Weslaco ISD Board Workshop (March 30, 2026)

001Mhm. >> Good evening. I'm Mr. Ronnie Eto, president of Weslaco ISD Board of Trustees. This board workshop is being conducted in compliance with the Texas Open Meetings Act. Notice of this board workshop has been posted online for at least three business days prior to the meeting date. The time now is 3:00 5:33 p.m. And I will call this board workshop to order. I will now begin the roll call. Mrs. Sustaita. Present. Uh Coach Guevara. Present. Mr. Martinez Santos. Present. Uh Dr. Jaime Rodriguez is running late and also Coach Serna was running late, uh but we don't have to have a quorum for a board workshop. And Mr. Castillo is running a few minutes late. Uh even though a quorum is not required for a board workshop, uh the Board of Trustees will take no action

002during the this workshop. Number two, public comments. There are none. None. Insurance workshop, Dr. Rivera. >> Yes, let me call on Dr. Dr. Cantu. Good afternoon, Dr. Rivera, Mr. Nieto, members of the board. I wanted to go through the insurance um work the work that our uh employee benefits committee uh have put in. I do have one member of the committee. I had several that that um did verify that they would be here, um but we do have Mr. Morales here, so thank you for being here. Our employee benefit committee is made up of over 30 members, campus departments, professionals, paraprofessionals, we are also fortunate to have two trustees that have been attending our meetings, Mr. Mr. Sedano and Dr. Rodriguez. And this is the timeline since school started this year. We've been meeting taking

003a look at where we're at with our insurances. Of course, in August everything was looking very well. Even in October we we kind of sounded the alarm a little bit. But really we started coming and working very very diligently to try to see where we can take the direction of that employee benefit committee and the work that we need to get done for the insurance. October 15th, 23rd, February 20th, those were all employee benefit committee meetings where we were discussing different options, different ways to make adjustments, you know, to pivot. March 9th, we had a employee benefit committee and also our first workshop. Then we had an employee benefit committee with presentations by alternate brokers to see about their service services if there was something that the employee committee wanted to explore. Today we're here

004March 30th in the second workshop. On at during the meeting for the on the 23rd the employee benefit committee took a look at the different options that we had as far as do we want to continue with what we've already discovered and worked on and come up with as a as a plan? Did we want to further make further adjustments to the plan or explore alternate brokers? And as you can see the employee benefit committee wanted to keep the direction that we've been figuring. So that's option A. That that was option A. That's the highest bar is the most people picked option A as their first choice with about six people selecting option A or direction A as their second choice. So to review what we've been talking about, we are looking at making changes

005to the plans that would include an HMO option, a PPO option, and a PPO buy-up option. This This was presented at the March 9th workshop. Can I ask a question? Cuz I I was still I had I was confused on the previous slide. So on the previous slide Okay. I come when I saw this, I was like, "Okay, how did this work out?" I thought they were voting on each independent thing, but then I saw first, second, third. So first choice is to proceed with the plan offerings as presented today. And then you said adjust the plan levers and then explore alternate brokers. So the plan you're presenting today, is that still with the same company, same brokers? Just different options within that, like HMO, PPO, or is that kind of Correct. We are We

006are looking at making adjustments. What you're seeing here is how they were ranked. So of of the three choices Okay. direction A, direction B, direction C How many selected option or direction one as their first option? And that's represented by the blue bar. >> Yes, sir. So they ranked them first, second, and third. So I can see about 11 people marked them as their first choice, six marked that direction as their second choice, and one person uh You got it. >> put it down as a third choice. And then for direction B, we had, you know, the different representations there. It uh but we do have a lot of of our committee members selecting direction one or A and direction B as their first and second choice. >> Okay, thank you for the clarification. Yes,

007sir. So, this this would be the the plan offering. So, we would have one HMO plan, a PPO base, and a PPO buy-up. This is what the impact to the district would be as far as budgetary impact. Because we we see that if we do nothing, if we keep doing what we've been doing with this with the same contributions, we'll be funded at 22.8 million like we are this year. However, this year we're looking at a 5 to 7 million-dollar deficit going in. We also know that if we don't make any adjustments and we continue the same way, we're looking at coming up with 7 to 9 million dollars in additional deficits the following year. That adds up to about 12 to 16 million dollars that we're going to be needing. When we're making these

008plan changes, we're looking at funding the plan at 26.8 million, which means that we're projecting at 26.8 million at this time. So, we're funding it at that level. And I I equate that to how Stephen Covey talks about putting the big rocks first so that other things will fit. So, we're looking at properly funding it at 26.8, and we're seeing that it would be a budgetary increase of 4 million, but we're planning for that increase, right? In addition, we are looking at the difference uh if we don't do anything, you'll see that projected we're at 29 to 31 million, but we're looking at 26.8 projected by making these changes, which means that we found about a 4 million-dollar savings. If we don't do anything, we'll be hitting 29, 30 million, but because we're making these

009changes, we're looking at hitting 26. So, we also know that we are going to have to increase our contribution as a district, right? But, here's the good news. We did see that we are comparing four different plans. We have a new plan, which is the HMO. We don't have a historical or current employee contribution, but we would project these contributions uh for that HMO plan. We're looking at a 23 uh dollar 23.50 cents 58 cents for the employee only base HMO. What used to be the the the low plan or the base plan last year will then turn into the medium plan. And that one we do have historical because currently people are paying $32 for that plan. But, we would look at $99 if they want to stay with a PPO. And then we

010have the buy-up. The buy-up would be a contribution of $134 for employee only compared to what was being paid last year at 154. And then it doesn't scale exactly at a 15 or 20 or 17% all the way across because this is a new offering. You see that we are discontinuing the top plan. And when you consider that we had about 62 employees or 67 employees on that state plan, which was used to be the highest, it'll affect about 65 people more or less that would have to move to a lower plan. So, like in their base plan, they're paying nine $993 now. Rolling this over to next year, they're going to They're their cost for family, cuz I know a lot of people have their families on the on the family plan. So, let's

011look at family. Are you talking about the PPO base or the HMO base? Well, the HMO base for employee and family says they're $1,156. But, you said that most people are on the base in our school district? Yes, sir. So they're going from paying $993 to $1339. Uh yes, sir. Correct. It's a lot of money. Yes, sir. But it's also the increase that we need. If we don't have that HMO plan, we'd have to be making up even higher premiums. Uh like it says there by by not um going with the HMO, we're predicting a lot higher uh need of premiums. And the district cannot keep absorbing that. So we really do have to shift over. What is It was a very difficult decision. I know that we discussed it with the employee benefit committee,

012but we can't just keep changing the premiums or increasing the premiums and increasing the premiums without adjusting also what we're calling the levers, the the plan offerings. Mhm. So this is our remaining timeline. Uh we're here at March 30th. This is our second workshop. Early April, we're looking at a uh RFP window opening up to move forward with it. We're also going to be meeting with the employee benefits committee, continuing to see what else we can do as far as locating some savings now. Uh mid-April, we're looking at having a tentative workshop April 13th. I'm hoping to bring more information at that time. Uh late April, we continue meeting with the benefit committee, especially when we start seeing the RFPs that have been coming in. That continues through May. Also, a tentative workshop is set

013for May 11th. And then we can see about being ready for board approval uh on at the May 18th school board meeting. After going through Yes, sir. I don't know if you discussed this at the the committee meetings, but are are you guys currently are are employees locked in to whatever they choose for that year? Are they uh able to if they select lower plan move up to a higher plan throughout the year? What's the Yes, sir. We have an open enrollment period. Uh that's the the month of August. The selections that they make then then have to continue. There's some tax implement implications that occur. So, we stay at that at that level until the following open enrollment period. Yes, sir. Go ahead, Dr. Wooden. Uh that that concludes my presentation. You know, short

014and sweet. Right now, we're looking at moving forward with the decision of the committee that we want to continue not necessarily going with those alternate brokers, those different companies that were offering their services. Uh moving forward and staying with with what we currently uh have as far as our own RFP. We go through our own analysis, and they have a little bit uh more to say about that. And I and I think a couple of other districts also increasing what employee has to pay because of course prices overall have increased across uh health insurance uh anyway. So, Jackie, any questions? Uh yes. I'm not I'm not uh very good at understanding all this insurance stuff, but my question I guess just simply would be back to the budget. When did we as a board say

015this is the budget for insurance? When do we approve that? That that was should have been what was presented uh at the beginning of the workshops when we were looking at planning for this next fiscal Last year, like around this time last year? Correct. Okay. So, then we we said I I'm looking at the budget. I don't even see where in our budget we have insurance. Is it under health services? 753 would be the account 753. As a board member, I would like to see that how much did we budget and how much are we over? Or you know, every month we get the what we've done. I don't see that anywhere to keep monitoring because if we were able to monitor this monthly, okay, our budget is 20 million. It's January, February. I don't

016get to see that. And that would really help with the monitoring. >> that is something that Dr. Davila is presenting or has presented during his superintendent reports. And we also take a look at on a monthly basis. Right now, we are we are funded at 22.8 million approximate because remember some of it most a lot of it depends on contributions both district and employees. >> Right. So as we gain or lose census, in other words, people leave or they discontinue for X reason. But the way the way it's presented isn't like black and white. It's all this information What I'm saying is the way we have our budget data sheet here where it says budgeted, expended. That is a lot simpler to see for me as a board member than to be trying to decipher

017all those slides cuz I really I'm going to say I haven't done a good job of monitoring the insurance. And I don't know why our budget was so off. Another question I was going to ask you >> Well, at the time when we're planning We don't know. >> the budget, we are using existing data to predict future data, right? So at that point when we were having these discussions, everything was firing all on all eight cylinders, everything was going very smoothly. We were expecting exactly what we were supposed to get. Come September, I did notice, okay, we had a little bit higher expenditure, but one month doesn't set a trend. Now, this is we're predicting right now what's happening in September 6 months from now, right? So at the time when we were planning for

018this, everything seemed to be falling into place. In fact, when comparing policy years, the report that I that we have from from uh One Digital, plus my own tracking, um showed that we were we were actually closed out at a very good rate. My mine loss ratio was 103. In other words, we missed it by 3%. And if you're talking 3% in a 22 21 and a half million-dollar budget, you're talking about 780 800,000, which is only 3%. So, we we missed that policy budget by about 3%. When we started seeing this year, we planned to have a certain number of uh claims that were going to be coming in, but it skyrocketed. I mean, that was a >> when that red flag came up to you, I don't recall seeing that red flag. You

019know how in LST, we monitor monthly, we are on track, we are not on track. Kind of how we monitor the the kids' academic outcomes, I would like to do that also with these I these problems that we're having with certain departments, especially with insurance. If I would have known in September, you know what? I'm seeing that we might not be on track. Okay, then we can adjust back then, not just >> so I know that I I went through that with the committees when we're taking a look at at that that trending. One month doesn't set a trend, right? And even even looking back for the fiscal year, cuz that's another thing that happens is that you're tracking fiscal and I'm tracking policy year, because when we make changes to the policy, it doesn't

020take effect until September. So, right? So, when we start looking at, you know, those two differences, it's also significant, right? We're we're we're trying to predict what's going to happen in September and forward by using what's happened up to now. Right. >> And and at that point last year, everything looked very promising. Real quick, can I can I just jump in and it has to do with She's asking where on the budget sheet do I see the $22.8 million? But the fact is you don't you don't have a line item with $22.8 million. That's what she's asking you. Like where do you Where do you have it? But your answer is we don't. Cuz it's not it's not it's not separated taking out on the $22.8. You're kind of rolling the dice with a self-funded

021insurance and hoping every month that they come in lower, kind of like a previous year when we had a So, like to answer your question, I know he said a lot he said a lot of of important information, but the gist of it is it's not it's not it wasn't budgeted. So, it's not in an account where we can That's my question. Yeah, so how can how can we monitor something that we don't see? I can only If you give it to me so I can see, then we can monitor it better. But that that's what I'm saying. Right, because we >> to look at everything. Yeah. So, like he said, it's very difficult because we're also looking at contributions at on a monthly basis and deductions on a monthly basis. Uh we get those

022bills rolling in. >> But I just want to confirm she is right. Yeah, we we should be having a monthly report a breakdown. Like I know what she's saying though. I want to confirm that. >> But I think we do, don't we? We do. Well, like she was saying >> we have a monthly report. >> Well, the question is how did it get so bad so fast? Because when we renewed the policy last spring, I know specifically they asked a lot of questions. I know he did, she did. And it was let's renew it. It's great. It's working out and it's looking good for next year. And so we didn't go out for RFPs. We just renewed it. Keep everything the same and let's go. And then now it's like, "Oh, $7 million drop or

023or you know, a bomb goes off $7 million now we're we're short." I guess that that's my question, too. How did that happen? Or how do you prevent it? It's it's basically you know, accounted for. People get sick, cancer. So, that's what I'm asking. We've had a 300% increase, for example, on what they're calling neoplasms, layman's term, cancers that all of a sudden weren't there before. And those claims are not going to go up. >> mentioned that before, and just so I don't spend too more minutes on this. So, I went back to try to understand the difference. I know you've explained it before from specific stop loss and aggregate stop loss, right? And for the I what I Googled and and researched is specific stop loss goes to like what you said, what we

024have, one person. And the aggregate stop loss is what we lose in total. So, what does Are some companies even have both as a safety net? So, we >> What do we have? So, we we have both, but the aggregate stop loss I think our attachment point is 29. 29.9 29.9 or So, for us to start collecting on stop loss for aggregate, we're looking at hitting that maximum overall >> And where are we right now out of 29? Uh we are at 16, 17. I mean, we're it's adding up fast, and we still have 6 months to go. >> That's really high. 29 if we're at 16, 17. So, is that because it's way more expensive to get that hot that lower aggregate stop loss number? Yes, it would be it would be >> much

025more Like what we're going to spend $7 million more? That would depend, Sean. Do you want to answer that? Yeah, so I can jump in on Sean over one visual I work with at District on the insurance side. Your aggregate stop loss is really actuaries looking at what the projected claims liability is for the entire population. So, somebody from an actuary perspective is saying, "We anticipate this much is going to be spent." And then they increase that by about 25%. It's called the attachment point. So, they say, "We think you're going to spend 22 million or 24 million, we're going to increase that by 25%." That gives them enough cushion to say, "We're not picking up the full liability, but we're picking up the extreme liability, if that makes any sense. And that's on the

026aggregate. On the specific stop-loss, it's a per person deductible, let's say for example, like a $200,000 deductible. So, each individual that has a claim that exceeds that, you're reimbursed, the district is, for that specific person or that specific claim. Does that make sense? Kind of. It's all very complicated. Yeah, kind of. Um I guess it's just it it's frustrating to see that we have already gone over the budget of of the health insurance, and I'm trying to figure out why didn't we predict it correctly, or what tool was used to predict how many claims are going to come in. But I get it, you don't you just don't know, you know, sickness and and >> and and the increase is on the claims, right? Those claims would be with any company at any time, you

027know, it doesn't it wouldn't matter, because those claims, those people are still getting ill. They still they still got sick. We look at numbers, but really it's people that we're talking about, right? We had a 300% increase in neoplasms or cancers. That's that's one that stands out, and I keep Did OneDigital predict that? We did not predict that. It's unpredictable. So, so what is the cost of each of those? It's cuz like I I like we like I brought this up at the meetings, like I need more meat on the bone, right? I hear we hear a lot of vague explanations and things like that, and I'm not saying you're being vague, but you're saying neoplasms and 300, right? So, what does each one cost? Like like this is this is what we saw, and

028these are the costs. You know what I mean? Just to kind of correlate with charges. And and And I I I I really can't I really can't predict that. I'm not sure. Or they they vary? No, the the information that we So, we have a third-party administrator, Blue Cross Blue Shield. The information that we get from Blue Cross Blue Shield does not drill down to that level of data, if you will. There are third-party resources out there, what's called data warehousing, which you can get that level of information on, if you were to pay for that service, for example. So, does that make sense? I I feel I'm just comparing it to what we do in LSG and what we do with the we use the NWEA map, right? To predict how the kids are

029going to do in STAR in third grade. That is what's research proven to be predictive. I don't know what we're using. I I I know people get sick, but that much though, over 7 million. Maybe the tool we're using is not working. Because the it did not What I can tell you that we're using existing data to predict future data. The data that existed at the time pointed to a 22.6 million dollar need. And we funded it at that level. If I can do so, last year we budgeted Do you have the amount? 22.6 >> 22.6 million. And for this year we increased Well, the previous year was 21.5. This year we increased it to 6. >> into the budget for this year. Yes, sir. So, that's something we're going to have to have to

030do for this coming year. >> Yes. And it's So, what happened here? We're not we're not we're not in the red yet. We've not spent all the amount yet, but on the trend that we're doing, we are going to spend more by the time Six six more months. Yes, sir. So, when do you take it out of fund balance in? Or like when do you That's my question. >> going to say. I'm looking at the fund balance from last month. Two and it says health services doesn't look like compliance insurance. Health services budget is 2.6 million. So, it doesn't make sense. So, so that's that's what I'm trying to say is when do we take it out of fund balance, right? >> At the end of the year. It because we talk about fund balance

031a lot, that's going to trickle in to even the next presentation, right? We talk about fund balance and a reserve. So, your your your projections of negatives, it's like she's kind of saying like how do you monitor that because as a board member you're thinking when you hear budgeted, maybe it needs another term because you haven't budgeted 22.8 million. You're expecting to spend out of a total cost of 22.8. And then tell me contributions, hold on sir. Tell me contributions and then tell me what's your like how like how much is the the the employee contribution? This is all coming for next year cuz this year is a bust, right? It's already done. We're already in April. So like for me then I kind of like I think what she's saying, I'm kind of coming

032up with an answer for her uh or for you all of right to give to her is that maybe you can tell us what is employee contribution and what is ours right here? How much is that? Cuz I don't know what that is. And then based off your expenditures on that 22.8 what is the district's, you know, part, right? >> So right now we're looking at a district contribution per employee of $732 for this year. Okay. Next year, we're proposing so we can see these numbers $879. That's an increase of about 20% to the district. Now we talked about a 17% increase when we did it at 17% the district would have contributed 3,200,000 and the employees would have contributed an extra 600,000. Mhm. So >> When I brought those numbers >> if I ask

033something? >> No, go ahead. I'm done. Okay, look I and this is all piggybacking off of her first. So you just said right now you're going to increase the district proportion, right? That you're willing to commit, not that you're going to budget, right? The contribution. If we keep if we just keep rolling like we are here in this presentation, right? So what is that in the millions? You know? That is If you're going to go up a hundred something dollars per person. It would be $3.8 million more. More. More. Yes, and that's that's what I have here on this slide. We're looking at increasing the budgeted amount by about $4 million. 3.8. So what? So I came in late and I apologize for that. In the day. But uh So what planning on doing the

034same thing we've been doing for the last couple of years and just increase it every year? No, sir. So, what are what's What are you guys proposing to us? What we're looking at is making changes to the levers, as well as now offering an HMO plan. Uh H When you say HMO, what does that mean? Like, uh help me out here with this. Like, so that's a lower base level? It's not necessarily a lower base level, sir. An HMO Uh-huh. is actually a very useful plan, >> Okay. especially for those that may not need it, right? So, we're looking at employees that are still in good health, maybe they don't have a relationship with their primary care physician. Mhm. Those are the and really don't need to go outside of network. I'm going to knock

035on wood here, okay? >> Yes, sir. Well, it's not wood either, but I'll find some somewhere. >> ends up happening with >> I I ask as an employee, I'm working at the school district. I'm sorry. But, I always said, "Just put me on the low one." That's what HMO is, then? The HMO pretty much is >> Not necessarily. If If you take a look at the HMO plan, it's very Or the lowest fee, I guess. That's what I say as an employee. >> The lowest fee, but if you take a look at the HMO and the and the PPO buy-up, which are the two extremes, Mhm. uh individual deductibles would be the same, family deductibles would be the same. Okay. There is a little bit of a difference in out of pocket. Right. So, it's

036not necessarily a lower plan, it's just a different plan. >> Okay. And the reason it's different are two things, two main things. One is that you need a primary care physician to go visit a specialist. So, if all of a sudden you see yourself that you need a cardiologist, you can't just go to a cardiologist, you have to go to your primary care physician that says, "Yes, you need to go see a cardiologist." >> Well, you know what? To be honest with you, the one I got now, I go straight. Like, and I couldn't do that before. Made a big difference in in in getting medical care. Like, and I when I'm talking about someone who suffer with back pain. And that's why we not we want to keep it as a choice. Okay. Right?

037So it's still going to be an offering? Yes. So if you if you would want to go direct, not have to go through a primary care physician, that's where you would need to go with a PPO or the PPO buyout. So you're suggesting we go direction B here on the survey results? Is that Is that what we're saying? No. No, the survey results indicated from the employee benefit committee to go with direction A. Direction A was uh ranked first by most of the uh benefit committee. Can we get those presentations? Like at the end of the day, we're the ones that are going to be responsible for it. If we go if financially it's not the right decision, right? All of All of us up here are going to be the ones that are responsible

038for it. I I think it would be wise if we were to get that present those presentations in what as well and see what's going on. So right now we're getting second-hand information, and you're asking us to make this $27 million decision but not getting the information directly. I mean, I would feel more comfortable if we got those presentations as well as a board. On the 13th, it's already scheduled for April. That That pushes back our timeline, but we'd be I think uh little pressed for time, but we we might be able to share it. >> I I believe that's So the the problem here is there's board decisions, and look, I'm going to I'm going to piggyback off you now, please. We have to We're We're the We are the school board, and we're

039the trustees that represent our community and our staff, and they kind of put us here for that, right? To ask questions. I know sometimes it's frowned upon, or some people I know get exhausted, but the fact is we we we we we can't afford to keep making or make mistakes, okay? And so and looking at services, looking at networks, looking at out-of-pocket costs, like I asked you, like there's a lot of people have their families on here. Going from $900 to 1339 may not sound like a lot of money, right? To a lot of people, but I still remember like yesterday when I couldn't fill up the tank of gas and I'll never forget that. So, I look at going from night $900 to $1339 that's going to have a major impact on a lot

040of families and you're talking about employees here that don't make six figures, right? You got you got a lot of other employees out there that that are falling different salary ranges. So, yes, I I'm agreement kind of two. We need to we need to be presented information, right? Just like we need to be presented in all other categories. This one's important, too. Um for the board. And I want to be saying it because I'm seeing that a lot more where we're missing out on putting in information here that should be going directly to us, too. And I And I think the committee the 30 committee members took part in that alongside uh Dr. Jaime and uh Coach Edna. They're part of the committee. They attended the last two, I believe you said, right? >> Right.

041Yes, sir. Actually, um there's been four meetings. Mr. Sedano attended the first one. Dr. uh Rodriguez attended the next two and Mr. Sedano attended the the previous Plus the 30 committee members that are part of the committee. Yes, sir. There are 30 uh committee members that took a look at them. They We did take a look at, you know, what was being offered. Um >> Right. I respect every single committee member and I respect every single employee, but I'll tell you what from the in the last 9 months I it's all about how the data is presented to people, right? And I'm a I'm first hand experience of that. So, how it's presented to people, how it's described, that's the part that's questionable, okay? And so, for me, that's my opinion now as a trustee,

042right? And so, yes, I still would like to and I respect every single committee member and all the work that they did, too. And 100% every single staff member. But like I said, just want to verify what was shared, what they were told, and and and how that all played out, you know? And that's it and this is no fault to you, either, or your program or department or personnel. That's just me and my opinion. I'm not I'm only speaking for myself. >> You can request another board workshop where they can present that information. You know? So So that way They presented it to us? April 13th. Can do it then. Yes, sir. I'm open. April 13th. April 13th, coming up. Yeah, cuz I would like to question them directly, too, and ask the questions

043that I may have. Well, there's a committee member here. Yes. I don't know if you would like to say anything. Yeah. As he's he's saying >> your request, are you the It's a workshop. Real Real quick questions. Ari. Thank you for coming, sir. Yes. Well, I didn't mean to I wanted to question the committee members. I wanted to question the people presenting, but yeah. Oh, this, right? Somebody had a No, I meant the people presenting, not to the not to >> No, I thought it was the committee members. So So another thing we need to be very cognizant about is that we did not have the committee hear presentations to select one company over another, because that would require a whole other RFQ or RFP to select those companies, cuz it wouldn't be fair to

044just those two companies or the companies that that didn't get a chance to present. So what they took a look at were the types of services that they would provide. So it wasn't specific, but it would be the types of services. But But you see how I'm circling back now? That That's what we get to. When we went over the different plans and going back to his survey as far as how how to proceed, Mhm. you saw the the the one to the far right, which was the uh the alternate brokers. Mhm. Like he said, they came in and they gave us very vague information. Okay. >> us no cost. Who's they? The two brokers that presented to us, which were uh Higginbotham and Gallagher. Yes. Gallagher and Higginbotham. Mhm. Uh they came in just

045told us the type of services that they provide. Mhm. They gave us no cost whatsoever. So without any kind of cost, Mhm. we could really couldn't make them a contender. I mean, cuz we would One One One them told us, "We can save you about $2 million $2.5 million. But we're asking how? They couldn't answer that question. See, so I I would like to have the opportunity to grill those folks and ask well how? What is it What is What's going to be if you were to go that route, how would you do it? How's it going to affect the employees? All that stuff, right? As the committee member, I just want to get in my head cuz I was the the the survey results were a little I was I had to look at

046it a couple of times to understand it. But as the committee member, the information that we have here says that the direction the employee benefit committee has selected indicates close to $4 million in savings, right? But that's what you guys picked. But then I see over here and this is where I'm just confused. But then it says that they're they're picking A and A has a or wait, I don't I don't understand has a deficit to it. Like do they Did you guys know if we were saving or not when you were look you said no, right? Cuz you you weren't given any >> saving. We're we're trying to cut down the projected >> cost, right? That that's what it is. It's we're going off of how much we're going to spend next year and

047how some of that cost can be could be brought brought down. So some of the way ways to bring that down was we increased deductibles. We increased total out of pocket cost. And then of course we're going to have to raise the employee cost monthly cost a little bit as well. All right, so with all that combined, he would give us okay, if if we did this and this and this, it would bring it down if let's say we talked about uh uh raising the copay. We said well what if we raise the copay? Well, yes, we could save let's say $100,000. Is that worth it to the employees? Is that a big enough difference to actually cuz when you you have your copay, that's something you pay every single time you go in. Did

048we really want to affect the the the our employees like that and would that prevent them from going actually going to the doctor, which could lead to worse things. So we decided not to touch the copay. We said no, we're we're going to leave that alone cuz we want our employees to go to the doctor. We want them to stay healthy." So, we started comparing those things. So, we just looked at all those different levers, and that's where we started making the the changes where if you utilize the plan more, you're the one that's going to pay a little bit more. If you don't utilize the plan at all, you're going to pay a little less. That way, really the only ones that are that are paying more are the ones that actually use the

049plan. Okay. Okay. Thank you. And see, in my case, like I said, doubling back again my question, I thought you guys saw multiple like companies and plans. I thought that's like when I'm hearing the discussion, I'm thinking, "Oh, they got presented this like in the past the way they used to present to us. This is A, B, C, D, and E. And then here are all the cost and differences between those companies. That's what they asked That's why I was under the impression >> way it's written, "Plan offerings as presented today." Sounds like you guys >> There are multiple multiple companies and plans. >> see there as far as out of pocket, the the the office visits, pre- All that All those are the district controls all that cuz we're self-funded. The the the other

050costs would be the the from the brokers, we don't see that, and we may lose that control, but they would they have to come in and show us how they would do that cuz they didn't show us how they would do that. And so so my my >> taking over handing over the insurance to a broker, right? >> Right. They they would control everything. Well, yeah, that's the broker part of it. >> But we give up if we give up the health, we would also give up our dental and our vision. They would control all of that. Well, see, this is my then this is my argument here, right? I mean, I'm an employee of the district, so I'm jumping into that those shoes. So, what you just said something to me is very very,

051you know, very very important. You said, "We were we were looking at it because the district is the one that charges it cuz we're self-funded." So, why do we have out of pocket expenses increasing if if cuz you see what you Did you hear what I just heard? Like, out of pocket expenses are increasing for people that need it. That's kind of my problem, you know? And especially if we're self-funded, then why would that then why would you increase it? That's kind of my question. But there's two ways to fund it. One would be just increase the contributions. >> Mhm. Like we have been doing. All we have been doing is increase, increase, increase. So, at one point we were paying $9 and then all of a sudden we're at 30, right? >> Right. So,

052that's one way to increase the amount of money that comes in, contributions. The other way Well, let me backtrack a little bit. When you increase the contributions, everybody shoulders it equally whether you use it or not and that's cost sharing, right? Or you adjust the levers. When you adjust the levers, then the people that would need it would pay a little bit more when they need it. But if we were to increase, just increase the contributions to make up the difference, we're talking about a huge increase and that's the battle that we that we had to fight. >> Yeah, and I know that you all are just trying to figure it out. So, my question here is like that thinking like an employee, right? Like you all and jumping into that, is it I heard

053two things. One, our contribution rate is going to go up, they expected, right? We're not budgeting, but we're expecting to commit if we need to more on the district side. But we're only expecting it. Two, you're going to have an increase on the staff side. You are going to have an increase on the staff side and how and how higher cost. Yes, sir. But and I know that I probably shouldn't be saying this as a board member, but how do I know that okay, well, we're saying we're increasing our commitment, but yet we don't have to put anything up front, but staff are paying every month. So, they're already paying a higher fee per month, it's coming out of their pocket. >> We we pay per >> And I'm saying I'll put it if I

054need it and that's that kind of bothers me, right? Thinking about families and stuff like that. >> are making the commitment to fund it at 80 or 879 dollars. That's per employee per month. >> Right? An increase from from this from currently. Currently from 732 >> right? That's just the premium. >> That's a premium. >> That's just a premium. But what I'm saying is you're not actually going to take it from the fund balance and put it in an account. You're going to use it as needed. Right now, you're going to pay as you go based on employee contributions that come in every month. Is that correct? That is correct. Now, when we took a look at the the difference, it wasn't a big impact to the district if we were to go from a

05517% that everybody had to pay and I showed you guys the those those uh figures, which was a lot more than than the figures that we had here. Like I really want to know when you say you're negative, cuz I'm verifying everything, right, from here forward. So, when you say you're negative, I would really love to see the total contributions of employees so far per month that you've received, and then I want to see the total contributions, because we should have signed off on them, right? Uh contributions from the district that's been received, and see That kind of answers her question that she asked before is show me monthly where we're at. So, But but you understand that the employee is their contribution is How? You know, pretty much their their co-pays, their their portion

056>> theirs. Okay. As they use it. As they use it, right. Okay. The district, you know, we're paying our portion of the premium, right, for every employee, plus whatever bills are coming in, right? That's where, you know, the the cost to the district is coming in. So, for the employee, it's their their monthly what comes out of their paycheck. Right. That's what I mean. >> and then their co-pays, their deductibles, you know, that's You know, that's what That's what I would like to So, so I do I mean, it's a 753 report essentially is what it is. We do get those projections, and I I am looking at it right now. Uh we do have a uh projected increase of about $4 million right now. That's That's what we're looking at, but we do get

057that report on a 753. So, it it is in the budget as 753. And and that It's a lot of numbers, so I know people are probably like, where are we at, right? We all got lost. But uh but yeah, no, my that's just the big gist of it for me is like, okay, learning more, right? We have you there as a resource and and seeing because it's not budgeted, right? Like Mr. Stites uh Trustee Stites said, she's right. There is no line item for it. And I didn't know that either till the last presentation you had just recently this year. I always thought it was in an account. And then I found out, no, there's no money, there's no $22.5 million sitting anywhere. >> It's It's being generated as we're going forward. So, that

058changes on a monthly basis. >> it generated? By contributions. So, with the district will pay a premium for the employee, and the employee will have an an a matching contribution, right? Well, not matching, but an additional contribution. >> Okay. Right now, the district pays $732 to cover their monthly uh insurance cost. And then the employee pays 32. >> ourselves though, right? Cuz we're we're self-funded? Uh I'm not sure how that breakdown happens uh as far as in the in the business department, but I know that at this point >> Okay, they're up next. it's every it's every month per employee per month that we get that as a Okay. And if you all want to have a presentation uh on April 13th >> I think now if you have the time We're going into funding

059discussions. I mean, it'd be really really really smart to know cuz this could be a Like I said, like Trustee Stites said last last spring, no issues, no deficit. Now we're here uh not even a whole year later, right? Through the new quarter and we got 7 to 9 million projections >> projection Yeah. So, that's big, right? To go from something that didn't exist to now exists. It's speaking for itself. The presentations that that I would like to see are the ones that were given to the committee. Like exactly presentations that were given to the committee, so we can vet them as a board as well. Okay. We'll let Dr. Avila know so that way they can present it at uh April 13th. And thank you so for coming in. I mean, I know every

060I know everybody's busy and and life, right? But you know, thank you for showing up. Really appreciate it. Is that it, Dr. Kuntulu? That's it. And everyone else, too. Any other final questions? Dr. Jaime? You know, when when you talk about insurance what is insurance supposed to do for you? Mhm. My dad always said, you know, cuz he saw people every every day with illnesses. Cuz I made a comment one time about having to spend so much money for whatever. He stopped me right there and says, "I'm going to tell you something. It's better to have it not need it than to need it and not have it." Right. And 5 years ago, when I had my heart attack, had to have open heart surgery, and got a bill for 300,000. Boy, did I ever

061need it then. So, if we're our purpose of having insurance is to take care of our staff, we want to give our staff what they're going to need when they need it. I know there's people that never get sick, so, you know, if you had choices, you could say, "Well, just get the the minimum. Get something to cover catastrophic funds in case something happens." But, when you're diabetic or you have other underlying conditions, those are serious things that uh are going to take place. It's not a matter of if, it's when it's it's it's when it's going to happen. So, there's nothing more reassuring than to know that you can go anywhere that's in network or whatever the process is. They know that you're going to be covered regardless of what the situation may be.

062You know what your copay is going to be, but you know, let's let's really really look at why are we going to get insurance, and why, you know, we know it's going to cost. It is what it is. A few months ago, I was paying $2.29 for a gallon of gas. Now, I'm paying $3.00 and 30-something cent. Mhm. In 1 month. And we have no control over that. You know, and and I you know, in closing I want to say that I agree with Trustee Cuellar, you know, kind of like I mentioned earlier. You're looking at this as the only option and looking at costs going up to the point that well, they're only going to use it if they need it. Um that's not to me that doesn't sound like preventative medicine. You know?

