in the 201920 school year by 4.7%. So the prior four years
051combined it was a shift of 1% and then in one year alone it was 4.7. Um the next two years after that it was a combined increase of just under 4%. Again there was a lot of um we ran into some supply chain issues where we had ordered things, it never came in, we had to cancel the order. Um, we also had I it was it was interesting just looking back at some of the details behind some of this. Um, I think in the middle of December, Governor Eager Ivers distributed about $400,000 in COVID relief money to help support, which was great, but when you're in the middle of December, it you don't really add staff. I mean, it was just an awkward time. So, at that point in time, we kind of made the
052decision that we were going to pause and I think we designated um our fund balance that year because we knew that we were getting to that point in time where we might need to be looking at an operational referendum. So we used that along with um some of the or all of the blanking esser uh federal co relief funds to essentially balance our budget for the next two years to delay our operational referendum. And since that point in time so that got us through basically 2122 in November of 22 we had our facilities referendum and then the following um the following year we had our operational referendum. So since the 3 years after that point in time our fund balance has actually gone down about 2%. So again when we take those you know those
053three years right around co that is when we did see our fund balance as a whole increase by a pretty significant um percentage compared to what we typically see in any given year. Um so that's just kind of some context. So obviously if we were at 27% and felt like we were in a good position to avoid short-term borrowing, it grew over a three three-year period of time and we've kind of leveled out. I think it's a fair question like are we sitting at a place where we feel like we should use you know use that to address some needs? Should we not? Um and I think you know last board meeting it just it it pushed us to think about you know might there be resources for certain certain needs or purposes. Um, in
054the summary, I did say, you know what, before I keep talking, I'm just gonna pause if if what I'm saying makes sense or if there's any questions about that questions to date, I think everybody's pretty clear. >> Great. Okay. Um, so in thinking about if we're at a place where we want to reduce our fund balance, um, I think it's important to to think about the impacts of those decisions and and and understand if we're going to pursue that, what might be a good way to do so and what things might we want to consider and what things might we want to avoid. And and everybody here has always heard me say too, I'd be really cautious about using it to um to util I wouldn't spend on our fund balance for recurring costs. So
055if you're going to hire a staff member for a purpose and using fund balance to do so, at some point you'll keep reducing your fund balance and then we'll hit those thresholds where now we need to borrow money to pay our bills and then we're adding interest cost which you know is just is money that you're spending for nothing. So, it might be a short-term solution until you can access um consistent funding resources for something like that or if it's a short-term need that you have an end date. Um but if it's something that's going to continue on in an annual basis, I would really, you know, be hesitant to use that as a strategy. Um, I did say at the end of my summary, one consideration, and we kind of did this a little
056bit with with our COVID funds. We essentially knew that we didn't have enough money in our regular operational budget to support our ongoing costs, but we had those onetime ESER funds. But we went into that knowing that and we were trying to be very strategic and use that as a communication piece with our community saying we really felt like we wanted to use these resources responsibly and we wanted to make sure we had come to the community to ask for additional funding at the point in time we had exhausted all of those options. So, um, that's kind of a long way for me to say like there may be some some points in time in which using that as a stop gap measure could be useful. If, for example, we were in a place like
057many districts were this last uh this last election cycle where there was a failed referendum. If you had if you needed more time to make planful reductions, that might be one way to do it. you could make some reductions, use your fund balance for a year. That might get you to a point where you could ask a referendum question again or demonstrate um some reductions, you know, once you got to a point in time where you could potentially engage in more meaningful conversations around that. I mean that that would be a possibility and I think that that would be a good example of using those kind of resources for recurring purposes but kind of an end date in mind. Um, and I think Jim, you had kind of commented too that, you know, potentially using
058fund balance could be paired with our long-term capital improvement plan. And that would be a great example of if you have a need to um what's real like parking lots, you it's it's nuts how much it costs to put pavement down on the ground. That might be an example of, wow, we're we're sitting pretty good. we had this um this repair need hit us a lot sooner than we had anticipated. That might be a good use of using um overspending, reducing your fund balance a little bit to meet that need so that way you don't create bigger problems down the road. Something like that. So, I'm going to pause again. >> Okay. So, questions for Erica at this point. Lisa, >> in terms of the the long-term capital improvement, um I'm not on financing facilities,
059which is I'm sure where some of that I think it might be nice at some future meeting to have a little outline of things in the district that are, you know, getting older like that on the docket for repair or replacement. And then if I don't know if if you know kind of foreshadowing that if there are price tags you know or if that you don't get that information till you put something out to bid but like just kind of understand some building needs roof replaced something needs a new air conditioning unit in the next 5 years or whatever. And I think that makes that sounds very responsible to think about rather than thinking oh we're going to need a facilities referendum that how do how do updates like that get paid for now? like
060is there money set aside for that? >> Yes. Um I would say over the last three years it's been through our capital revenue funds and um and we do we have always had a 10-year plan. We have not updated it since we've been working on all of our projects from our facilities referendum. That is something that Kyle and I will be really working towards updating this next year as we continue to wrap up that work. So we have a couple of ways that we address those types of needs. So we have um obviously our facility referendum addressed a lot of things. Um we do also maintain a a fund 41 which is a capital improvement fund and a fund 46 and they're slightly different in how they are managed. So fund 41 falls within our
061revenue cap and is part of our tax levy. So when we talk a lot about our revenue limit and we say you know this is how much we get per kid times our three-year average of students. Here's how much we have. um that incorporates our fund 10 levy if we choose to levy in fund 41 as part of our capital projects fund. We do that upfront at the beginning of the year and we do have a portion of our levy that is for that purpose. So that allows us to set those funds aside and accumulate them over time. So that way if you have a roofing project that would be really expensive to address in one budget year, we can plan for that, you know, by um aligning our capital projects, our 10-year maintenance plan
062to the funds we have available. Now, when you're looking at like a $50 million referendum, it's pretty hard to accumulate that kind of money over time. Fund 46 is a little bit different. We started that probably 10 years ago at this point in time, but you that is handled a little differently in that you can take money from fund 10 at any point in time and transfer it into fund 46. And it's kind of the same thing where you use it by by putting it there. It's designated for those projects identified in your 10-year plan. The difference is that in fund 41, you're levying for that at the beginning of the year. fund 46. We've in the past essentially looked at where we're at at the end of the year and we've said, you know
063what, we believe we're going to be under budget this year. We'd like to transfer $100,000 into fund 46 because we feel like our fund balance in fund 10 is sufficient. We can avoid short-term borrowing. And that's one way of just sort of earmarking those funds for later without having to designate your fund 10 fund balance or um or try to spend it at the end of the year quickly to address a project that really might take more time. Um so those two sources have primarily been the way that we've addressed like the roofs, the parking lots, that type of that type of work. And then we have a a maintenance budget, but that's more of the um the sink broke over at Riverbluff. somebody needs to go fix it. That kind of thing. >> Thank
064you. >> Yeah. >> Your recolleation, do you do you have we ever dipped into it since you've been here for a one time? >> We >> I mean I'm sorry for an ongoing >> No, we've had we have um we have you we've we've designated it for certain purposes. Um we've done it that way. we haven't purposefully decided, you know what, it's at a level that we believe we should reduce it and therefore come up with a planful way in advance to do so. Um, and I think primarily that's because we've we've just been kind of hovering around >> that level where we felt pretty comfortable avoiding short-term borrowing, >> but we've never used it for an ongoing net. >> No. No. Jeffrey, >> going back to maintenance issues, am I correct? It's the fund
06527. That's a community fund. Is that correct? >> Fund 80 is our community fund. >> Fund 27 is special education. >> Okay. So, for the fund 80 fund, um is it possible to um if you have something like a swimming pool or publicly used basketball court or something like that to pay for repairs that are required and not have to take that out of the other budgets? Can we use that? DPI has some really specific guidelines around fund 80 and they've gotten even a little stricter um because I I I believe this is my opinion but I believe that >> um fund is taxed outside of the revenue limit so it's a separate tax levy. >> I think people were trying to get pretty creative with what they could put there. >> Yes. >> Um
066to to preserve their operational levies. So using the example of a basketball court, unless you can specifically separate out the costs associated with community use from regular routine classroom, athletics, whatever use, you can't charge it to fund 80. So you really can't um >> has to be related specifically to community >> because what we used to So I have a I have a good example. So, in the pool, we used to have we we have pretty good records around the percentage of time that the pool is used for community use versus the percentage where it's used for our our um school and athletic use. And we would allocate um utilities based on that percentage. So, a percentage went into fund 80 based on community use and a percentage went into fund 10 for district use.
067That shifted when some of the more restrictive guidelines came out because the rationale was if you have to have the water in the pool for your PE classes and your swim team, you would have it in the pool regardless of the community use. So the utility costs in July and a part of August where we don't have district use only, that's how we kind of separate out some of those costs. But um we'd have the lights on, we'd heat the pool, and we'd have the water in there even if the community wasn't using it tomorrow night. Um so we do allocate some cost to that, but the maintenance costs that we would have even if we weren't having community use would not be able to be charged to fund 80. >> Pretty tightly monitored now
068at this point. I guess >> we do have an audit every year and they they do look at that. Yeah, >> it's a good idea though. Additional questions for Erica Allison. >> Um kind of just little housekeeping thing. Fund 46 when we put money into that doesn't have to sit for a period of time before we can use it. >> Very good memory. Yeah. Had it had to sit for I think it was five years. But so once we created the initial once we created the account we had to put like a dollar in there. We did put it was a small amount we put in there to start that clock ticking. But once we hit the you're okay to spend I think it was five years. I think once we hit that >> then
069we could spend it. So it's not like for every dollar you have you put in you have to wait five years. It was just that initial waiting period >> not like a rolling >> correct. Okay. >> So we've hit our threshold. So whatever if we could put money in there today and then use it tomorrow if we wanted to. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Yeah. >> Any other questions? Jim. Well, it's just more really more of a comment that I think the that you all did, you know, great on the referendum and we could thank the people that voted for it just to get us in pretty good shape right now. And I just think the we don't know what's on the horizon in terms of uh everything from energy efficiency to technology to safety
070security. So to have that some flexibility with that fund is pretty important. Lisa. Um, so this fall we'll be considering a potential update to our three big goals around improving in literacy, math, and belonging. So, um, you know, one thing that struck me after we had our conversation after the last meeting was if we were going to target, you know, specifically in a one time very targeted way use of our fund balance, shouldn't we be thinking about things that would really directly impact students? So, if we go decide as a board to go deeper on um those three goals, you know, uh you know, something I've brought up is just I I think we could be doing better in terms of the progress for students with disabilities. Could a potential one-term use of a of
071a safe amount of the fund balance, something that we would take the time to think about what what avoids short-term borrowing? which what allows enough money in there to deal with, you know, hypothetical concerns, but would allow us as a board to agree to um what is it? An unassign unassigned B or whatever the board assigns a balance toward a specific one-time use. Like for instance, some intensive technical assistance or training to maybe revisit some of the the Swift School, you know, initiative that we did, you know, years ago. is that would that be a possible um one-time sort of um student focused thing that we could really you know invest in? I think it if that I think the answer to that is yes and I think with anything like that I would always
072want to think about what is the in order to maintain that if we you can almost think of like like a grant so like if you need that startup boost then creating a plan to sustain it long term I think would be really important but yes I think we we we could do that um whether it's you know a parking lot or a one-time cost associated with like training or any kind of purchase is um I just think in doing that we we would want we would certainly want to create a plan to maintain it, sustain it and then if there are ongoing costs, how do we then build that into our budget? And I don't think I I think having ideas like that are helpful to know um in advance. So if we have
073the opportunity, we can we can execute those ideas. Um, and I think I even mentioned this too because one of your questions, Lisa, was about the the um the surplus, I'm blanking on what you can call it, um, disaster, but I think that's a really great example of how it's gotten more and more difficult to just manage a budget up until the end of the year. So, we were the state budget passed. They said special ed reimbursement would be at 42%. Well, that 42% is basically a reimbursement of prior year expenses and it is some certain. So, here's the pot of money. We think it's about 42% of districts costs from last year. Well, as districts start reporting their costs, and when you think about how many referendums are passing, those estimated costs that DPI
