001I would like to call the March 5th, 2026 uh budget work session um to order. Um like to have Miss Johnson call the role. >> Mr. Daniels >> here. >> Dr. Hubot >> here. Miss Dobson >> here. >> Mr. Hill >> here. >> Mr. Hullbrook >> here. >> Mr. KS >> here. >> Miss Pervvis >> here. >> Mr. Chairman, you have a quorum. >> Thank you. We're going to go to 1.03, which is approval of the agenda. Do I have a motion to the appro to approve uh today's agenda? So move motion by Dr. Huba. Have >> a second. >> Second by m Miss Pervvis. Any discussion? All those in favor signify by saying I. I. >> Any opposed? Agenda is approved. Uh 2.01. Then for discussion the uh fiscal year 2627 budget. Mr. Dupair.
002>> Thank you. Now, welcome to the Bedford County Schoolboard budget work session tonight where the proposed initiatives are designed to address critical operational and educational needs for the 2627 fiscal year. These key priorities focus on maintaining competitive staffing, fostering student development, and ensuring a safe learning environment. [clears throat] Tonight, I will lay the groundwork that we can collectively agree upon and prioritize as a sustainable school budget for FY2627 that considers the school division's mandatory requirements of havetos and needs within the county's fiscal realities, ensuring student success while maintaining budgetary responsibility. Some of the initiatives discussed tonight will involve a two-year plan to enable full funding and implementation. As I stated, key priorities driving these goals include havetos and needs. Top havetos [snorts] or musthaves identified as addressing inflationary cost, factoring in rising insurance premiums, matching
003state salary increases, including step raises, and preparing for reversion in FY28. The top needs identified are increasing employee compensation over the state recommendation to ensure our salaries are competitive in the region, funding to remain to maintain SRO's on all campuses, initiate an elementary ISS program and strategic strategic considerations which include comparing and measuring efficiencies necessary to balance the budget without compromising core educational services. This proposed budget addresses these initiatives found within the goals of the Bedford County Public School strategic framework and that are vital to the success of our projected educational outcomes and academic growth of our student body. Strategic one high academic expectations. BCPS now ranks 31st out of 131 divisions in academic achievement based on test scores for FY 24 and 25. This notable improvement has seen VCPS drive climb from 105th in
004the state's academic ratings to 31st in 13 years. And this is a true testament to the dedication of our teachers and academic leaders. Moving forward, BCPS will continue to pursue its vision and mission statements for academic excellence, thus providing equal opportunities to enable all students to think creatively, collaborate, critic, think critically, communicate, and become productive citizens, promoting success in Bedford County and beyond for years to come. It is imperative that if we are going to maintain this excellence that the following initiatives must be implemented. Strategic goal number two, safe and supportive learning environments. This includes two initiatives. Initiative one is BCPS and the Bedford County Sheriff's Office currently have SRO's assigned across 19 campuses uh through a safety grant. With the recent expiration of grant funding, it is my intention to continue this vital and
005needed resource. The BCPS proposed budget for FY2627 will take on the full cost of 13 elementary SRO's and one additional SRO at [clears throat] the Susie G. Gibson Science and Technology Center. Initiative two in this goal is funding for elementary inschool suspens suspension support. Currently only our secondary schools have a designated ISS. When elementary principles want to keep children in school, but these students need to be removed from class, administration and support staff are used to monitor and work with the student. This support will assist teachers and principles working on [clears throat] regulating behaviors for elementary students. The program will keep atrisisk students in school to complete work, prevent total ex uh exclusion, and provide time to address underlying behavioral issues. While assistance is greatly needed with individual children, we will try to address through
006which we try to address through intervention design specialists or IDS. This program will support teachers who desire to teach and principles who need to focus on instruction and meeting building needs and we will keep these students in school rather than sending them home. Even with the understanding of a tight budget for FY26 and 27, it is imperative that we not delay on this program, we intend to initiate a pilot elementary ISS program next year with expectations of expanding to more elementary schools during the FY2728 year. Goal number three, highquality workforce. It has two initiatives. Initiative number one, in constant pursuit of higher quality workforce. This initiative addresses the current BCPS teacher salary rank across Virginia at 111th out of 131 school divisions and 17 out of 20 school divisions in region 5. Present compensation is