063You're going from from $993 to almost 1,400 now. And and like for the PPO base, I'm looking at that one, right? Cuz you said that one was used to be the standard for our employees, right? And it and um and that's and I agree with him 100% like I agree. That's right. I mean, you you want them to use it when they can. And they I don't want like I don't know if I want to price somebody out on what they need. Where well, we charge $993 now, we're going to go to 1,400. That's kind of the the the the the discussion here. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. All right, let the record reflect that Dr. Jaime came in at 5:41 and Mr. Ben Castillo came in at 5:50. Let's continue with number four,

064uh budget workshop. Dr. Rueda. Do you call on Mrs. Didi Rodriguez and staff? Okay, but it's not Right there. There we go. Ready? Ready. Okay. Good uh evening, good afternoon, Dr. Guerra, President Nieto, members of the board. First time working this computer, so bear with me. Um uh the presentation mode. So, I'm going to start off this uh this evening with our 2026-2027. This is our first budget workshop that we're having, and although I am doing the presentation today, um you know, this this budget, this presentation, all the data, the strategies that you're going to see tonight were basically all worked on collaboratively with myself, the budget team, um Israel Ruiz, our consultant Oscar Silva, uh Rene Cavazos, our accountant, um Manny Martinez, our analyst, our budget analyst, and then of course our cabinet and

065our superintendent of schools, Dr. Guerra. We met multiple times over the last I mean, this has been an ongoing thing for months, but for this workshop, we have met every day to go over this data, and I just want to really stress that this is a collaborative effort, of course. We all know that the budget is a huge topic of conversation this year, and we want to ensure that you guys are getting the correct information and we're being as transparent as possible. Um we've also had this information reviewed by um our external experts, Region One, Josh Haney with Moak Casey. Um we've reviewed and verified all the data with uh our latest summary of finance and Texas Education Agency. Um so, this is definitely a collaborative approach as we continue. Moving on. Okay, just to

066start off with um our Texas Education Code requirements, uh we do need to adopt our budget for next year by June 30th of 2026. Um that's our our standard for being a July 1 fiscal year start date. As a July 1 fiscal year uh district, we run into the issues of having to project and estimate certain things for next year's budget, our revenue projections based on certified tax estimates or values that we get April 15th. Um so, we have to estimate those local revenues. Uh a lot of the, you know, our interest rates are changing, so a lot of the revenues have to get um projected basically at the beginning of the year, but, you know, we want to always remember that we're trying to be conservative with these numbers based on previous trends. Um

067at the minimum, our official budget must include the general fund 199, food service 101, and debt service find 599. So, those are the three uh funds that the official budget that gets approved must include. I know, Mr. Stith, uh you mentioned earlier on the health insurance, that is actually fund 753. So, that's why that's a separate fund um for the health insurance that that is not on this required piece. So, I mean, it's still available, and we can definitely include it, you know, as as we move on, but that is not part of the required um funding approved piece, but that is that is something that we can provide. >> That would be Thank you. Um for public transparency, all these adopted budgets must remain on the website for a minimum of of 3 years,

068but if you go to our website, you can at least see probably the last seven years including this fiscal year um on our website. I actually went back, you know, many years to see all the data to see what had been provided, what our trends had been, just to review that. Um for TEE reporting purposes, um our original budget must be uploaded uh with our amended final budgets through our annual financial compliance report. Um in years past, that um process was just a a normal a, yes, of course it is very important that we approve these, you know, and include these original final budgets with our AFR, but moving forward it will be part of the actual, um, audit, uh, reporting requirements to make sure that our original budget that we, that gets adopted is

069within a certain percentage of where we end up. Like we can't be too far off or we will lose, uh, you know, you could say points in in our in our fiscal year audit. So, that is something coming down the line for next year. Okay, moving on. To start off with, um, this is what our current approved and adopted budget was as of, uh, that that the board approved last June 2025. And I'm sharing this just to show where we currently are once, um, our April board meeting happens. Of course, you will approve an amendment, um, you know, through it, well, if if once the information is provided, there will be an amendment showing, um, the adjustments that we need to make to bring this current fiscal budget to a more accurate, uh, more accurate

070numbers based on our our trends and what we're looking at this fiscal year with our allotments, but the original budget that was adopted, when you look at the general fund 199, what what was approved was 196 million in the general fund revenues. Um, and the next slide shows our expenses, which was 196 million in general fund expenses, which will give you, um, the next slide, a balanced budget if you look at that first column of, uh, you know, with zero deficit. What was adopted in June 23, uh, June 23rd, 2025. So, based on this um this uh table here, what you're looking at is the adopted budget for June 20 of for this fiscal year, but then in the next column you'll see our current year in projections um as of our March 23rd data

071that was provided by our budget team, reviewed with everybody. Revenues based on current allotments, uh TEA adjusted our summary of finance based on live PEIMS extracted data, and revenues are projected to look at about 180 million compared to what was originally approved at 196 million. So, um that along with our current expenditures projected out to the end of the year, remember projections, um we're looking at 193 million in expenditures projected out by the end of the year, giving us a projected deficit of 13 million at the end of the year. And those these numbers are still fluid, still changing, subject to change. Um so, that deficit may increase. This is I wouldn't say worst-case scenario, but this is more um projecting out at the higher end of things. And this is not um if we

072go down the information at the bottom, all revenue um of course, this is like I said, this is the latest data that we received from our finance department. Um reviewed through different templates, through the Mo Case template, through the Omar Garcia template, uh reviewed by region region one as well. So, that's where these data are coming from at this time. Of course, still subject to change. So, based on the contributing factors, right now more um the the bigger numbers that would be contributing to that 13 million-dollar deficit would be that decline in ADA. Our original budget was 14 five, and I remember at the beginning of the year that that was maybe a comment Mr. State that made that how we didn't even meet 14.5 last year. How are we budgeting 14.5 this year? Um

073we're definitely right now we are looking at the state template is projecting us at 14 um Where did I see it? 14,348 >> 14,348 100 So these current projections we're basing it on 14,280. A little lower. We're trying to be conservative, bring that down uh from what the actual template is projecting us at. The state is projecting through 14,348. So we're looking at uh 14,280 on the projections just to be a little more conservative on that end. um State comp funding uh the the census block happens every 2 years and that funding was actually reduced based on the original funding that was um projected. It was reduced by about 1.6 million. Mr. Vargas, before you move on, can I stop you? I know it's just a workshop. So as you're saying things, I'm going to

074ask you. I'm going to just back up to the first little check box that was about uh average daily attendance. I don't know if you guys can see it up there or not. It says Let me see. I can't see it myself on my the decline in ADA. >> of the ADA. I was going to ask you. I don't know if we've done this, but I was looking at other districts and looking at their board book online and I noticed that Edinburg had some um waivers for the board to approve and it says here that the state waiver for low attendance and that the rationale was that the TEA allows districts of camp or campuses request an instructional day with that with attendance at least 10 percentage points below the last school year's average attendance

075due to weather or health or safety issues. And these days are excluded from the ADA and the FSP. Do we use those already? I I don't remember that we approved some for this year. We We have used some? >> Yes. So, yes, to answer your question, yes. When we do have days that are appropriate that we need to, we will seek waivers as we go through the process in the year. I'll give you one example. We can go all the way back in the fall. We know we had a day with some mechanical issues at Weslaco East High School >> due to that fact, we're asking to waive that day of attendance for Weslaco East High School. Again, we can ask, we can put them in, we can get the approval, but they still need

076to be granted. But it it's some It was uh when it was super cold. Yes. So, when we did on the two days, so we had two days when we came back or we started late, right? So, we had to waive the one day. The one day did not fall under the 10%. So, again, where we ended last year, our ADA percentage was roughly 93%. That means this year for us to be even eligible to waive has to fall 83 or lower. So, again, on one of those two days, yes, we're eligible. On the second, we were not eligible. >> we do have somebody monitoring that daily. >> Every >> Okay, cuz I don't really remember uh approving these >> uh approving these waivers is the board. I That's good. That's what I wanted to

077know. The state will ask for backup as well. So, when we have that in the media and so forth, we provide all that backup documentation. >> Okay, good. That's good to know you guys are keeping track of that. Thank you. Yes. How did the revenues go down so much? The allotments, basically, um we were pending the most recent updated summary finance in March, cuz in March is when the state actually takes the most accurate data from the PEIMS uh in information. And so, a lot of these allotments came in underneath, but that's what that's B is just a portion of it. So, the 196 million that was originally adopted included, of course, a few other inflated inaccurate revenues that probably should not have been included um initially cuz there was If you see online, if

078you look on the website, when you look at the adopted what was adopted the budget for 25-26, and you compare the backup, some of those numbers just don't jive. That's what I was going to ask you because I see it on the website that the total is 200 and 23 million, right? For the memo total. And then I'm seeing on January's board meeting it says 247. So, that's a difference of 24 million. I don't get it. I just I don't get it. Well, and one of them you have nutrition and all They're looking at the total. >> Correct. You're looking at the total. I'm looking at the total. Yes. Is there a separate category that separates cuz you have two? Correct. >> Like when they said initially like 223 like I have one here. Right.

079>> me give you for instance this 23-24. Right? So, the 23-24 breakdown that that one that you're showing us they had a revenue state revenues and state local federal and insurance revenues, right? So, which is that very first column? That's the money where it says 199 general fund. Our district let me take you down like a little thing here. In 22 21-22, okay, it was budgeted at 177 million, right? In 21-22. 22-23, they budgeted at 178 or 9 million, right? And then when you get to 23-24, all right? They budget The business office budgeted it at 161.8 million. That column. They brought it down. And if you go back and look at the meetings, they brought it down because they knew that we had a drop in enrollment that was affecting our ADA. All right?

080So, that's why the business office said, "Well, we're going to drop this down to 161.8." And they also said, "Let's prepare ourselves." Right? This is in the open recorded session that said, "Let's prepare ourselves at the time we had we had the previous superintendent we were in a reduction of size mode, right? And then that's what we were doing. So, reduction of size, reducing our staffing sizes, cutting costs, things like that. So, that's why they they budgeted that before going into the 23-24. They stated it, it's recorded, right? They said we're going to prepare ourselves for when spring of 24 comes and we get ready for when COVID SR dollars finish. In the meantime, we were saving at that point, right? But there were still other costs. Then you transition and then that's when all

081this whole discussion and stuff came up with the 24-25 where you see now, for whatever reason, it jumped to to last year 177. A massive increase of almost 16 million dollars between 23-24, right? Reversing gears. Last year 24-25, we saw a 16 million dollar increase almost in expected revenue, which was not even realistic. And then the same thing happened again when you go into this current school year 24-25, and it went up to almost 19 million, okay? And that's why we're here where we're here, right? And that's kind of the magic question is where where was this data? You're right. Where did this come from? Where did the data come from? Because we have a summary of finance report that's presented every single year that's been around for decades. I just want to explain something

082that I'm thinking of it, you know, I'm a teacher and I teach kids and I have to make it really simple for them to understand and break it down. And obviously, we're not experts at this financial stuff up here. But I I went to this I was looking online to see other budgets and I came across this article uh on the Dallas Express and I'm just going to read a whole paragraph real quick and I I think this is what makes sense to me that we're not on the same page or understanding. There was this man, John Petry, president of the Texans for Excellence in Education, and he was talking about budget deficits all over Texas. And he said uh school finance administrators allegedly rely on a shared budgeting spreadsheet commonly referred to as the

083template cuz I went online saying let me go see what Edinburgh's template is or mission or you know everybody else and they didn't have anything on their board books so I was assuming okay we all use different templates to understand our budgets as as boards. So our template is very confusing to me because the numbers change from one to the other cuz like you said maybe the health services aren't added in one template and then another template we have it broken down differently and it's just so confusing. It's it's it's a mix. Um he says let me I'm just going to finish reading it. Um also keep in mind that the template is not a state or TEA product Petri explained. The state does provide a general planning document called a summary of finance but

084this document does not provide all of the necessary indicators to accurately forecast all aspects of anticipated state revenue and tax collections and he says that's the trickiest part that there's no template or no tool, right? So I want to I would love to figure that out so we could all be on the same page. >> it they use that guy from Region 13 or whatever Orlando Garcia and Josh Haney's template. Yeah. The summary of finance is that Mon Casey Josh Mon Casey did So so those templates are used to to for districts to create to project their revenues and then of course we start with our revenues and then internally we work on our expenditure piece. We work on okay so this is what the state is projecting us this is what if is it

085comparable to the template and but that template is also we can manipulate it by entering the ADA that we want to budget on. >> Yeah and that's where the for me as a board member is is confusing for me because I'm seeing different templates with different information and it's hard to keep track of what's going on. >> Yes it's it's very tricky. >> Yeah it is. So maybe we can work on our I don't know I don't know something like that. >> like speaking of the template and the summary finance report a lot of departments use it. Your CTE uses it. It has a breakdown of your tier one, tier two, tier threes. Those are you're right because you don't know if kids are going to leave, are they going to stay the whole year,

086are they going to leave in October? It's a lot of fluctuation. But, like I said, the standard should be not millions, right? You you you're trying to stay within a reasonable margin of error. And that's the that's the key. If not, then you know, it kind of like districts as well, too. Like you put here contributing factors, right? Decline in 88, it's 100 something kids, right? It's not the whole 13 million. I'm going to cut straight to the nitty-gritty here. >> Correct. All right, your state comp funding was restructured and things like that, but yet you still had increases. You had an increase in state fund state funding that came in for 24 25 and you had an increase in state funding, even though it wasn't huge, you still had an increase for 25 26.

087>> Mhm. Regardless, so we can't blame the state. Number three, your CTE tier funding. That tier funding is 55% is designated for CTE. That takes care of payroll costs for CTE programs. 45% is up to the discretion to use for the district to use at their discretion. >> Mhm. They they're getting about 12 points, they're supposed to get 12 point something million, but right now you're going to fall short because, you know, you something's going on with the kids, right? That's something internally you all got to look at. Those that are tier Those that are in the first tier, one tier that's year one and two, the other tier that's three and four. So, your CTE funding though has zero impact on your payroll because the 55% is already designated to take care of that

088program so it's sustainable. The other 45% that's available for the district. Some districts that are very healthy, they leave it in the CTE program and that's where you see them build and buy new resources and buildings and whatnot. Ag forms, things like that. Okay? Other districts, they do use it. They consume it, right? To to help with other costs and stuff, but it shouldn't be the I wouldn't think that we're using it as the gold standard of this is how much projected we get from CTE to cover operations, right? Like bus drivers and pay and things like that. I don't think that would be responsible and I doubt we're doing that. So, as we're going through this, the early education funding reduction, etc., all these things, the the gist of it here is, like on

089the slide, multiple steps have been taken to reduce this deficit, otherwise this deficit would have been greater, you're right. Your deficit last year, you you reported 14.5, right, Carl Riggs? But the reality was, and maybe not all the board knows, you were even higher. Okay? Because but you had extra money's coming in, right? It was in the Carl Riggs report. >> Yeah, the salary deficit was even higher last year. Correct. So, logically, my first question on this slide right off the bat, are you doing this off of expenditures in the budget? Or how did you come up with your revenues and I think you're actually using the budget that was presented to the board, or that's I mentioned I know you mentioned it earlier that you kind of are not using that. Are you or

090are not? >> No, we're not. You're talking about the column that says current year end projections? >> Yeah, revenues, expenditures, and deficits. What How did you develop that? What is that based on? Because I know you're still working on because the budget was presented to the board that wasn't even accurate, right? So, because they're still going through all the different departments and all that. That's what I was trying to tell my trustees. One thing is salaries, two is and I've seen it uh and heard from other people, directors and other, you know, districts, not my But um you you've seen it where sometimes they're given a budget, but it wasn't the right one, right? And then so it's like, "Hey, wait a minute, stop spending because you got more than you should have and he

091got less." And they're in another bind. Mhm. So, I know you're still going through it. So, that's why I wanted to know, how did you get these numbers? And and are they Would you say these are 100% Well, you already said they're not. They could go up. >> They could go either way. Down or up? These numbers have specifically come from the system currently with our actuals, our actual spending >> and actual spending projected out. So, like salaries are projected out to the end of the year. That is something that Mr. Dubois has a very lengthy spreadsheet on on salaries projecting out to the end of the year. Can I ask you a question right there? Sure. Then why can't the if salaries, we know who's working for us, we know how much they're getting

092paid. Like why would we have to cuz you're hoping that maybe some people might leave earlier like what why wouldn't we know right off the bat, okay with these are all our staff, these are all our salaries. I've seen the Excel file, it gets uploaded for raises and whatnot. So you pretty much already know exactly what your salary overall costs are. Uh but why wouldn't why would they be projections or you're saying projections as inaccurate? They're projections, yeah, because it's not we're not final. We're not there yet. So the these are projections based on I'm sorry. These are projections based on currently the current contracts. Current contracts to year end June, current contracts to year end August. >> Okay, there's my question. So real quick right before I transition, you're putting 13.2 million, right? I'm

093going to adjust like you said, I'm going to make a projection that that I'm being trying to be funny. I'm just saying I'm going to make a projection here that a big portion of that is salaries that's been rolling over. >> Oh, yes. Rolled over from 23 to 24, 24 25. And those are the salaries that I've said existed and I was told for months that didn't, right? So we're getting to contract time. I would like to know from your office, all right? What we we're past the point of no return, right? Like we brought this up in August, July, August. Here now we're in April. Contracts are right around the corner. You got people that want to know if they're going to have a job or not, right? We're pretty much past the threshold.

094That red line we've already hit in and passed it where we're going to have to give people contracts because it's too late to even take any type of other action. I think. So I want to know for 26 27 what's the impact to fund balance cuz we only have 52 million left then unreserved, right? What's going to be the impact to fund balance this year? What's going to be the projected what's left cuz remember we're in the 70s and now we're at 52. So if you're telling me you're at 13 possibly going up or down, but that's pretty I mean I trust your department, right? You guys are crunching numbers. I trust you 100%. So you're at 13.2 million plus you're looking at 7 to 9 million in insurance costs that weren't projected either. That's

095was the discussion in the previous meeting. Now you're pushing into the 20s and you still Do you have construction costs rolled in that 13.2 or not yet? Whatever you have to pay out in construction? It is not rolled into the 13. >> then you have projected construction projects that were taken out of fund balance, too, that we have to pay for. So, that 13's about to really really get a lot bigger. So, when you combine everything together. Now you got a hiring freeze I mean you got a hiring freeze and then you have an expenditure freeze going on right now, but it's already in April. So, I I I as a trustee, in my opinion, I want to know what's the impact, right? What is going to be the impact this year? And what's going

096to be the impact next year as soon as we sign contracts? Because as soon as you sign contracts, that's rolling over. And and already the discussion of of uh I now have heard whispers of raises and things like that. Like all that stuff has to be talked about. Even though I know it's not the most favorable, but trust me, it'll help you. Because if you start letting people know, "Hey, I'm not going to give raises this year. This is it." Some people just, you know, waiting cuz they're ready to retire, but I'm waiting for another raise and then I'll leave. But if you let them know raises or not or if they're not coming, that might help you where these people say, "Okay, you know what? Let me retire." You don't have to pay them

097500 like other districts or $1,000. I think once we're truthful about the real situation we're in, right? And stop, you know, everything else. Like uh whatever we've been doing here when we haven't really talked about the nitty-gritty, we're going to be real successful in trying to tackle this problem for next year. Cuz it is coming to next year, too. Can Can I circle back to the whole CTE? So, what when I saw I I need to understand what we're reading, right? So, I saw CTE or funding reduction and of course I Google and start looking at it. I went to TEA and to better help myself understand, what does that mean? I saw that when we had the CTE that we get funded two ways. Like one is the FTE full-time equivalent students. >> Yes.

098Right? And then uh there's a methodology. Cuz when he asked, "How did you come up with this number?" Well, there's a methodology that TEA uh gives us. And it tells you, like, 1.28 for a full-time student in levels 1 and 2 in CTE courses, 1.47, which is even higher, for students in level 3 and 4 CTE courses. So, I took it as in, okay, did we see a reduction because we had kids in CTE that maybe didn't uh meet the requirement for these weights? They didn't take the three courses and they took two. Is that where the reduction happened with our kids? >> That That is. It's the completers, um Mr. Buttimer. I think I can help answer that question for you. So, as you mentioned, you have students who are in levels 1 and

0992, just think of it more of the introduction courses, and then you have students who are in levels 3 and 4 as they work to be completers or earn their IBC, right? Their industry-based certificate. Where we're also adding this is we're in a transition with the accountability. So, we are focused on making sure that we are and I just I even gave myself a few notes as we transition to making sure we have more of our completers. Meaning, more students getting and finishing level 3 or 3 and 4. That's getting us into those higher weights. And we have fewer that into explorers. Now, we're working very hard with our groups. In fact, we even have a meeting tomorrow reviewing all the master schedules for the high schools along with CTE to make sure we've got

100the course requirements so we can continue go back and increase that funding, but also meet the needs in the accountability system to make sure we have what we do moving forward cuz the state's always has a moving target with it. >> Right. And that's one of our goals as a board with LSGs is the the the CCMR and the CTE, and it all goes back to the same thing of are we focusing on the kids because how they do, right, affects our budget. And so, So, that's something that I I thought of, "Hmm, should we be looking into this a lot more and and help out in whatever way we can to make sure that these kids are meeting those those requirements and criteria?" Because that that's 1.1.5 million that we lost out on. So,

101I as a board I'd just like us to focus on, "What can we do to help CTE to get this funding uh improved?" And my other one question was about the state comp funding, the restructured census block formula. And when I saw that, too, I said, "Okay, what does that mean?" Cuz I don't know what that means or why did we get reduced? So, you mentioned that every 2 years the census uh there's a new census block, right? So, I I saw that the last one Well, the one that was on TEA, the last one was from 22-23. That's the last time that the census block, but like you said, the tiers or like Mr. De Los Santos said, the tiers get moved around that the weights on those tiers. So, I went in they

102have a map, right? TEA has a map. is what I'm a board member, but I'm still learning a lot a lot of things. Uh I said, "Okay, what does this mean?" So, I went into that map and I I'm sure maybe you guys know this already, but our city is divided into blocks, right? And and so, tier one is the lowest funding, tier five is the highest funding. And it was based on the PEIMS information, like the poverty and and single parent or what kind of household. So, what happened when we when we budgeted with this uh the state comp, it obviously with the formula that cuz the tiers changed, right? They they they changed their weights. Um what happened? Is it because kids moved to a different place or is it because like how

103does it change so much? >> so that's that template confusion that you mentioned earlier because these templates were relying on these other organizations, Smokey Casey, um Region 13, Omar Garcia, we're relying on their creation of this template. If you get bored and want to look at one of these templates, these are multiple tabs with formulas like like you know, like there's no tomorrow. These formulas are very intricate. You know, and so we're relying on these templates to be actually properly um computed, basically. And so when we enter our district number, all the information that the state has available, it populates. And then we manipulate the year that we want to work on. We'll put 8842526145. And now that we're trying to down to bring that down to a more conservative number in that template, we're

104putting 14280. And so based on those formulas and the weights that are assigned to these buckets right here, the the revenue will generate based on what those templates are providing, what how they're built. Okay. >> So we're relying a lot on on these templates to be accurate. >> why the PEIMS data, right, is so important because it if you're not right on something, it affects everything. >> So it yes, it's really difficult. >> the school overseas, all those that they're that it's correct. >> yeah, and that's why where this collaborative effort comes in. You know, Mr. Luis is constantly calling PEIMS and and ensuring that certain things are are um in place. Our our assistant superintendents are always talking to to PEIMS as well because on the census block, what's important there is the student

105addresses because that's where a lot of that stuff populates from. So if information is incorrect in there, then it's not going to give us the correct number. It's going to get reported to the state incorrectly and then our funding it's it's a domino effect. >> And and if you break it down, it just it starts in the classroom with collecting the information, turning it in. It's I like you say it's a collaborative process. But it's very interesting to to learn about this because I had no idea. And uh thank you for for explaining that. And maybe we can I don't know something. >> had a follow-up question on that. I thought she maybe she can give me some ideas there. So, the 13.2 million, is that because of PM's data? It's a combination of things.

106I like I know the CarWiz >> I could go back here to the revenue piece that was originally approved, right? And so, like I mentioned earlier, when I'm looking at the backup that is on the website based on this approved budget, and I'm looking at the template that was used because it is on the website, the template that was used does not give me $4 million on miscellaneous revenue. The template that is on the backup doesn't give me $9 million on 5811 for per capita apportionment. That's That right there is $13 million. So, I'm trying to pinpoint where these numbers came from, but I also don't want to spend too much time in the past, and I want to move forward. Right. No, no, yeah, you got to move forward, and I know that Weaver

107just got hired recently, right? Uh I'm I'm just going to do it cuz I want to air it. It was supposed to be January, but I'm thank thank you for Yeah, he's already on board. They're doing their They're They're going to go to the past, right? But my question here is though is it look, I want to cut to the chase of having real discussions because we're we we should have had real discussions back in August and September, right? CarWiz already reported in 24-25 that last year with that $24.5 million deficit, 14.5 with salaries that were not reported, right? They carried over. And then we And we gave raises. We gave stipends. 25-26, right? I'm not trying to beat a dead horse here, but we need to Now, all of us together really start working

108toward this. So, 25-26, same thing happened again. Nobody Nobody knew or we're going to figure out what happened, right? Now with that Weaver report, but at the end of the day, CarWiz said millions of dollars were transferred, right? At the end at the spring of '24 of 2024 from the '24 '25 school year, millions of dollars were transferred from the fund balance to take care of negatives, right? Pay for negatives. That's a fact. I got the documents, too. They're Now they're in our packet. So, that happened, okay? Before we approved this year's budget. So, we approved this year's budget and then we gave raises and stipends. And I hear and I hear my fellow trustees, you know, and I or I hear just other people make comments of well, other districts and other districts. Well,

109other districts reported negatives, right? Other districts were honest and said, "Hey, I think this is where we're going to be at the end of the year." We didn't. We said we had no negatives, we had no issues, and we had no problems, and then we gave millions in stipends away to staff, and we gave them very large raises. Right? And then we start spending money out of our savings on projects that I understand some people have the mentality of well, they're investments. Well, buses they need to get replaced in 6 years and turf and all those things have a lifespan, a shelf span, right? So, my main thing is here is that Carl Riggs already told us we did, "Hey, you all need to start looking at staffing and not attrition because we're one of

110the highest paid districts in the valley. So, we don't have a lot of people that are looking for the door because they're making more money than they ever have, you know, before." So, we just need to really, really start looking at structure. And I'm talking about '26 '27 cuz this year I I think unless somebody makes a decision, you're going to have to give everybody contracts. You're already in April, right? And um unless you all have some other type of plan, but I don't think you're going to do that. I I called for it uh I called for it in the in the fall that we needed to to look at positions that we could possibly let go. I know that that's not favorable. But, the reality is we need to know what is going

111to be the math what's going to be the hit this year, the multi-million dollar hit to our fund balance. Cuz as soon as we as soon as you sign those contracts, you're carrying all that over to next year. And how much is going to be left at the end of this year with the expected overage next year. You see what I'm saying? So, 52 if you take away 20, you're left with 32. Are we looking at another 20 next year? Cuz then that'll put us at 12. How are we as a district going to have the same amount of money as a as a 4A when we're 16,000 strong? You know, there's a there's a 4A school a a 5A school that has that's 4,000 students and has 17 million. How are we going to

112have less? That's the problem That's the point I want to avoid. I know we're having some reimbursements for construction. I know that's going to come up as a topic, but that doesn't pay payroll. That's just going to reimburse some of the projects. In other words, we're going to reimburse ourselves for stuff we bought that we shouldn't have spent on just but then spend it on on on more expenses, right? So, we need to get We need to start looking and being realistic here, right? As difficult as the discussion is is to let's start looking at structures, avoiding being responsible trustees, and avoiding things that will impact our academic strength, right? Cuz we're the we're the best We're the most powerful academic institution in our town. All right. So, now we just got to get to

113the financial issue of it. So, not touching campuses, not touching transportation, maintenance, nutrition, all those directly impact students. What else is in our school district, right? That we need to start looking at. Because those are those are 26 27 real talks. For whoever's here, whether it's Dr. Rivera or an interim or whatever the case may be, those are going to have to have be real discussions as soon as we get into next year. Cuz by cuz we're going to have real figures pretty soon. So, is it >> it. So, as as I continue on this one, that's actually like what I'm sorry. The 5 to 7 million on the insurance, is that in the deficit or is That is not in the deficit. And that's worst-case scenario because current numbers projected using the health claim

114trends that Dr. Ganthu has shared with Mr. Dubois, we're looking at about 4.1 right now. So, that's like 5 to 7 is worst-case scenario. And those those numbers Mr. Dubois had provided right before we came over. So. So, I do want to add the current year-end projections that you have there you're going to be seeing several budget amendments coming in April. Correct. >> So, that that's going to be coming up in order to reflect that and that's what we've been working closely with our budget department over there on there with those amendments. >> And in that deficit, do you do you already have summer school and do you have like those summer programs the cuz I know a lot of districts what they do is off revenue they'll go ahead and then plan summer. Like

115okay, we already ended up the year we already shut down purchase orders and whatnot in in April or we you're you're still approving but you're kind of screening everything and then you use that money for summer. Those are districts that are kind of strapped that don't budget summer because they don't have the money at times. Uh summer school >> summer already budgeted? Yes. It was? Because I know I was getting told and I'm a and I felt bad cuz I'm a trustee and people are telling me well there's no summer school this year. I thought there was. >> like our summer school is We are having a summer school program? Mhm. They went out last week. And then an academic one as well? Yes, correct. That's actually academic. Athletic piece we're still working on that.

116Correct? Summer athletics summer rec is still being worked on. But that's already in the 13.2. I don't think so. I think summer >> out of our our state fund. No, but summer rec we're speaking of summer rec. That's what I'm saying you cuz if you see We we're saying what's budgeted like we need to make sure Academic summer school has been budgeted. >> Okay, and it is going to be okay. I want the community to know that because it was even on social media but I don't respond on there right but But Yeah, I thought we weren't having summer school either so thanks for clearing that up. Well, there were some school districts up north that were not having summer school because they were major deficit and they couldn't afford the summer school. So, that's

117something. But that's that's kind of where I want to stay. And a lot of what Mr. De Los Santos has shared it's this tonight's workshop one is more diving into 25-26 briefly touching on 26-27. As we move forward with the next three four budget workshops however many we need to have we will dive more deeply into the concerns and the questions that you Thank you. And at one at one of those workshops you're going to have a plan for us to address? Yes, this is a very brief plan right here that I'm sharing with you guys. Um and I know like Mr. De Los Santos mentioned right now, he doesn't want to see attrition. He doesn't want to see a lot of these, but this is currently what we're looking at. And more in-depth reviews

118are going to be done as we move forward with the next few workshops. As we as we input those numbers in the templates for 26-27 and actually look at what we're looking at with our our ADA, our allotments, all of those numbers we'll be able to dive in to this plan of action a little more thoroughly. I'd also like to because when I saw the plan of action, everything was like take away this, take away this, take away this. But I'm thinking, for example, CTE. Can we get more funding? Do Do we need more teachers? Because a lot of I know a lot of kids who wanted to be in certain programs that weren't able to sign into those because we didn't have enough teachers, right? Or or something like that. So, I want to

119also think about not just what are we taking away, away, but what can we give to our students or our teachers or our classrooms or our schools that can help bring in money also. Not just take away, but what can we do to give them more of You know what I mean? Yes. And on your slide as well, too. Um And I think we should have a a topic on CTE because with like I don't know Trustee Sustaita, she's on it, right? As far as I understand what she's saying. But there's also additional funding, there's that bonus money that you get in CTE as well, too. If they hit their IBCs, they hit their their TSI they take their TSI test, they get their IBCs. There's districts that are making millions, smaller than Weslaco ISD,

120and they're bringing in millions. And there's a sheet there for my fellow trustees that has a breakdown of all the districts. It's all It's based on a two-year cycle. Right? The results are from two years prior. So, I mean, I'm talking about millions. And this money is for CTE to utilize. And I think it also falls under the percentage basis for the school district, right? On a 45-55 split. And and we are like I'm talking about uh I'm talking about we're very we're we're we're not hitting those bonus numbers. That's where those completers come in. Right. Yes, the completers. And and so, that's really unfortunate. And it's millions per year that we're missing out. Um And here, look, I love it I like the word attrition, believe me, especially right now. Um but so don't

121So, I do, ma'am. But I know there's other options and other other routes that we're probably going to have to take. That's what that's what I'm getting to. I know we're avoiding the discussion, but it is. But uh 16 professional retirements and resignations, okay? Show me like a number. Like for me, as a trustee, you're showing me that we're >> dollar amount? Yeah, a dollar amount. >> amount we have These Roughly 1.5 million, conservatively. >> Right. Yeah, but like maybe I should put it because you have the actuals. On summer school, is that for elementary as well or just high school or secondary? No, we have elementary, our bilingual and our summer program is still running, and our special ed as well. Okay, thank you. >> Yes. Sorry for Sorry for going back. No, no

122worries. We're informed since September and multiple times throughout the year. Okay, thank you. Okay, all different canceled. Go ahead. Okay. Um and so, yes, I know Mr. Sayed I mentioned like cut cut cut cut, but these are just the overview of what we're looking at. Of course, there's more in-depth uh reviews that we have to do, and we have to really dive into that. And again, a collaborative effort over multiple departments and uh stakeholders. Well, on contracts, we don't have to make a decision till May. You could You could push that back until we absolutely have to 10 days before the last day of instruction. So, yeah, so while you're while we're planning for these budget workshops and you're planning for different plans. I mean, I don't think you take anything off the table. Mhm.

123Right. And on the reduction of departments, uh reduction of department budgets, like I said, this is a this I don't want to How do I word this? >> in the bucket. Yeah, well, that I mean, you got hourly staff, okay? Hourly staff I'm talking about nutrition, transportation, maintenance. I don't want them to be forced to take comp time, okay? When especially when you got gas at $4 a you know, almost at $4 a gallon and whatnot, and realistically you were giving time and a half or you were giving them those opportunities. I don't want them to fall in a situation where it's take comp time. Okay, you don't want to take it, well now I'm going to just change your schedules or any of those type of things going on because that is not going

124to put a dent in the fact that you have multi-million dollar salary issue, okay? So, doing that to those departments, especially our hourly staff, when they get 4% raises, it's not like a person makes $100,000, okay? If I'm making $18 an hour and I get a 4% raise, it's nothing compared to somebody like that. So, that's not happening to anybody else, it shouldn't be happening to them. That's kind of what I'm I want to put out there, okay? And that's also the the same reason that I was so kind of vocal in the insurance during the insurance portion. You know, $998 going up to $1,300 for a family policy, $400? That's huge a month for somebody Okay, that's making hourly. Even if they're making $28 or $30 an hour, that's still going to be an

125impact. So, those are the things I just want considered. You don't or like when you're talking about reductions, not not not not like that, I guess. That's something the That's just the way I feel about that. That's more on the supply side. >> Right. Yeah, our supplies, and that's why I said it's more of a drop in the bucket, but it's something we're looking at. >> Okay. Um and then of course letter E there on the like you mentioned on the resolution and and reimbursing ourselves for previous projects that were done with our interest and bond proceeds. That is something that we are still working very closely with on bond council financial advisers. I reached out to CRI to make sure that this is done properly. Um and that we don't get dinged on this

126next year with our audit. So, we're making sure that everything is is actually stamped with the green light before we do anything um with that. So, that is something that will um Oh, that's what Susan said that reminded me of. When she was talking it just clicked to me. 25-26 budget, we were told that the I want to know the date. We were told that the the 25-26 budget was developed based on the TASB report. I think that's what we were being told in our board meetings. That there was a TASB report done. The salaries? I need to go back and look at what they said. They said, "Well, this When I challenged the budget for 25-26, I was told and it's all recorded. I'll go back and check. We had said, "Well, we received

127we based the budget development based off of this." That's what That's what I was told by the administration. The salary piece? The actual budget for 25-26 was based off of a TASB or somebody. I forgot who they said. So, I need to go back and verify with you. I'll share it with with the board president and Dr. Davila, I'll go back to the meeting. It was in July. July 2025 when I called for a special board meeting and in August. What we used from TASB is the salary um the salary study. >> Right. And so, they said that they used the salary study. So, you said that all these different reports and things are used. When was this They told me that the 25-26 budget was developed also utilizing the salary study from TASB and

128that there was no salary overage, right? So, that that was it That's That's my recollection of the recorded meeting that was that was there and I was in it. So, my question to you is I want to know when was that When was that report received? Because they have to send it to you. When was the TASB salary study received? Was it I want to say we got preliminary numbers in Was it May? Dr. Rodriguez, can you verify? Yes, it was May and then uh I have one more question. I'm just talking about the budget and I have this here with me. I want to know about TEA. So, when we when we set our budget, right? Let's say like the census block, the state comp, I mean Yes, the TE TEA updates the census

129block to your mapping each spring. So, my question is when they update that is it kind of like, "Surprise, this was your budget, guys, but we're TEA, so we're going to change the weights on you." Is that what happens during the year? That they don't it's just when we begin our budgets It's a different time period. it's adopted this is what it is and then they can say, "Oh, guess what? We're going to change it." Does that happen? In reference to this census block, yes. Yes. So, we as you mentioned earlier, the different tiers in the funding that represent that. Our tiers changed, right? And not to benefit us in funding, but basically, again, like you said, level one the lowest in funding, level five we did not have as many level fours and fives.

130Right. So, therefore, that came in the block, all of a sudden, that's where we're continuing to go through and look at those finance templates, the revenues did not materialize there. It just seems so I just now I'm I guess I'm just in shock like, "What?" Because it's like saying um I'm going to give you $20 to buy I don't know, makeup. And then you get there, oh, guess what? I'm it's $25, not 20. It They can do that to school districts? Obviously, they can, right? It's kind of like what happened with us. It's not like I don't think it's like that. >> mean they changed the weights. THAT'S THE WAY YOU'RE MAKING IT SEEM. It's not like to where you That's what I'm asking. Explain to me cuz I don't get it. Look, your your

131salary, kind of like Carr Riggs, broke it down, but you weren't here. They broke it down for you. Your your deficit is based on the fact that you had staff that rolled over from 23-24 then 24-25. The only reason your bubble your your The only reason it's not bigger because you have been receiving additional funding from the state. You did have funding increases from 23-24 then 24-25 and 25-26. You've had increases in funding from the state every year so the fact is it's just you just have a bubble kind of like Carbrick said it too at that presentation. They can go back to that one and the they did a preliminary in December, they did the final January. But there they said it's that bubble you're carrying over of salaries that you didn't disclose. You

132had hundreds of teachers if you It's it's really the the instructional period that came through. I'll show it to you. I have it here. It's in our board packet but from the past but you had a massive influx of overhead costs. But the board didn't know, right? That's that's kind of been my whole argument here. We weren't told and then everybody else says they didn't know either but that's your issue. It's not so much the state funding and the reductions. We can't say that and make it to that point. >> Mr. de los Santos and Mr. Stave, I can kind of like and and the administration can correct me if I'm wrong but when Region 1 came in it was I believe like early February they said, "Okay, let's look at what you approved, right?

133What was projected for state comp was basically similar numbers to last year but when the census block information because we're we are a district that adopts early in by July 1 so we approved, right? Early on in the year for in the school year." He says, "So one of once the census block came in they're like, "You came in at you know, from what we could see from what you approved, you know, this many millions, right? So you have to then go back and adjust, right? So So that is how we received the census information and it doesn't only impact our funding but it impacts our accountability because if you recall even just filling out income surveys August 1 when we can start collecting them, that, you know, principals were sharing in our early September

134meeting, oh my god, we're seeing a lot of the income surveys not qualify anymore as ED. Right, economically disadvantaged which then impacts our accountability as well. And I know it's not the whole reason for the deficit, but it's a little it's a little something that's important because it adds up. >> Yeah, your your your revenues were inflated, ma'am. It was even shown by Carl Riggs. Your revenues were inflated, but your salary, your employee costs were were deep were minimized. Right. So, I said I'm making all this money, all this extra money's coming in, right? Go to back to May 21st. >> on the census block information. Well, and that's what I'm following up with. I'm trying to answer her question because she missed those meetings, right? And they were they were important to have a

135lot of info. But the facts are is her revenue was overstated, and then salaries were not projected and stated properly. Okay? >> Right, which is the the table on slide >> Right. You had 23-24, you had 70.78.9 million dollars just in your instructional category, right? 24-25, it was 101.2 million. Nobody was told about that, right? That's a big jump from 78.9 to final budgeted numbers at 101.2, correct? >> we ended. Okay? And then and then it of course you gave raises, it came up even higher, right? Projected at 105.9 in 25-26. That's kind of what I'm like I'm trying to answer a question because you're saying, what do we need to do or how did we get here? The answer is simple. You We gave raises and stipends when we shouldn't have, and and we

136haven't reduced staff, and in in fact we increased it. We we added positions to the compensation plan. We went we hired in 24-25, and we hired more in 25-26. And so, this is where we're at. You're in a staffing issue. You can you can shut down departments, you can you can cut off POs, you can freeze accounts, but the reality is you're going to have to do what everybody else did, which was the right thing, right? Is a restructuring and and a reduction in staff. We're not going to do it this year because we're out of time. But what we actually did this year since September to now, we have reduced staff. Staff that have left, we didn't replace them. Right. But but that's what I'm saying, but it's been a handful. Mhm. You need

137millions. So, that's the reality and the hard the hard truth. And and um that's kind of why I wanted this workshop because we have to just Yeah, we talked about it in our governance and in private, but we also need to let our staff know change is coming, right? In '26, '27. And and three more budget workups probably at the Thank you. And and I'm going to say I don't think it's like he said it's very simple. I I think it's very complicated because all over Texas you have more than 68% of public school districts that are in a deficit. >> Correct. So, if it was something so simple as oh, we just overpaid them, everybody would be able to fix it right away. It is very complicated with everything going on with the legislature,

138with the change of laws, with all these programs. It It is quite complicated. That's my opinion. Can I give a Can I respond to that real quick? rebuttal. Hays ISD, right? That was sent by a trustee on a on a group chat saying, "Look at Hays ISD, they're reduction they're reducing 100 plus 100 plus staff members, etc. and all this." But if you go research Hays ISD, they've been reporting a negative operating budget since 2016. Not even COVID helped them. And they and they have been accumulating that to the point that now it's at this size, kind of like not exactly like ours, but similar to ours. But they've reported every single year. Every single district has out there in the state of Texas has Yes. budget issues. But a lot of them to say

139that they a lot of them reported negatives, right? Mission ISD reported neg- negative 17 million, right? Before they started their year. We the problem here, and which is the part that as a taxpayer and a parent, I I I do feel that part does kind of make me emotional to the point that I get upset, is that you said you didn't have a problem. You said you had a surplus. And then on top of that, you you you said you had a surplus and then you went and gave raises, 24-25, almost 6.something million dollars in in stipends. And plus raises, you did it again 25-26. That's why I'm just trying to tell everybody, we need to really That's what I was trying to say since August. We need to halt the brakes. I even offered

140myself. And what I mean by that is I said I made the phone calls to President Nieto and to Lilibeth. I had I called the special board meeting with all my trustees and gave them documentation in July and August. And I told them, "Let's roll back stipends. You can blame me. I'll be the first one to say it." Heck, I was even saying let's roll back salaries, right? Just to loan lessen the blow because the more you roll back, the more people's jobs you save in the future, right? Less people that you have to cut or close or positions that make it harder for departments and for campuses. You're barely feeling the beginning of what's coming, right? This everyone was a little shocked, right, going into December and then they're now their departments are feeling

141it when they had POs and a freeze come into place and you're barely starting to what's coming. The only reason I know cuz I went through it. And a lot of other districts in the valley did it, too. So, I don't want it to kind of be like, "Well, we're going to sprinkle some stuff on it and make it look like it's not serious." It's massive. Everybody else said they had a problem. We didn't. And then we made it worse. And that's a reality cuz nobody financially will tell you opposite. That's it. That's all I want to say. I want to All right, let's continue. Okay. Let's finish. Next slide, enrollment data. This is pretty much where now we're also kind of recapping everything we've already kind of hit on enrollment data. We're down about

142319 um from March to March, March 25th to March 26th. Um so, that's that's a big piece. We're also we're projecting right now enrollment for 26-27 at 15.6, but as these workshops go on and enrollment continues, we'll have updated numbers to see if we're going to stay at 15.6 or um you know, need to change that number. That 319 variance there um when you multiply by a basic allotment amount of $6,000, just rounding, um that's almost like 1.9 million, 1.8 million there that we're looking in just basic allotment not counting for the complicated weighted piece that that you mentioned. So, this is actually um the drop in enrollment there that we're that we're facing. And again, continuing to, you know, we're we're looking at that declining enrollment and um you know, other districts, everyone like

143you mentioned, everybody across the state is feeling it. Um, there's many different issues um contributing to this issue. Uh vouchers, virtual schools, and then of course the immigration concerns. That's the declining birth rates was huge, you know, I I see that happening quite a bit, you know, a lot of the families nowadays are stopping at one, two two kids and that's a huge thing. The plan for next year, if you can see on this page, the enrollment is 15 six. Regardless of whatever has been discussed, deficit, that we should be able to take care of. We have to staff 15 six. We just can't go out there and reduce teachers and then not have teachers for the 15 six. It's simple. Can't. Whatever Whatever needs to be done, we have to have teachers for 15,600

144students. Correct. >> And we will. But I'm not going to go out there and just reduce staff and not give contracts out to balance the budget. Can't do that. I'm going to staff 15 six. But what >> What what Dr. I agree with you, but what I would I would like to see as a trustee is when we're coming up with a plan of action to work on reducing the deficit. It's going to take a couple of years. It's not going to be done in one year, right? But if we have options to see what it looks like uh from the most severe to not as severe, but getting us to where we need to be, I think that would be very helpful for the board. I got it. Uh But I got it. But

145on page six, we're not going to hire 16-hour day. And we're still going to continue not hiring people as they resign or retire. But again, I understand. But we still have to find staff at the 15-6. But my thing is when I think I saw the last board meeting I wasn't at, you guys were talking about reducing teachers. And I thought to myself, wait, that's the last people you want to let go of because they're the ones that are in there with the kids. If you can have a I've always been about this. If you have a smaller class size, I know it's going to cost more because you're going to need, you know, less more more teachers for smaller classes. But I see it as an investment like human capital. Those kids are going

146to be performing a lot better. Um when they have those smaller class sizes. And I think a lot of us I hadn't been a teacher since 2016. When I went back last year, unless you're in the classroom, unless you're there and can you don't have a connection to reality, to what's going on unless you put yourself in those shoes. And I can tell you it's really really hard right now to to do to do great things. And a lot of people do, that's awesome. But it's it's a challenge, very challenging. So, getting rid of teachers like Dr. Rivera said, we want to we don't want to get rid of people, right? He wants to staff the 15,600. And if that means having smaller class sizes for me, that I would be agreeable to that. Now,

147people say, "Well, you're top heavy. There's a lot of people at central office." And there's a Well, then maybe we can look some other departments. But the last department that I would want to touch is teachers um getting out of the classroom. >> Yeah, yeah. Anything having to do with student direct student instruction. Right. And the George Lopez and I getting kids in there doing a great job. I see them all the time trying to get the kids registered and come on in. That I think totally has been helping also. Right. Right. I'm going The staff are going to reduce, but it's not just teachers. It's everyone. It's across, including administrators. Okay. >> I I got some resources. I just walked in late, but I saw that I started researching staff reductions, right? Reduction in

148forces. Because well, that's usually where you go if you don't have enough attrition, right? And also when you don't have a fund balance, that's the main thing. If you don't have a savings that you can tap into, then what do you do? And And 30 million isn't a lot. 40 million isn't a lot in a district like ours, so it chips away real quick, especially when you're knocking it by quarters, like 20 million. So that's why I'm saying I'm in agreement with with Trustee Steita that the last people you touch is your campuses and your departments, because that's how you're academically successful. And um with your ADA, I don't know what you're going to do, but I I wish you all the best, right? As you guys look at 26-27. So That's our next slide.

149ADA ADAs are next slide right here. Um again, for 25-26, we started out budgeted at 14 five. Our current uh summary of finance updated this month is 14 348. Uh we're going to amend um for we'll submit for approval for you guys in uh with our April board meeting to amend the budget down to 14 280. So we're going to bring it down conservatively. Uh a lot of the concerns that you know, Mr. Steita had like on the how how can we how can TEA do that to us and um Mr. Lozano, so you know, at the same time saying uh that piece on on where we know, you know, where where the bulk of our expenses are. The it starts with a conservative budget, and that's where we're going to look at for next

150year. We're going to look at um initially budgeting at 14,000 for our ADA, but if trends continue to decline with enrollment, uh of course that number may go lower. We're going to We're going to start with a a very conservative number uh for 26-27, and it may not be pretty. It may not be, you know, uh may not be a balanced budget, you know, we don't know. Um but depending So you do budget for 14,000 or whatever it may be, you budget conservatively, and if it's higher, at what point does TEA give us the extra money if our ADA's higher? Well, the beauty of next year is a lot of this information will be extracted real time month to month. Every Every month. >> that this year. >> Correct. So, this year all this year

151and years past we've had to wait until all these numbers get updated based on our PEIMS submissions. So, March um this month was actually the first month that it got updated. Our allotments and our numbers got updated this fiscal year. So, we were blindly flying the plane all year until this month um where where we actually had a better picture of where we were at. >> Well, that gives a little clearer picture as to how we reduced our revenues that much. Right. Hence this why we're taking them. Why we we are bringing >> taking the amendments to April. a huge amendment. Yeah, we we were going to bring an amendment in February, but that would have been solely on projections and on estimates. We were going to attempt again in March, but we said I,

152you know, myself, the budget team, cabinet, we we decided let's wait till April until we have these accurate figures from TEA, these more updated solid numbers. You know, and TEA, like I when I read up into that change, it said it took it's a positive thing cuz they did it because districts were not the board members, school boards were not receiving accurate data from from administrations, right? And that was the reason that TEA took the initiative to do that. So, now they're following up and checking up even more. It's like >> that to be known to the public as well. >> not just Weslaco ISD, just for the record. There's a There's a few others, I wouldn't say all 68, right? But there's a few others out there that have run into problems and trouble

153with the that, you know. So, where they didn't disclose that they had negatives when they did. So, you will see at at our April meeting um you know, again, the amendment based on the adjusted ADA numbers, and then uh of course the recognition of our our campuses that did reach that almost that 95% uh percentage in ADA. Um so that Any questions on ADA? No. Uh the high school's concerning, I know West Waco High usually does really good. I don't know what West Waco East what can be done to increase that ADA, but uh like I I just posted on Facebook, I have a senior and she doesn't want to go to school anymore. She thinks school's done. But it just the the kids just don't really feel like going to school and I want

154something more motivating and positive for them. So I know we got to work on West Waco East because that number is low, 92.6%. You What are What about I'm thinking of what she's saying right now about kids going to school. When kids are absent, this is kind of the backdrop. Like if my child's absent, but then you Google Classroom or whatever it is they use, right? They they Google Classroom the work. And then they're given opportunity also to make up the hours like attendance recovery. K- Kids catch on real quick. Like I'm I'm not saying this is the case here, but Okay, my child's absent, but they're still passing with an A. Well, how? You're kind of getting You're You're going You're getting to see the movie without buying the ticket. You see what I'm

155saying? Right. And and so when you're saying, "Well, they're out, but we don't want them to fail either, so we send them the work home." My kids you know, not mine, but others will start catching on. My But mine is sometimes like, "Dad, I don't want to go. We're not doing it." Or whatever the case like that. They're not engaged. What I'm trying to say is in general, are we doing that? And and have you studied that? Like, "Hey, you guys are kids are chronically absent, but yet you're they're still passing with an A or a B. Well, how?" You know? Because if they were in school, they would have they they would be getting They would How are they passing if they're not in school? And how are they making up their attendance like

156as far as to promotion and graduation? Like does that have an impact? >> of those. I don't I mean I don't know. I don't Not not your child, but I'm just saying in general. >> in general. I don't think as a W- W- Would that be an impact that maybe you might see where you're losing attendance in some schools or your attendance percentage >> It's a chronic patterns that are constantly changing uh that we update. >> Yeah. It's a revolving door that we're looking and we're looking at our Sassy. Um And again, you know, we're we're we're working with our students to give them that opportunity. You know, and at the end, you know, the teachers are going to have the final say. Yeah. You know, they're the ones that They decide to send it.

157Okay, send it. Yeah. And now we have on the on the parent portal and shout out to Dr. Sid who who who I think she kind of worked with Carlos Martinez to come up with if your child is absent, you go to the parent portal, you can put the the reason why. And does it count as an like excused absence cuz the parent is kind of sending the note or it doesn't? Um I don't know that. I'm not sure. So again, no. Remember, I think we've talked about this before. Excuse >> purposes. Right. Excused and unexcused doesn't impact funding. Right? >> The only difference is it gives you a valid reason for being out. But like Mr. De Los Santos just mentioned, our teachers work with our students to give them every opportunity to have

158academic success. >> Right. So again, maybe in the end, yes, it may hurt us some average daily attendance-wise, but they are working with our young people at all levels from pre-K all the way through our seniors to have academic success. If you can take a look, you'll notice that the 14,348 ADA is not a terribly bad number considering if you look at the reduction in enrollment. The schools have done a strong job percentage-wise. Believe it or not, we we get horrified when we see our high schools at 92 and 1/2% That number is a really strong high school number if you look across historically other high schools. In addition to that, our Flex Op, or as Mr. Aguilar said, our Sassy, they've done a tremendous job this year. We have identified more students in the

159Flex Op. We are getting full credit for those flex ops students. So, that's been one thing that has been very successful. And again, we're going to see where we're at in these fifth and then sixth marking periods. But again, we're hoping at least hang at this number or close to it. And I would feel that we've done a very good job because again, that overall 94.73% there's been a lot of good work that's been done to get to there. Yeah, 122 kids or 100 what is it 100 and yeah, it's that's what it is. It's a it's just 100 something kids. That's really nothing like in the loss of funding. It's not even a million dollars. No, for the work that's been done to get it there's been a lot of people that should be

160commended. Mhm. And to clarify for funding purposes cuz I remember we went back and forth on emails with this. It does say on the handbook the student attendance for funding purposes if your child is out because of these certain reasons, then it you it won't count against us. Correct. That does not hurt us. Which I just want to tell parents if you're out for a college trip that you're going to take your kids to go see a college or if you're at court or some kind of religion, there's those certain exceptions. I hope parents I don't want to put out there and say, "Hey, use this if your kid is is absent." But But there are reasons that can be excused. Yes. Um so, that's really important also to check up on with those kids.

161Good point. Okay. Let's continue. Next slide, uh potential revenues. So, moving into to finish out the year, that is, you know, one way that our deficit would decrease is if these potential revenues increase. Um so, we're looking at of course that sale of property that has been mentioned in previous meetings. Uh looking at increasing maximizing the ADA over that 14,000. Looking at interest earned from fund balance that is currently sitting in the pools. Uh utilizing maximum pretty much maximum utilization of grants in any way possible and then potential liquidated damages from the construction projects that we currently are having uh they're going on. And then of course energy savings um through new roofing HVAC district-wide district-wide HVAC control. So these are a few potential revenues that we're looking at um that may help this deficit

162uh through the fiscal year end. I can add G grants. So we can look at as many grants as we can and we have a grant writer, right, who's working on that. I have been contacted by some people, "Hey, we do grants." I give it to Dr. Zubeda. I don't know. From there I don't know what happens. But that and improving CTE uh maybe having more kids in the program, getting us a couple more revenues. Those are two that I would like to add. And computers. Yeah, we we we've looked at a few other um areas that we can And again, as we move on through these workshops, we'll have more in-depth information available to you guys for this. >> All right. Okay. Uh now again, remember I mentioned earlier, we're just going to briefly

163touch on 26-27. Um as we move along, we'll have more in-depth information available for you. Uh looking at no new state funding. This of course health insurance budget impact that was discussed earlier in the um of course the attrition of staff may continue based on the enrollment loss that we're looking at you know, at uh with those enrollment trends. So just very briefly on 26-27, as we dive into the 26-27 template, looking at any um new information that comes our way. I know um yes, we had received other uh revenues in the past, but those were like from our property value audits. Those were still pending. Those are not included in any of the current um revenues that are projected for 25-26. So there's a lot of there's a lot still to um move through

164with 25-26 and 26-27. Are you in those insurance meetings? Um no not the committee meetings, no. I have not been there. Okay. Now, I again kind of going back I just think we need to be super aggressive on our health insurance. To me, that's low-hanging fruit. Uh the way it's modeled, the way it's designed, pharmacy, all that stuff. I've We've met with a few uh vendors that you'll get more information on as the next few insurances workshops come on. Um that'll help with There's There's a vendor I know that Dr. Ben Thuy brought to meet with us on the pharmacy side. Um there was another vendor that was brought to us on direct medical care. So, those uh we have some options that will be coming to you as the next workshops continue. And if

165I can just piggyback off of Trustee, I'm just putting it out there. I mean, you're talking I don't want to talk talk, but I want to put on record, right? That's how you get things noted. I would like to see all those vendors and things like that, too. Like where the board should be seeing those things, too. Not just committees, but It's just that with the health insurance, with the RFP talk and all that, it is right now we have to There's a process. Right. Oh. It's a process. Have we gone out yet? No, not yet, sir. No. Um okay, and then just the last slide, we have our tentative budget workshops. Um tonight again, it's just an update and a preview on 26 27. We're looking at tentative date of All these dates are

166a week before our normal uh board meeting for the month. So, these are just tentative. Uh we'll have them a more of course thorough update on 25 26, and then 26 27 will be a little more in-depth uh based on where we're at, you know, with the tax rates, budgets. Um so, by 4/13 though, we still will not have certified property estimates yet for our taxes, so that'll still be a little overview on 26 27. And then for workshop three, we're looking at a little more in-depth on 26 27 after those certified tax values come in and then of course for 25 26 looking at more on the enrollment and staffing update on and that plan of action that we've been discussing all this evening. So you the adoption 71, right? Uh it would be

167for July 1. So Yes. >> Do you have so like workshop three and workshop four if you could put on there start looking at you know plan of actions and and options for the board. >> plan of actions will be on there and and like you mentioned there like we'll have the different options and if we do this, this is what we're looking at and so forth. >> And again, it's not going to be fixed in one year, but we need to start trending in the right direction. >> Right. Right. I know we used to adopt our budget in August, right? Yeah, we changed our plan year. I don't know what happened. >> Yeah, I remember what I remember, but is it something to look into? Should we go back to to August when or

168in July? >> That That has been discussed um and and it would actually We would take a uh We would take a fund balance hit to switch back. >> Yeah. That's why a lot of districts switched Yeah. right in the first place. Yeah, for the money saving. Yeah. It is harder to project a lot of these numbers as a July 1 fiscal year. So that is where um you know a lot of these It's like yeah, that's where a lot of the >> effort has to come in. I'm sorry. No, and then you like I said, we'll do what everybody else was doing. Like I mean, they were going off of old formula. Like before the formula changed, they just went off of the old formula and then they had the increase. That was the

169safest bet rather than like kind of shooting in the wind and saying you know, we're going to make 169 million and realistically it was a massive drop, wasn't even close. So a lot of other districts they did that. That's just my suggestion. And but you're not going to have a formula change. So now you know exactly what your more or less your formula is. Yeah. So looking at starting off the year with a conservative budget and with these real life numbers coming into play next fiscal year, it'll be updated more frequently and more accurately. Well, thank you for the information. >> Yes, thank you. Yes, thank you so much. And for the April 13th, you wanted uh some presenters, correct? Yeah, I I mean, from for me, I would like to see the what was

170presented to the insurance committee so we could vet them as well. Yes, I mean, whoever's But it's a workshop anyway, so That to me, it's just yeah, like companies, whatever whatever they're getting, just kind of make sure that the flow of information is 100% accurate and everything like that and just reviewing things. It's just verification. It's our second biggest budget expenditure. And you're showing me it's one of the biggest negatives. That's kind Okay, with that with that 13th. All right, anything else? Any final questions? Dr. Vera? We can do it for the 13th. Yes. For the 13th. Thank you, doc, for putting the information out there. All right, uh Lone Star Governance is 7:35. We'll move on to that and then after the we finish LSG, then we'll adjourn. Okay. >> Mhm.