074creates, who knows what they're actually going to be by the time all these districts have passed the referendums. We get into the year, then they calculate the funds available as a reimbursement and it's really not 42%, so we budgeted 39 a.5. Well, then DPI said we're actually going to start reimbursing at 35. So then we have to decide like, okay, so are we going to be actually under budget even though we budgeted less than what we were told. Then, you know, sitting here in May, there's this bipartisan deal where they're like, cool, we're going to bump it up to 50%. And I'm like, it's lovely. But, you know, when we find that out in May and then all of a sudden we end up with $400,000 more in special ed aid that comes to the
075district in June, well, that's a great example of how your fund balance might go up unexpectedly. And again, we'll definitely need and and plan for those resources next year, but you know, you might have this unexpected income, you know, showing up at the end of the year. So, and it seems like there's just more and more of that. And I think it may just be, you know, I again, it's not bad. You know, we don't want to say we don't want it. That's not what I'm saying at all. But um the the the partisan nature of the world we're living in and how that affects um what we what we do or don't get and the timing of it can be really challenging sometimes. So, I'm just kind of rambling at this point, but I
076think, you know, knowing that we're in a good place, if we do believe that there are ways to address needs and through this mechanism, I think doing that in a planful way would be a great idea. >> It's a really long way. >> Final comment. I think you do a great job when you're putting the budget together of I think your historical knowledge of how the state budget process works. even though they say they're going to promise 42% reimbursement, you're like, "Yeah, maybe not going to happen. I'm going to put in 37%." Or whatever it was, like you're you're very conservative and evenhanded so that the budget that we get is a better reflection of what actually happened. So, thank you for that. >> I appreciate that. I do have some good colleagues that also
077have done this for a long time and we talk Mia. >> Um, yeah. So, first of all, I want to say um I apologize for if at the last meeting I gave the impression that I felt you weren't um providing what had been asked of you because uh you always do and you are so conscientious and I really appreciate the um information that you provided ahead of time. I appreciated the opportunity to read it and process it on my own time. Um because if I was just hearing this in real time, I would be like, uh, >> so I appreciate that as well. >> Um, I do want to say, and this is not directed at you, this is just globally. Um, at the end of the last meeting, we asked for some proposals on
078ways to potentially lessen the impact and have our teachers feeling a little more cared for. And I I I don't think we've gotten there yet. We're talking about the fund balance, which I think we need to have that conversation, but I also think I I don't want that other piece to just, you know, get swept under the rug. Um, because I think it's important and when I think about my values, I'm not speaking for the whole board, just me as an individual. I would rather have a parking lot with potholes and teachers who feel like they are taken care of by our district than vice versa. Um, and it seems like a lot of those capital things, the maintenance things, we always find money for those. And it frustrates me that we haven't been able
079to find money for what we're hearing from the teachers feels like a blow to them. Maybe that's just we're only hearing from a small percentage or, you know, etc., etc., But it feels like I as a board member would hope that we could at least do some investigation. If we do some investigation, show that we're putting that effort in and then ultimately come up empty, that's one thing. But just not um not even having that be part of our discussion tonight feels um concerning to me um because and I and I will I will end this by saying like I hope that that thread doesn't get lost in this whole conversation. Um, I I will respond to that because I felt very strongly be that the board required more information about how fund balance worked