007well below the state average and our teachers have patiently waited for this recognition. If we want to continue to attract the best teachers to BCBS, we need to be competitive with surrounding divisions. This proposal would put forth a state expected 3% [snorts] pay increase for employees and would with an appropriate step raise for the FY2627 school year with full intention of addressing an accelerated model of compensation that would address moving all BCPS employees regardless of their years of service to an acceptable and appropriate appropriate pay scale on the state level. Our present career compensation data shows that long dedicated service by our teachers is not appropriately rewarded and this is a dilemma that must be resolved. [snorts] Initiative two, health insurance. This initiative will address an expected 30% increase in health insurance premiums for FY
00826 and 27. This initiative makes the compensation initiative all that more important as employees cannot just receive higher compensation to only cover their health insurance. The compensation health insurance increase must be dealt with together over the next two years to properly compensate our employees with their dedication to our division and our vision and mission statement. Strategic five, efficient and effective use of resources. of Bedford County Public [snorts] Schools will allocate resources to programs and al and operations that efficiently and effectively educate our students. We will annually build our budget on support of the five goals of the BCPS strategic framework. And we will effectively address inflation and rising costs of health insurance, nutrition, and school resources on a year-to-year basis and on a multi-year basis as needed. And we must have collective discussions with all
009parties in preparation for reversion FY28 to prepare for the end of reversion and the funding gap that as of today is p prop proposed to be 2,900,000. Thank [snorts] you for your cooperation and consideration for this budgetary incentives for FY26 and 27. At this time, I would like to turn the specifics of this budget proposal over to our assistant superintendent of finance and operations, Mr. Randy Randy Haggler for summary. Thank you. >> Thank you. Good evening. Um, we'll be looking at the first page of the packet that uh was at uh your tables there and that's the proposed summaries summary of the changes from the FY26 budget which we're currently in to the 27 budget. Um, as Mr. Pair was saying um it's kind of uh just a few lines here but there's a lot
010of lines that are affected but in summarizing this um the big changes are salary changes for employees uh the health insurance increase of 30% covering that covering the full cost of the SRO's and um two positions for internal um school suspension ISS aids uh to put two of those out there to help our elementary schools. The rest are just technical adjustments on this pages uh for federal uh for staffing standards implementation and other things that we've made technical adjustments for. Um as you can see increase of almost 6 million uh to the operating fund and for this budget the balance it would be a request to the county of $1,837,555. I will note if you look at the revenue side of where that request is where it says under the revenues of that 1.8 million
011we're going to reduce that by 600,000 and put in the maintenance reserve to prepare for reversion. So really to accomplish everything we're talking about dealing with in the operating fund. It's uh we're requesting really about 1.2 million um to come into the operating fund to balance this budget. Um I will say that uh the salary increases in what you're what's being presented for the state numbers here. Let me just say the house and senate still working through and they have to have they they're going to have to compromise. They're vastly different. So they're not like identical where I could really predict everything. But in order for us to move on on in the budget process, I took a little bit from both hopefully worst case scenario. But I did build in the Senate had a
0123% increase for employees. The House had two. I don't know what that's going to be. We'll see what the compromise comes out. I built it based upon three. The reason for that is if it comes out to three, it's already built into the budget. If I built two and they went up to three, I have to go find additional matching funds. So, I wanted to build that in off the front end. Um, so we'll see what h what comes out of the state in their final [clears throat] uh budgets. We could get some more money, could get some less, but I was trying to be conservative on that. Um, this also includes, as Mr. Dupier was saying, it would be a 3% cola salary increase across the board, and then employees would receive their experience
013step. Also, um, he did mention the very high increase in health insurance. We've [clears throat] had really three very difficult years. Um, just to give you an idea, back in uh beginning of 2024, we had $6 million in reserves in the bank account for our we are self-funded. Um, as of the end of last month, we had a million. So, you've seen a deterioration of our reserves. Um, we need to build that back up though. It is a large increase. I would say this, out of the last 10 years, there were five years we didn't increase insurance at all. We were running real well. We didn't go up on insurance. the board didn't have to pay anymore, nor were our employees. And if I take that 30% on top of everything that we've done over
01410 years, it averages out to a five or six% increase year-over-year, which is not horrible considering what most plans are running through in inflation in the health industry. So though the big hit's coming this year and we have to deal with it, it's not out of line to what everybody else has been experienced over the last 10 years in uh in that. >> Um, >> hang on, we have a question. >> