001I'd like to call this meeting of the Laram County School District number one board of trustees to order. We'll start tonight. >> I pledge algiance 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. Normally Dr. Newton is up here with us, but he is uh traveling this week. Um so he's joining us online. Um Dr. Newton, can you hear us? >> Yes, I sure can. Good evening everyone. >> Good evening. Do you have any adjustments to the agenda? >> Madam Chair, there are no adjustments to this evening's agenda. >> Thank you. Madam Chair, I move to adopt the agenda >> and I second. >> We have a motion and a second to adopt the agenda. All
002in favor say I. >> I. Opposed. >> That has been adopted. We will move forward. Um, we do not have any recognition tonight for staff and students. I imagine as we get back into the school year and August or September, we'll kick that into high gear again. Um, so we're going to go right into information and report starting with public comments first concerning agenda topics and then concerning non-aggenda topics. I believe we only have uh one person signed up tonight. Um, but before we go into that, um, I'd like to read a statement concerning public comment. The purpose of the board meeting is to conduct the business of the district publicly. The board sincerely values community input and feedback on school operations and welcomes public comment on both agenda and non-aggenda items. Individuals wishing to
003comment during a board meeting must sign up by 5:45 p.m. on the day of the meeting. Sign up for public comment can be done electronically by accessing the form available on board docs under the public comment portion of the meeting agenda. Alternatively, individuals may also contact Darlene Davis to be added to the electronic signup sheet. We will begin by hearing public comment on agenda items, followed by public comment on non-aggenda items. Please keep in mind this is a time for board members to listen and consider, but not to comment or to debate. The board asks that all speakers state your first and last name. Keep your comments to three minutes or less. And note that if you wish to discuss matters pertaining to the employment of a district staff member such as the appointment, employment,
004evaluation, reassignment, duties, investigation, discipline, or dismissal of an employee. This will not be done during the public comment portion of the meeting. Such comment should be directed to the assistant superintendent of human resources or you may request to meet with the board during executive session. So, as we look to public comment concerning agenda items, we did not have anybody sign up. Um, under public comment concerning non-aggenda items, we did have one and that is Mr. Jason McGregor. So, Jason, come on up. >> Hello, I'm Jason McGregor. Um, Madam Chair, members, all uh, sorry I did not use Robert rules of order the last time I spoke because I had a lot to say and very little time to do it. So, um, I'll try to do that better this time. But anyway, uh, I'm just
005stepping up because I'm hoping that, uh, the some of the fears that have been talked about regarding the the recent gun policy that, uh, passed on July 1st, um, didn't actually wind up getting realized. And what that means is you theoretically you've had no problems especially from the law abiding population such as myself and um just wanted to encourage all of you um as individuals to uh whatever level of training that you have. I'm training an educator on the same topic uh firearms uh firearms training education that sort of thing specifically concealed carry open carry um all the all three weapon platforms. Um just wanted to encourage all of you no matter what level of training you have to seek additional training. I recommend that to all of my students. Um that will eliminate a
006lot of the fears and uh I share some of the uh same experience as uh as Miss Hingle having worked in in ER for a little while as an EMT. Um I did my clinicals. Uh we had a number of different things that that have come in. I've seen some of the same stuff that she has. Um so I just wanted to speak to that as well. Um, so anyway, just wanted to encourage you. It's all about training and education. And if you want to seek any additional, please get with me. I can answer all kinds of questions either on the spot, off the cuff, and or provide a number of other resources uh for you to be able to look up the same information um and or additional information. So that way if you
007guys can hold yourselves to the same standards that you're asking our educators in our school district to do uh then I would highly encourage that as well or at least have a much stronger grasp and concept on the same so that way uh whatever you're asking of those educators uh that you yourself also know in depth uh what that actually means. And I I don't mean to insult anyone's education level at all whatsoever. That's not the point in saying that. Um, it's just more of just being able to hold each other and hold ourselves to as high of a standard as possible, much like you guys already addressed early on by developing a policy to begin with. And with that, I give the remainder of my time to whatever you guys need. >> Thank you
008very much. >> We will now move into board communications and reports. Um, just a couple notes on some upcoming meetings um and events. July 23rd and 24th is the challenge rodeo out at Cheyenne Frontier Days in the arena. Um those start at 11:00 a.m. both days. Um I believe you received information from Darlene concerning that and opportunity to sign up. Um July 30th at 1 p.m. we will have the executive trustees with the superintendent um to look at our agenda for the August 4th meeting and um believe we need two trustees to sign up for that. Is there anyone who's available who maybe hasn't been to one in a while? Sometimes we um we used to spread that around a little more, but we do need two trustees there. So, Trusty Clson. Okay. And >>
009do that one. >> Okay. And trusty Burton. Okay. Um and then on August 4th, that will be our next regular meeting. We'll start at 5:00 p.m. with a work session, then at 6 pm with our regular board meeting. And now for individual board communications and reports. Does anybody have anything? Um, Trusty Ash, >> I do. Uh, I did put out an email earlier today that most of you, I think, have seen uh as an update for the Wyoming School Boards Association, so that I wasn't up here uh for a while. Um however I have two certificates that I need to present from the WSBA. Um we have um one of the member our members have be has taken enough training and um involvement to be a certified school board member and so Barb Cook gets
010her um certificate. And we have another school board member that has um done the same thing to be a certified master school board member and that's >> Wow. >> Uh so just for the public's benefit, the Wyoming School Boards Association has representatives um from across the state that represent either a single school board or school district. In our case, uh I represent just uh Larmy one on the board. Uh but some of them represent two or three districts from across the state and we have quarterly meetings. Um we got together um had a lot of conversation about updates from the um legislative session that happened in the spring and the interim discussions that has been happening. We also met with the executive group from the Wyoming Association of Superintendent uh and administrators association uh and
011had some good top conversations about what each of the districts is doing with their um concealed carry policies. Um some of the issues they're seeing with some of the changes to uh the homeschool notification rules, NESAs, and some confusion around those. um some discussion around the recalibration process that was happening um and then discussion on some of the upcoming I would really encourage the board to take a look at some of the trainings and and discussions that they're having upcoming the summer law conference is coming up August 7th and 8th uh that's a really good they only do that every other year it's a really good conference in Laramie um then the um fall regional meetings I think most of us went to last year um it's a a chance to get to see what
012WSBA is looking at um for the upcoming year and then the conference in November. Um uh and I did just want to call out a little bit uh we have had conversations in the past about the resolution if there's any resolutions that we want to move forward to WSBA which basically is just something that we want to bring um forward for advocacy at the state level. Um I know this board has brought forward um the school or the school bus stop sign resolution a few years ago amongst other things. So those are kind of and I attached um some examples from last year. Um and then there's some awards coming up and we've had people that were nominated for Golden Bell and then Tim was nominated for champion of education last year and got that
013award and then we have added a new award. The WSBA has added a new award um outstanding service award and it is um to recognize outstanding support services for trustees boards of trustees i.e. uh Darlene. So um we want to talk about nominations for that um those those awards uh sooner rather than later because we will those are due then in October for the meeting. So any questions on that? Thank you. >> That's my update. >> Any other trustees have anything to report or share this time? >> Okay. Um Dr. Newton, do you have um anything to share under reports from super superintendent and staff? >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, I just have a couple of quick items. First, I'd like to thank the board for your understanding given my appearance by Zoom this
014evening as I am traveling. As I sometimes do, I want to make a quick clarification of an agenda item. If I can draw your attention to agenda item D1.7, the permission to contract for special education curriculum. Um just so you know that is the curriculum very highly specialized curriculum that we use with our life formerly our PALS students um as well as our students with autism. So u just a little clarification on on that one in particular and then the only other thing I'd like to add tonight is a special shout out to not only Jed but the entire finance department. While this can sometimes seem like a slow time of year in in some aspects of the job, it couldn't be busier uh for the finance folks. Not only are they closing out the
015fiscal year and starting the new, but um as we will all experience tonight, you're going to see a monumental amount of work that Jed has put together uh for tonight's budget hearing. So, a special shout out. I I don't think it's exaggerating when I'm saying that um Jed I think even pulled a few all-nighters here um which is way above and beyond what we um would normally ask. And so um a special thank you to them. But with that, Madam Chair, that is the end of my um um messages this evening. >> Thank you, Dr. Newton. Next on the agenda is the consent agenda section. All items listed with the designation of CA are considered to be routine items by the governing body and will be enacted by one motion. There will be no separate
016discussion on these items. Any items removed from the consent agenda will be considered in its normal sequence on the agenda. Does any board member request to remove a motion from the consent agenda? I see none. Do we have a motion? Madam chair, I move to approve all motions listed as consent agenda. >> And I second. So, we have a motion and a second to approve all motions listed as consent agenda. All in favor say I. I. >> I. Opposed. >> Those have been approved. Right. We will head right into new business um and start with item D3.1. Madam Chair, I move to approve a resolution to conduct business resolved that through the consent Valeria County School District number one board of trustees, the board authorizes administration to issue and release warrants to conduct the normal
017business of the school district during the time between scheduled board meetings of the fiscal year within the budgeted amounts approved by the board. and that the superintendent of schools or designate be authorized to accept or reject bids not exceeding bidding thresholds prescribed by law during the same period. And that the superintendent of schools or designate can designate be authorized to enter into contracts not exceeding bidding thresholds prescribed by law during the same period. and that the superintendent of schools or designate be authorized to issue signed purchase orders not exceeding bidding thresholds prescribed by law during the same period and that the actions of the administration will be ratified by the board of trustees during the during their regularly scheduled meetings and that it is the intent of the board of trustees that this authorization be
018allowed solely for the period and purpose outlined above. >> I second. So, we have a motion and a second for this resolution, do we have any questions or discussion on that? Okay. All in favor of um approving the resolution, please say I. >> I opposed. >> That has been approved. Um our next new business item is a budget hearing. So at this time I am going to recess us from our regular meeting and convene us in our budget hearing. And I'd like to ask Mr. Jeterelli to come forward for a budget presentation. Thank you, Madam Chair, Dr. Newton, members of the board. Um, as Dr. Newton mentioned, um, tonight I'll be presenting the 202526 budget proposal for your consideration. Um, before I start jumping in, um, to the, uh, the slides, I I'll just mention
019that there's a lot of information to cover. um with only a limited amount of time. So, I'll do my best to stay on pace, but please by all means um if there's any questions that the uh the the trustees may have, feel free to interrupt and I'm happy to address them as we go along. Um so, with that uh quick preface, I'll I'll jump right into um kind of the uh the outline of our budget for the upcoming year. Uh I'll mention again that um really this represents the main financial framework for the district. uh we have six major funds that have different components with them within them that uh we have a significant amount of uh detail that accompanies uh our budget within the budget book. And so again, I'm going to try to
020keep it um as high level as we as we can, but certainly we'll we'll get into the weeds on a few things as I walk through uh how we finish this current year and then um where we expect our budget outlook to take us for the upcoming year. Um, with that in mind, um, I'll try to focus again a little bit on some of the the changes from the preliminary budget. Um, a little bit on the other supplemental funds that I'll go over, um, and jump right into, uh, the the fiscal year we just ended. Um, so the results that, uh, we completed, uh, just a few weeks ago. Uh, as Dr. Newton mentioned, we're also in the process of, uh, finalizing, um, those financials for the this past year. So there will inevitably be
021some minor adjustments in the coming weeks up until um you kind of see the other side of our financial reporting which is our audited financial statements that uh we'll have uh presented to the board by our external auditors uh later this fall. Um so starting with the revenue side, I'll draw your attent attention quickly to uh the bottom of the screen here. Um what you'll see here is um our total general fund revenue uh what we budgeted uh for the the past year uh fiscal year 2425 and what we actually received her revenue. Um so you see that we received about $230.9 million in general fund revenue from this past year. Uh we missed our revenue projections by about $3 million. Um, now not to um focus strictly on uh these particular uh categories here.
022Um there's about 60 or more different revenue accounts within our general fund alone. Um but I did want to pick out um a few of the the different revenue categories that we had the largest variances on and talk a little bit about those. Uh the first at the top you'll see um we have um our mineralbased property taxes. Um, and as I've talked about in the past, um, we have, uh, very different, uh, tax collections, um, as far as time frames associated with mineral and non-mineral. Um, so we do have to project those out differently both at the local district level and the county level. Uh, you'll see here that we exceeded uh, the mineralbased property tax projections by about threequarters of a million dollars. Uh but on the other side of that token, um
023the non-mineral property taxes, uh you'll see that we miss those revenue projections by about $2.1 million. Uh and I'll talk a little bit about how that interplay um with our state funding um impacts our resources and what that means for the upcoming year. Now, um as we kind of move down this table, you'll see on state funding, um we were about $3.4 million under projection. Um, again that has a lot to do with um our estimates on our local property taxes. So those state funding amounts that state aid is based on what we anticipate collecting and what we're projecting on the mineral property side. So if we um overestimate our our mineral property taxes that's going to um lead to less state funding within the year that we just completed. And there's a little bit
024of a true up that I'll talk about here in a minute. Um that's also the category that will record our special education reimburseable expenditures. Our transportation special excuse me our transportation uh reimbursement is also categorized in that um state funding in with the block grant. Um just a quick note there too. Um we often talk about the special education component. Um I always want to caution and and explain this to um our group as well is that special education reimbursement matches the costs incurred. There's no windfall of revenue. It's really just kind of a an accounting process that catches us up for the costs that we incur as a school district. Um, as you move down the chart, you'll see interest and investments. I'll talk a little bit more about that on the next slide.
025Um, you'll see that um, we recorded about $4.1 million in general fund um, interest earnings for this this this past year. Uh, we're ahead of our estimates about by $1.2 million. um which is uh something to certainly celebrate, but I'll talk about the cautions that go along with um how we uh recognize that revenue and how we plan and utilize those resources. Um lastly, um I have indirect costs profiled here. Um I talked a little bit about this during the preliminary budget presentation. Uh this really has to do with the um the remaining indirect costs from those ESSER grants, those COVID recovery funds um that we tipped just slightly into the fiscical year 25 uh budget with um and that was primarily the indirect cost revenue which is um a representation of the costs we
026incur as a school district to manage those grants. And so we did have a little bit of a um additional revenue source that came in at the beginning of the fiscal year um which led to that um that exceeding the the revenue projections by that $1.3 million. So I mentioned a little bit on the uh interest earnings. I wanted to um give this historical graph that I've brought up before. Um again we've had um uh a great year with our investment portfolio. And just as a quick reminder, um we utilize a poolled cash structure um and we manage our investments within um certain vehicles, investment vehicles for the district and they're all in accordance with our our board policies. Um typically these are comprised of certificates of deposits, US treasuries, uh repurchase agreements, um commercial
027paper, those type of what you might call safer investments. Um so our poolled earnings are roughly about 4% right now. Uh again, we focus on safety and liquidity above return. Um and we're very very closely aligned with the federal interest rate. And you'll kind of see that um if you're looking at that chart. Uh I mentioned that there'd be a little bit of a a caution. Um and the caution is that um as we're building a budget, uh we have to look at these um interest earnings as one-time revenue um not continuing. As you can probably surmise as you look at the chart here, if we would have um built a budget on sustaining even in 2019 uh $1.4 million in interest revenue, um we would have really been struggling if we obligated all those
028funds for the upcoming year. So, there's always that bit of caution um when we we do try to profile out those interest earnings and not to apply them um to areas that are going to be recurring and ongoing costs. Um again, still focusing a little bit on our our fiscal year 25 results. Um we're going to move into the expenditure side a little bit here. Um as we start to look at the general fund, um I would emphasize the importance that we have um talked about in the past about our fund reserve and how um it's vital for us to navigate those lean periods, cash flow, other programs. Um and again um I'll talk a little bit about how that's um uh impacted on our fund balance here in a moment. Um but we ended
029the fiscal year within about 98.3% um of our approved budget of 245 million. Um pretty tight parameters when it comes to what we budget and we what we expense um especially important with knowing that we miss our revenue projections this this year as well. So um having that um that that budget reversion factor um is important for us to maintain that balanced budget approach. Now, I mentioned that our fund reserve will be down um about $3.4 million. Um that'll be 42.5 um as we roll into the next fiscal year. Um and really this is a function of that tax shortfall calculation that I alluded to or to earlier. Um so when we are estimating our tax collections for the upcoming year, um there's a certain time frame where we're no longer able to adjust those
030estimates. Um after that point what we collect for the remaining portion of the year um if we are short in what we collect the state will make up the difference the following year. So this fall we'll expect a tax shortfall adjustment which will um basically eliminate that that fund balance decrease. Um so essentially you're taking revenue and resources from this year and we're moving it to the next year. Um one other uh quick note on this uh fund reserve. This is really from kind of a a budgetary cash basis approach. Um so these are not always in spidable form. Um part of that fund balance includes things like our inventories, our prepaids and other areas um of our financial statements. So um it's not just liquid cash um in that reserve amount. Along with that
031reserve amount is again an important aspect that comes with that statutory reserve calculation. And I know we had the benefit of walking through some of this a couple uh meetings ago, but um we have three more years of the temporary 30% limit um before it reverts back to a 15% limit. Um we're usually right below the 15%. Um we did have a period of time where we dropped to about 12 uh% um cash reserves. Right now we're sitting about 14 and a.5%. So um right about where we need to be able to cash flow our district and kind of manage those lean periods. Madam Chair, this slide uh is a little bit new. I haven't shared it before, but uh reflects one of our most critical areas of our budget, which is our payroll. Um
032I'll make a a maybe yet another caveat here is we do track um our our payroll expenses for staff in a number of different categories. uh certainly in the bargaining units is one way to to track those but we also um compartmentalize those budgets if you will and kind of the function and the role that they perform. So um as you're looking at this chart you'll see that we have some teachers at the the very top. We might have certified staff um that are in the support staff category things like our counselors and our social workers. So um that's not just exclusive um uh to only having the the certified staff in that top line. Um but this represents our our general fund outlay for our roughly 2500 permanent staff and about 300 um uh
033attempts and subs that we um employed the school district. Now out of our total general fund payroll budget of 196.6 million we expended 99.7 uh% of that budget. Now um that level of precision indicates that our projections were extremely accurate. I was be one way to put it. um and our fiscal controls were aligned with actual staffing needs and our compensation throughout the year. Um this means that roughly $600,000 was unspent in the entire payroll budget. Um of almost $200 million. So um that's a margin about 3/10en of a percent. That's extraordinarily tight. Um, so here's here's kind of the the the takeaway, at least for me, uh, is that I I think it's very important to note. Um, while this level of accuracy is commendable, um, it also leaves very very little room for
034error. Um, unexpected vacancies, mid mid-year staffing changes, adjustments to benefits, uh, could quickly swing us into an overbudget scenario. So, um, if we're not careful, if we don't use strict position controls, um, that type of a razor edge of a budget is is definitely something hard to navigate. So, um, well done to the team for for meeting and and staying within our budget, but um, it's a little tighter than I've, uh, care to be in in years past. So, uh, Madam Chair, I'm going to flip a little bit to the non-personnel side for the of the budget that we just completed. Um we ended up having uh in total as I mentioned before uh spent 98.3% of our $245 billion general fund budget. Um again this reflects a strong alignment between our budgeted actuals um
035especially considering the the complexity and the variability um of our non-personnel spending categories. Um just a quick note um on this chart in particular um you'll notice that some of the percentages on the right show more than 100%. This doesn't mean that they're overbudget. It just means those are areas uh that we had to make uh budget adjustments and transfers within. Um we actually uh manage 112 distinct budget or departments and schools within the general fund. And within those budgets, they have uh multiple accounts. Uh our total general fund uh or excuse me, our general ledger uh is comprised over 200,000 different accounts. So there's uh quite a big scope of operations within these budgets. Um and I mentioned this year did require some intrabudget adjustments. Uh notably we amended um the budget to transfer
036funds from uh the utilities category where we benefited from a mild winter um into areas that we needed uh additional budgetary resources. Things like our charter school budget um for our district approved charter schools as well as specialized services contracts for our students with disabilities. So, that's where we were able to operationalize those budget transfers. And it's a good example of how we consistently balance our operational savings in one area to meet the programmatic needs um in another uh but without exceeding our overall appropriations authority that you as the board provide to our district. Um so, just as I kind of wrap up this particular slide, I'll just mention that um our general fund spending came in just under budget. um every dollar was working either as planned or as redirected as I mentioned to
037meet um some of those real emergent needs. Okay, now we get to shift um to the upcoming year, our fiscal year 26 budget. Uh I mentioned earlier that it's comprised of six major funds with the number of categories within um the combined total budget um request is a little over $440 million. Um this is up about $46 million over the prior year and I'll explain to you as why um that increase is um being profiled for this upcoming year. Um it has mostly to do with the projects in our capital construction is Mr. Nap and his team has um provided updates on the development of the replacement art school, the 56 school in the southside. Um all of those um design and construction costs are contemplated in the upcoming budget. Um so we will um
038identify um and request the full appropriation so that the team can enter into those contracts uh to begin that work. Um a couple of other areas uh we are up about $13 million from the preliminary budget that I presented to you in May. Uh the general fund's up about $2 million. I'll talk about that here in a little bit. um special revenue uh of about $5 million and our major maintenance fund uh an increase over the preliminary budget of $4 million and again I'll touch on um as to why. So um since the general fund represents the largest portion of our main operating fund um except for those funds that are required to be accounted for in a separate fund those restricted type of uh revenue sources I'll focus on mainly on the general fund
039um and then uh move into some of the supplemental funds um as we get to the end of the presentation. Before I start on that financial portion of the budget, I want to speak a little bit to student counts. Uh what this slide does here um is it shows our average daily membership or ADM um with enrollment um which is uh a figure that's used in our state school funding model. Um it represents the average number of students enrolled throughout the school year and is the single most influential factor in determining what our general excuse me our general fund resources um are for the upcoming year. So, when we started um the preliminary budget, we estimated we decrease our ADM by about 129 students. Um and we're right there, right in um pretty tight with
040those uh projections. And uh you'll recall that that 129 students represents about a $3.3 million loss for the district as a whole. And that's been incorporated into our budget um as we uh developed our recommendations. Now, I will say um going forward um we have approached this was less optimistic enrollment figures um in our projections. Um we're currently seeing that downward enrollment trend uh and we're projecting significant decrease of possibly more than 300 students for the upcoming year. Um this would represent one of the largest single-year declines that we've experienced in recent years. And certainly we won't know more until we start the school year and as we progress but um we know that we have that kind of financial cliff if you will looming. Um this uh again this decrease will directly uh reduce
041our state funding um as the model that we receive our funding is is intended to scale funding based on those student counts. Um I have um pointed out here just real quickly um for the trustees we have um on that declining enrollment period we have the benefit of what we call a three-year rolling average. Um in periods of declining enrollment uh our funding mechanism will soften that landing a little bit as I mentioned by taking the average of the past three years. So, the funding for our upcoming year um will be the average of those those three ADM counts that you see in the dotted box here. Um and we'll be funded for about 1,29 12,936 students uh for the upcoming year. And again, we've taken steps to manage our staffing and our operations in
042line with these enrollment changes. Um but we're approaching a point again um where continued declines will require some more structural changes. Um moving um to some of the the budgetary pressures that we felt um as we navigated uh the fiscal year 26 budget development. Um our revenue projections are are holding. Um the funding model estimates that um we built into our preliminary budget um are pretty consistent with what um uh we're calculating currently, although those those are still subject to change. U but again the most significant budget driver is going to be increases in staff costs um which will rise about $12.2 $2 million um over the prior year. So, this includes a number of things. It's the financial commitments uh resulting from our collective bargaining process as well as that employer share of um
043rising health insurance premiums, which is about 4.7 million of that $12.2 million um in total. So, to offset part of these rising costs, um we reduced about 30 positions across the the entire district, both at the department um and the school level. um uh and classified staff as well uh through attrition uh or finding alternative funding sources. Uh that provided an estimated savings to us of approximately $3.1 million to offset some of those costs. Um I also talked about the work that had been done on our non-personnel budgets in our central office and um other areas uh to find efficiencies and reduce um those non-personnel budgets to help offset these costs. Um when we did the preliminary budget, I reported that we would um decrease those budgets by about three $3 million, which is still
044true uh with one major offset, which would be the added cost of a nutrition services transfer. And I'll talk a little bit about that when I get to the nutrition services enterprise fund. Um some of the other um pressures that I've uh again I've mentioned before are the um uh utilities costs. Um we, as I mentioned earlier, had the benefit of a mild winter. Um we're maybe taking a little bit of a uh a gamble and and hoping that uh we can scale back some of our utilities budget. Uh knowing that we will still see cost increases in areas like um the storm water drainage uh tax that we'll receive from the city about mid fiscal year will start to uh impact our bottom line as well. Um we're also seeing that our costs are
045significantly up to due to marketwide premium hikes in our insurance, our property and liability. um as well as um the uh firearms liability insurance that I talked about at your last meeting. That'll incur about another $28,000 for the district as a whole. Um overall, uh this budget reflects a careful balancing act of absorbing nor known cost increases uh while responsibly reducing where possible to meet those revenue uh projections that I talked about. Okay, Madam Chair, now we're getting into the the the busy slides. Um, so I'll I'll try to focus a little bit on um the important pieces here and maybe move this chart this screen here a little bit. Um, I'll start with a prior year walkthrough and and you can't see it um on the screen particularly well, but um on this column
046here where the cursor is, this is the budgeted original amount that you as a board appropriated and where we anticipate will will end this the current year. Um, overall I mentioned that we missed our revenue projections about 3.4 4 million um and the tax shortfall process that will uh make us whole for the upcoming year. Um now I would mention that we have um carryover incumbrances or what we call carryover purchase orders. You'll see that um near the bottom of the screen here uh just shy of $4.9 million. Uh that's a pretty significant decrease over prior years which is great. Um that means that we don't have uh holds against our fund balance that are following yeartoyear. Um, so we've done some great things by reducing um those carryover encumbrances. Um, but as we move
047into the new fiscal year, that $42.5 million fund balance will certainly be important um as we uh navigate those revenue estimates for the next coming year. Uh so on the gray shaded column, you'll see uh a summary of our general fund budget request. Uh we're projecting about $250.15 million in general fund revenue this year, which accounts for the external cost adjustment that you've heard me talk about. Um as well as other funding model adjustments, um changes in our tax collections and those other impacts on our state funding that will be a part of that $250 million. You'll probably notice that the majority of our revenue comes from state sources. just over $164 million. About twothirds of our total revenue um will come through our state uh funding model allocations. Uh local revenue sources uh the
048things like the property taxes that we went over, interest earnings represents another 66.3 million. and federal revenue even in our general fund. Um it represents a small but important piece and that's primarily related to impact aid and our or our ROC program um which helps fund the cost of those those those uh programs in our schools. So on the expenditure side again we're we're budgeting about 255.4 million which is up from the prior year due to those compensations and those um operational costs that I mentioned. Uh again, the the largest component remains salaries and benefits. And that um that total of uh $28 million, which you'll see on a a slide here in a moment, um accounts for roughly 82% of our general fund in total. Um kind of net net year-to-year um at the
049bottom of the screen, you'll see that um the budget reflects a planned use of a fund balance of about half a million dollars. Um, and what I'm referencing here is just the estimate at the very bottom, the ending balance of 42.5 million. Uh, moving to just barely north of 42 million at 42.1 million. Um, and this could be very different once the state uh finalizes our data collections, we receive those tax shortfall adjustments. Um, we might u and we likely will be um in a maintaining and not spending any of our reserves as we move into the prior into the next year. Now, um I'll preface the next few slides just mentioning that um there's a number of different ways to categorize um public education expenditures. Uh what I'm moving into here now is the
050uniform chart of accounts that's prescribed by uh the Wyoming Department of Education. So um budget allocations um are appropriated by you as the board at the major function level, which is uh these six categories that you see on the screen here. Um the largest uh portion of the pie if you will or the largest functional category um is instruction uh 58%. This includes all of the cost to deliver regular special education, career and technical education, dual and concurrent. Um anything that involves a cost associated with delivering um the educational program to students is represented in that portion of the pie chart. Uh as you move into the other categories, things like instructional support, um these are things for like in uh guidance counselors, um related services, social work, nursing, all of those functions that support
051instruction in the classroom. Um finally, you'll notice there's two categories where we're not profiling in expenditures for the upcoming year. Um these are typically done in different funds. Non-instructional support is generally our food service operations that's done outside of the general fund. Capital outlays for the school buildings that I talked about. um those are represented in the capital construction fund that I'll talk about and show you here in a moment. Um but general support uh certainly includes administration, but it's not just um admin costs. It also includes transportation, uh facility, technology, building services. Um all of those are represented in that 3,000 level or general support category. Um and then lastly, you'll see uh the transfers category. This represents um any augmentation or supplemental transfers we would have to make to our nutrition services operations
052or capital reserve funds or special reserve funds that I'll talk about here in a moment. Uh Madam Chair, yet another way of um category categorizing our general fund expenditures. Um this is by object and again is in accordance with um how the state requires us to maintain and report our expenditures. Um I'd mentioned that we have 112 budgets within the general fund alone. Um more than 50 different budget officers um that represent this total here. But what this shows you is that um again 82 and a half% of our our general fund budget is in people salaries and benefits. Um that represents that $28 million uh spend that I mentioned. But when you look at other categories, things like supplies and materials, um the $18.5 million, um is roughly seven and a half percent. Um
053purchase services for things like um insurance, internet, um repair and maintenance, those type of things, about 4.6% of our budget. And then lastly, those transfers. And then what we book as transfers to our district approved charter schools is about 5.6% 6% of our general fund budget as a total a total um again certainly a lot more detail. Um I'll spare you the pain and suffering of stepping through all of that but um will uh subject you to at least one more um eye chart here uh which represents our last slide of the budget. So I kind of walked us through our general fund as a whole um so I won't cover that piece again but I do want to u touch on the other supplemental funds uh that we manage on the financial side. Um,
054and I'll start with our um special revenue or sometimes what we refer to as our federal grants fund. Um, this is uh our our restricted funding category. So, we're required not only to record our federal funds here, but also state restricted grants. Um, I've uh mentioned that we're in the second or will be in the second year of a limited appropriation for um school mental health supports. So we receive additional state restricted money that we'll uh profile on this account as well as the career and technical education supplies and materials uh that moved out of our general fund is now required to be funded as a restricted grant. Uh but maybe more specific to our our federal grants. Um this does uh capture all of our carryover grant activity. Um so basically any remaining federal
055funds that we had from the prior year as well as what we estimate for the upcoming year. On a normal year, we'll receive uh roughly 16 to $18 million in federal grants. Um it probably is important to note that um we we are in a bit of a holding pattern when it comes to at least three of those grants. In particular, um title 2A, which is our our professional um development grant that we receive um via the Department of Education from the the the US Department of Education. um title three which is our English learners um grant as well as our title 4A um our student support um and u learning grant which um all are being held. Um we have utilized the uh the grant award notices that we received initially um to provide
056at least projected estimates of what those grants would be for the upcoming year. U I'm just going to put a huge asterisk on that and say that um we really just don't know if we will receive those if we will receive the lower portion of those grants. Um but in the meantime uh we're we're approaching it with uh caution and strategic planning at least in the short term. Um we plan to utilize what we have left in carryover funds for those three grants uh from those fiscical year 24 federal allocations um and continue at least some of those services uh without interruption. Uh I think it's important that uh we make u good on those commitments both to our staff and our students to provide that high level of support. Um and we intend intend
057to honor those commitments uh at least until um we have additional information or if those funds are further delayed or reduced. We'll have to look um at alternative funding sources to contri excuse me continue any of those critical services. So we'll certainly provide updates as we know more. Um moving on to the next fund. Uh this is our major maintenance fund. I mentioned that um we'll receive uh some one-time adjustments to our major maintenance funding uh for the upcoming year. Uh when we did the preliminary budget, um I came in very conservative without having the final calculations from our state construction department. Um the actual revenue allocations will be higher. Um, I know I'm showing the expenditure side of the balance sheet here up on the screen, but um, those revenue projections for major maintenance
058for the upcoming year, um, we refined those and increase those to 17.3 million. Um, to summarize a little bit of, um, where that adjustment came from, there's a an an inflation adjustment factor within that formula. It's uh based off an RS means um cost index which provides um an adjustment for average construction costs uh that reflect local conditions and labor rates, material costs, those type of things. Uh that came in higher in that formula calculation than than anticipated. Uh so we will have about two and a half million more dollars in major maintenance than I estimated during the preliminary budget. Um which is great. We have um $19 million in um open contracts from the prior year that will be a part of the $29 million that you see on the screen. Uh which will
059also allow for uh $10 million in other projects that Mr. Nap and his team um have provided you some updates on uh for major maintenance and will actually allow us to start um and get a little bit ahead on phase two of the McCormick Junior High remodel. So all those things um uh the funding additional funding couldn't come at a better time. Uh now again I mentioned that that would be one time. Uh I expect that our major maintenance all LC will will reduce about two and a half million next year at this time um unless um it's it's codified as a permanent change in statute. Um another category to quickly walk through um is capital construction. Um I mentioned this earlier. Uh this includes um about hund00 million in budgeted expenditures primarily around the
060uh construction of ARP and the 56 school in the southside. But I would also mention that um we do have um additional funding uh that is operationalized through this account. That general support line where you see $598,000 that's the pass through that we provide to um the two district approved charter schools. um pod and pass their leases are funded by the state and then we as the uh authorizing board pass that money through um to those schools as well. Um moving on to the special building fund. Um we spent a good amount of time going over the details of this this fund recently. Um I'll only point out a few uh major points with regards to the 13 um.3 million profiled for expenditures. This does include um your Cheyenne Community Recreation District expenditures. As you
061know, um our district kind of leverages our buying power and our um our excuse me, our our um project management team to um uh incur the expenses for these projects and the rec district reimbures us. So that uh that $13 million includes um the uh additional work from our recreation district that we operationalize, but it also um includes some of those other categories I talked about before. Um I will tell you that we've reduced the uh uh amount of uh transfers into this fund um pretty steadily over the past few years. Um in particular, there's a couple of uh reasons as to why. I mentioned the CTE equipment reserve that we had in the past. Um now that that's a restricted funding source, we've kind of put a halt on um putting any money into
062that fund until we know how that new restricted grant will be administered through the state department of education. Um but uh some of our ongoing costs will remain things like our 1:1 technology initiative will continue to be funded through this reserve um as we save for the u eventual refresh of those devices. This is also where um funding for the self- insurance on those devices is um um reflected in our financials. Uh but probably the one that um I want to uh bring the most attention to is the insurance contingency fund. Um and again, I know I've talked about this quite a bit, but um as we worked with our insurance broker with those new premiums that we're incurring as a school district, um we know our our deductibles for any major events are going
063to increase um pretty significantly. um the days of a $50,000 deductible from one of our school buildings if we lose a roof is gone. Um we're uh at 1% of our insured value of that building. Um and so to give us a little bit of a relevant example, um it hasn't been too long since we had a major hail and wind event that uh took three roofs off of our school buildings um on the east triad. And um if that was to happen today, we would need um more uh of a reserve in our insurance deductibles to cover those those deductible costs. Um just to do some quick math, we looked at um the three most expensive buildings in our our district. Um we would need about $2.3 million in insurance deductibles if by chance
064um those three buildings um needed a new roof um or there was some major hail or wind event. So, um, we are taking incremental steps to try to get to a a fully funded deductible reserve. Um, we've enlisted the help of our insurance broker to rely on some of their actuaries to give us some best practices and standards of what that level should be. Um, but it's pretty clear that we're we're insufficient at this point. Um, so we'll have to move that reserve level um up to the extent that we can over the next few years. Um, Madam Chair, I promise I'm getting close. Um the next fund here we have is um the enterprise fund. Uh this is primar primarily our nutrition services fund which is designed to operate as an enterprise as I
065mentioned. It's um expect expected to generate revenue not only through school lunch pricing but also through um federal reimbursement and uh those meal sales uh to cover costs. So in recent years, the cost of food, packaging, um staff compensation, insurance costs, um have significantly impacted those operations as well. Um all these have a a pressure on the program's ability to stay solvent. Um now, our goal is always to to maintain or to get to a point where our nutrition services program is self- sustaining. Um but sometimes that'll require strategic transfers uh necessary to kind of bridge that gap between federal funding limitations and the real cost of um uh providing school nutrition services to students. Um I look at this kind of more of a historical timeline over the last few years. Uh we have
066not had to supplement our nutrition services fund in seven years. U mostly due to the co 19 funding um that we had additional allocations from the US Department of Agriculture. So, we've had a seven-year break. Um, for this upcoming year, uh, we're we're reflecting a million dollar transfer into, uh, the Enterprise Nutrition Services Fund. Uh, with any luck, we will not have to, uh, finalize that transfer. Uh, but it could be an important aspect as we near the end of fiscal year 26 um, and do profile at least some level of transfer up to that million-doll mark um, for the upcoming year. Just a quick note also on the enterprise fund. Um our preschool tuition program um we've scaled back that program significantly. We only have one tuition prek site this upcoming year which will
067also decrease the amount of um general fund support that's required to maintain that program. Uh we're profiling uh less than $50,000 of a transfer um to be able to sustain that that uh that site location for this upcoming year. Just a quick note on our trust funds. Um we've talked again about this um quite a bit over the uh past few months, but this uh particular category represents two uh other post-employment benefit programs for our school district. Uh the first is the early uh retirement health incentive. Uh that one uh one particular program represents about a $9 million liability for us as a whole, but we're moving closer and closer to that fully funded status. we've actually eclipsed the 80% funded um benchmark, which is great considering that we we anticipated taking up to 20
068years to get to that point. Um I will say that uh that liability, that $9 million liability uh will increase by $3.2 million for this upcoming year and that has to do with the subsidy that we provide in the fall. Um as our health insurance increase, we increase that subsidy as well. Um so we've profiled that in. um our actuaries working with us on how that'll impact our overall evaluation. Um but we'll have a little bit of catch up to do on that particular fund as well. Um also our employee retention program that's about a 10 to 11 million liability for us. Um we've we've diverted some of the transfers to that program to the health program um where we see more of a need um with limited resources. So, um we'll lose a little
069bit of ground or maybe kind of just stay flat with the reserve balance in that particular program, but still um at 80% plus funded, we're we're doing great um for meeting those fiscal demands. Okay. Um, Madam Chair, the the last fund here um is a pretty quick through uh just passing uh uh reference to uh a motion that was in your agenda just to um uh facilitate the process of funding money not to our district approved charter schools but um to the state uh approved charter schools. Um this is a a little bit of a decrease over the prior year, but there's additional funding that goes along with that pass through requirement. Um the state charter school will receive the benefit of the external cost adjustment. Um the central office allocation from our district that's
070required to go um to that school as well as the state funded leasing for that program um is represented in this uh roughly $3 million um custodial fund that handles all of those uh transfers. Okay. Um in summary, um this uh this is the the uh 202526 budget. Um it reflects our uh continued commitment to maintain a well- balanced budget. Uh we've made a lot of necessary adjustments while protecting kind of the long-term financial health for the district. Um as always, we'll continue to monitor things like enrollment trends, state funding developments, and operational costs um to ensure that we're responsive and sustainable long term. Uh again, Madam Chair, um just thank you and the board for your continued support and leadership and happy to address any questions you might have. >> Do we have questions?
071I know four of us at least met with you on Friday and had an overview of this and a chance to ask a lot of questions at that point in time, but anybody else? Yeah, Trusty Class. Okay, you >> thank you, Madam Chair. I have a few questions, but I first want to say congratulations to Mr. Cigarelli for just a really awesome budget. Um I've been on the board a few years and I think this is my favorite one just because it was really easy to consume. Um or maybe I'm just getting better at it, but um of course I appreciated the pictures and the graphs. So and then just really the stories included um or not the stories but the the backgrounds on the schools and and the glossery and everything. It was just
072very well done. very professional documents. So, thank you for all the work. Um, I do have a couple of questions that rose from your presentation tonight. So, I know I already asked you a couple about how are we going to pay for those rising insurance premiums, um, which you already covered in your presentation, but I was wondering about the sustainability factor for nutrition services and also for that one tuition um, based preschool. Um, I I know we raised lunch costs to help with the sustainability of nutrition services. Uh, did I hear you right that we have to put in additional funds for this fiscal year to keep them in the black? And the same question is for the one pre the one tuition paid preschool. Did you say that we're going to have to transfer
07350,000 into that to keep that in the plaque or have we raised tuition to make sure that it's sustaining itself? >> Madam Chair, um Trusty Clawson, um certainly I'll I'll address your your second question first. Uh regarding the the tuition preschool programs, um we have uh eliminated the sliding scale that had been a part of the tuition program which had been a significant financial barrier for us uh to maintain any viability of the program. Um so that means that um the the tuition is fully funded on the revenue side of the preschool operation, which will help immensely with um maintaining that program. Uh you're correct. Um, I've profiled um exactly $42,000 that may be required for a supplemental transfer. And that's looking at the staff in that program. Um, what can really swing us is
074if uh a staff member elects full family coverage or something with the the health insurance. Um, which is kind of the result of of why we have a little bit of an overage in that account. Um, the staffing cost is the main piece. uh we've reduced the non-personnel portion of that program um to the extent that there's very little bit of resources that go to that program other than people. Um so I do anticipate that there'll be some level roughly $42,000 uh that will be needed to make sure that that fund breaks even. Um, as far as the, uh, nutrition services fund, um, that's, uh, uh, certainly something that we grapple with, um, as well as most school districts around the country is finding, um, uh, the resources to maintain that nutrition services program. Um,
075we, uh, profiled that $1 million transfer, um, which would not eliminate the the program going into the red. what it would do was maintain at least uh a fund balance necessary for us just like our general fund to maintain operations to run payroll to purchase our commodities um to uh really kind of operationalize the program. So um that $1 million transfer if um if I can draw your attention, I know it's hiding a little bit um behind the screen here, but that $1 million transfer would leave um $1.7 million right here down at the bottom um within the nutrition services fund. uh that maybe operate or re maybe reflects two months of operating costs for the program as a whole. Um so that would be just to maintain that level um going forward and that
076would still be a decrease in the fund balance. So um you're correct. Um we've done um uh a lot of number crunching. Um as you noted um we did um come to the board with a meal price increase. That's only the second one in uh 12 years for our district as a whole. Um, and we continue to look at operational savings. Um, Miss Roth and her team uh spend an amount an immense amount of time making sure that we're in um the highest productivity rate for meals per labor hour, that we are staffed right, um that we're finding the best cost on commodities. Um it would still require um meal prices significantly higher than what we have to ever cover that deficit, which would mean less in participation. So um it's always a a push
077and pull, but the team's very creative. um they've leveraged their catering program to help eliminate some of those impacts to that program as well. So um I think that was probably a longer um answer than uh what was probably necessary, but I would add that um the community eligibility program um that uh we just completed the first year and we'll start the second year actually increased our federal revenue by a few hundred,000. Um we had hoped to just maintain a break even with what we were receiving and we actually increased. So, um, so far that program has been very, uh, beneficial for the district. >> Trusty CL. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, I want to for that. I appreciate all the information you just gave us. So, thank you for that answer. I have
078one more question and that's related to the mental health funding. I guess I didn't realize that was um short-term funding, but I was wondering in that case if we are tracking the services we're providing and the number of students or maybe it includes our teachers and staff. I think it does, doesn't it? Um >> Madam Chair, Trusty Clawson, that's correct. That's one of the requirements of the grant is that we we collect certain data points on on the students and the staff um to make sure that we're in compliance with those those rules from the department of ed. >> So, does that mean that we report that data to to the state or will we or are we keeping that? My my point is is that if it is a a short-term grant, it might
079be a opportunity for us to show how we're using the funds and how there is a need because I suspect that that would be a question that comes up at the end of the grant. >> Madam Chair, um Trusty Clawson, I that that's certainly my hope as well is that um the data not only from our district, but the other 47 um show how um those funds are being utilized and that there is a very um very strong need for those resources. Um maybe just to to get in front of and alleviating some concerns. Um that information is not personally identifiable of any students uh or our staff for that matter. It's it's very high level metrics and and information that's provided. >> Anybody else? Just >> thank you chairman. Um thanks Jed. I mean
080amazing always. It's you make it um understandable for the most part for those of us who don't do these numbers on a on a basis that would make them understandable. I had a couple questions just I wasn't there on Friday. I was visiting family. Um the charter school money that we do as the pass through, do we have I noticed that that was over budget by about 10% or something this past year. Do we have any control over that? or if they go over budget, do we recoup that money from the state? >> Um, Madam Chair, uh, Trusty Hinkle, um, great question. Um, and I, and, uh, maybe for CLA, we are referring to the district approved charter schools. Um, the, uh, the budget overage, um, had to do with, uh, really two things in
081particular. Um recently the state law that allows um charter schools to um participate in 100% reimbursement for special education and transportation used to have to uh be incurred at the district level. So um in order for um Podair's transportation service to be in reimbursement um the district had to incur that cost um on behalf of the charter school. Well, that shifted um which meant that um the two charter schools now manage their own special education services. we still provide their transportation services, but that shifted a lot of the district's budget down to the charter school. Um, and I did not capture that in my initial uh budget estimates. So, that's one of those areas where I had to do an intra um budget adjustment transfer um to make them whole because it was um a
082statutory calculation. Um, as far as their budgetary um uh requirements, there's a couple of things. um they are um required to follow many of the same rules that we do as a school district as far as reporting their finances, audited financial statements, presenting a budget to their board. Um u Mr. Jackson and I spend a lot of time um working with the chart school to ensure that they're in compliance with those. Um but they have to live within their budgetary means. Um so if they overexpend a budget, they're going to have to utilize reserves like we do as a school district um and utilize their other their financial tools um to be able to to streamline. Now, um I will mention that uh part of the increase for the upcoming year um we're roughly $6.5
083million for those two schools um not only includes those special education and transfer or excuse me transportation expenditures but also that central office allocation that will now um go directly to um Pod Air and Pass as well as the state approved charter school. Um that used to be the source of uh funding that would um cover the expenses for Mr. Jackson, myself, um our data reporting team, um the technology team with uh Mr. McKenna, they spend a lot of time with their their staff on Infinite Campus, etc. Well, now that that money is being required to be passed through, um we will um charge the 3% administrative fee that's allowed under statute to recapture some of those costs, uh we we'll likely still incur more costs as a district to manage those two charter schools.
084Um but uh it's kind of the only mechanism um that's left after that money shifted from the district to the school level. So, >> and as a followup, will will you keep track do you keep track of what those costs are for our district to do that administration for them so that we can at some point have a a list to say, hey, we're we're actually doing 5% instead of the 3% and see if that could be changed. Um, Madam Chair, um, Trusty Hinkle, um, yes, uh, in order to assess the 3% administrative fee, we do have to provide a report on how that 3% was was utilized. Um, 3% is the limit um, that statute will allow for us to to provide that administrative oversight. Um, I would tell you that the easiest comparison
085on on why that might not be a an appropriate level is that um our federal grants, which is a good um a good litmus test on what it costs for us to incur other programs, um our negotiated indirect cost rate with the Wyoming Department of Education is about 4.71%. And that's just to cover our administrative costs of federal grants. Uh I would argue that the administrative work of the charter schools is beyond just that piece. And so, um, you can see there's a little bit of a disconnect between 3% and 4.71%, but, um, it's the framework that we have to work within. >> Okay. I have a few more that I think. >> Sure. >> Um, the CRD monies that you talked about as far as, um, you know, helping with some of our building
086and and extra, you know, things that we do. Um, did you calculate in the decrease that we expect because of decreased property tax revenues? Um, Madam Chair, uh, Trustee Helel, um, certainly. So, um, within our rec district, um, we will feel, um, the impact of the, u changes in, uh, tax collections, in particular, Senate File 69, uh, the 25% reduction on personal property, um, uh, assessed valuations. Uh, so we decreased our revenue uh, projections by about $400,000 within our recreation district. Um we also have um already approved projects that are part of that expenditure budget from prior years that are ongoing partnerships with the county, the city. Um so it's inclusive of that as well. But yes, um we did take into account the decrease in revenue that we'll see in the recreation district. >>
087Okay, just a couple more. um the uh federal funds that are currently being withheld. I know we're anticipating we're hoping that at some point we will uh receive hopefully what they have said they would pay for this fiscal year. Do we is there a plan if they don't? Um manager um Trusty Hinkle um there's a short-term plan. um for the short term um we'll utilize what we have in carryover um resources from those programs. I'll tell you that um our title three grant we don't have any carryover resources. Uh we don't fund any positions out of those um that title three grant. Uh our we have about 15 positions between our title two grant and our title four grant. Um to the extent that we can within each of those categories will maintain our programming
088with our carryover funds. Um but uh for the current fiscal year, we we intend to honor um our employee contracts. Uh even if the funding doesn't flow is canceled, um we will honor the upcoming contracts for the year. >> Okay. And I have one last one. Um the legislature is predicting um quite a uh deficit in their funding for schools over the next several years. Is there any guarantee that they'll pay the monies that they, you know, the carryover like the carryover monies from last year and um you know the title the charter school monies is there are there guarantees that they pay those even if they have a deficit in their funds? >> Um Madam Chair uh Trusty Hinkle um currently the state um for the the bianium that we're operating in has full
089appropriations to cover the school foundation program. Um I think the long-term impact to the school foundation program account um as a whole is multiaceted. Um the the operational funds that we receive through the block grant come from that account as well as the resources for our capital construction like I talked about with ARP and the new 56 school. Um typically what we see is when there's a structural deficit um the capital construction is the first area that um seems to dry up if you will. Uh so there there certainly is a concern over will we have the resources for things like capital construction, our general fund operations um as we start to feel the effects of that decreased revenue. Um a lot of it is um kind of uh hard for me to forecast and
090and um speculate too far on. Uh there is a provision in statute that allows the state superintendent of public instruction to prorrate our funding should the school foundation program account get insufficient. Um that typically hasn't been the past. um the state has used other funds to backs stop and ensure that that fund is guaranteed, but um certainly the long-term outlook is is definitely something that we're all looking at and with with some concern. >> Thank you. >> Anybody else? >> Well, Mr. Crelli, thank you to you and your staff. I think from all of us, I you make something that is just makes my head spin. I mean, you make it a little bit understandable and I you the way you break it down is is pretty incredible, but I know you and your staff
091have spent hours upon hours and days and weeks putting all this together and so thank you very much. >> So, at this time, um I should get my computer up again. we um have the opportunity to um entertain public comment concerning the budget. Um, I won't read all the rules for public comment, but if um there's anyone in this room or online that would like to give public comment concerning just the budget presentation, um, we'll open that up at this time, but it will be limited to three minutes and we ask that you state your first and last name and um, we'll go from there. So, I'm not even sure if we have anybody online. Um, so do we have anybody in this room that would like to comment on on the budget presentation? Okay.
092Well, seeing no public comment on that, then I'm going to recesses from our budget hearing and we will reconvene our regular meeting at this time and move right into item D3.3. Madam Chair, I move to approve the Laram County School District number one budget for fiscal year 2026. >> And I second. >> So I have a motion and a second to approve the school district one budget for fiscal year 2026. Do we have any more questions or discussion on that? Okay. All in favor of approving the budget, please say I. >> I opposed. >> All right, that has been approved. Um, moving on to item D3.4. >> Madam Chair, I move to approve the cont contract extension for Dr. Steven Newton in the position of the superintendent of schools for Laramie County School District number
093one effective July 1st, 2025 to June 30th, 2028 and to execute the necessary contract. >> Second. >> So we have a motion and a second to approve the contract extension for Dr. Newton. Do we have any questions or conversation on that at this time from board members? No. So, seeing none, all in favor of approving the contract extension, please say I. >> I. >> Opposed. And that has been approved. Congratulations, Dr. Newton. >> Thank you very much. >> Okay. Well, that concludes our new business items. The next regular board meeting will be held Monday, August 4th, 2025 at 6 PM. A work session will begin at 5:00 p.m. The district of the business is done. Um, do we have a motion now for executive session? >> Madam Chair, I move to go into executives executive
094session prior to adjournment for the purpose of possible student long-term suspensions, expulsions, personnel, legal advice, and potential litigation. >> Second. Do we have a motion and a second to go into executive session? All in favor say I. I. >> Opposed. Right. um will be back from executive session