080before we could move any direction forward with a potential plan to utilize fund balance dollars for anything. um especially given the conversation we had um last meeting. I do think that we do a very good job of giving to our employees to the maximum extent possible when we talk with them about salaries. We have traditionally um you know not just bargained to the minimum and we have come back frequently and increased our board authority. So I think if you look at that historical financial portion of what we offer staff but you know if your suggestion to make staff feel you know better or more um I won't put words in your mouth is more related to climate and culture then that might be a discussion that climate and culture could have around things that could
081be done that are not necessarily tied to a financial price tag. I don't know. Um I think that this discussion around fund balance was important and I think that if uh majority of board members feel like this discussion should move to finance and facilities for further investigation on what potential amount we might have that we might be able to responsibly apply to some sort of one-time or shortterm use. Um we could certainly task that work group with that discussion. >> Yeah. And and to clarify, I mean, I think that this background on FUD B fund balance, I agree with you that it was necessary, >> Dan. >> Um, so one one piece that I don't want to um left unsaid at at this table is um I get to work with Erica every day. every
082time that her and I get to talk about budget and funding and I feel like I'm always learning something and you always do a great job and I've shared with this to you privately and publicly that you can take all of these concepts and make it very understandable for the general public. I've seen you give countless presentations for capital and operational referendum in the community and you do a great job of being able to explain these concepts and you do that every single time. So, thank you. I also feel that um you said something at the last board meeting that underpins the the approach that we as an administrative team try to bring. um recommendations to the board and that is to maximize the benefit to the greatest number of individuals. In this case, when
083we talk when we talk about finances, maximizing our um uh impact on our facilities, our students, our staff, our our utilities and all of that. And we live with within a budget. Our budget is set in October. And I think what you've highlighted again tonight, Erica, is that we can set a budget. We're actually running writing a budget the first part of the year before we've actually set the budget. And then after that budget is set, if outside entities decide to charge us extra money or give us extra money, it's hard for us to to react because we have to live within that budget. And it is it is both a um opportunity and and um a challenge for us to to do that. The conversation at the board table to your point Mia is
084designed to build board's understanding around fund balance so that you can have all sorts of conversations moving forward and have know that everyone seen around the table has a baseline understanding and can start to say is that a recurring cost or is that a one-time cost. Um, the thing that I use as a guidepost is spending something year after year is clearly reoccurring. Spending something once and not having to look at again in 15 20 years nonre non-recurring. But where does that line shift I think is is a question. And so having worthy conversations at the table and the whole the having the workg groupoups be able to do some technical pieces. Those are the conversations that we have there. And then and then the questions when I walk away I will check in with
085Jill and and Lisa to say, "Okay, are these action items? Are these questions? If they're questions, how do we bring that back to the board? If they're action items, is it coming to the board or is it coming to a work group?" So I said a lot there. I don't know if I make but thank you Erica for providing good >> good good solid information for us to have these conversations and I enjoy working with you every day. So >> well thank you. >> Thank you. >> Anything else on this otherwise I think we can move forward. Yes. All right. Um we have no discussion action this evening. So that takes us to meeting closing. So uh for action items I have that you're going to send the survey data to the board. You're going
086to ask school perceptions about the recommendation question responses that they have been seeing from other districts. And I'm just going to put percentages. That's really what we want. >> And then >> benchmarks. >> Huh? >> Benchmarks. >> Yeah. >> Benchmarks. That's a good way to put that. I don't do that. Okay. Um, and then the number of students choosing the various world language paths. >> Yes. >> Right. You know what that's about? >> Yep. >> The percentages. >> Yep. >> Who's choosing what now given the options? Um and then I would appreciate input from board members on how strongly we feel moving forward around finance and facilities workg group taking up the task of this discussion around what we might have in available monies to spend with fund balance. So if everybody was interested in
087that work group doing some work on that just give a thumbs up. Does everyone know who's on finance and facilities? >> I'm not interested. >> Oh, okay. >> I mean, I will if it's the will of the board. I just don't know. I'm not exactly sure. >> You know what I'm ask? >> No. >> Okay. So, I want to know thumbs up if board members would like the finance and facilities work group to have a further discussion with Erica around what available wiggle room amount of money we might have for some future use out of the fund balance. for anything. Not just the roof and the >> Yeah. No, like anything. >> Yes. What is the amount and >> Okay. So, I see two, three, four. Okay, good. Got it. So, we'll set up a
088workg groupoup meeting for finance and facilities to discuss that. And then what about uh climate and culture workg groupoup meeting to discuss non-financial options for teacher appreciation tasks? Thumbs up for that. >> Yeah. I'm sorry. >> So, um there might be other options. Yeah. Related to climate, climate and culture that would >> Yes. >> Um I say the words that you said before, show the teachers that we appreciate them. >> Yeah. I Yes. All for that. >> Okay. >> All right. Sure. >> All right. Okay. So, those two work groups will meet. I don't know why that was not >> clarif >> so with the with the work groups um so financing facility that that work group's going to take up the question what is our current current available fund balance um to stay within
089the threshold of of what we consider a a good good level 27% % >> um and then what are some thoughts or recommendations or >> uh no I think just a conversation around what what amount of money that we are looking at and whether and and whether that work group would have recommendation moving forward that we would actually utilize that money because let's if it turns out to be you know $5,000 maybe the work group would say you know No, >> we're good. >> They'll figure it out. >> The work group could dig into that a little. >> I'll figure it out. >> Yeah. Okay. >> Right. And then for climate and culture, you're looking at things around um staff appreciation that would be not tapping into living within our >> living within our current
090budget. Yes. >> So can could I what would mean by staff appreciation? I'm confused. So >> pizza and donuts at lunch. I mean, is it I I think we're going we're going to tap into where there's a concern that staff aren't feeling appreciate, whatever. I think they need to be included in these discussions regarding, you know, what like I just vision I've been around long enough to where you have each appreciation week and you get together and oh, they're going to really like this and this and this. What I'm hearing is that we want to provide teachers a competitive salary and more affordable healthcare. >> And whether or not that's something you can you can tackle at that level, I don't know. Um but I I would if I you know I'm not on on
091that committee and I'm not asking to be um but I would like to hear from them. I guess >> well there are staff on that comm. That's good to know. So yeah you have a joint work group meeting with us um employee relations >> or the the other work group that's around employees. >> It is relations but that's for negotiations. >> Oh only okay. Okay. Okay. >> Yeah. >> All right. We're good. >> Using the framework that was Tim talked about as a starting point. Yes. >> Yes. >> Yeah. Not I mean I wasn't talking about >> employee appreciation. >> No. No. >> But I think that there were representatives of staff on that committee that would >> Yeah. that would be able to say >> we don't want pizza and donuts. We you know
092here's what we would really like or here's some suggestions. >> There's the staff representatives on that committee are leadership level >> and I think we're hearing the concern from a different level. >> So I'm curious if we could invite guests to the committee. >> Well, they're open meetings. >> Okay. >> Yeah. Um Okay. So now I will take a um gander at the future meetings which include a regular board meeting on June 1st and June 15th at 6:30. Um we have a governance committee meeting tomorrow at 4:30 that's virtual. There's a virtual employee relations uh meeting on June 2nd at 5 and graduation is June 6th and board members should be in the main office or June 7th. I wrote June 7th. Uh, they should board members who are attending to sit on stage should
093arrive at the main office at 10:00 a.m. Ceremony starts at 11. And I think that's all I have. Did I miss anything? >> Nope. All right, then. Um, I'll entertain a motion. >> So moved. >> Seconded by Sword or Coyle. You sorry. >> All right. Any discussion? All in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? Absentions meeting is adjourned.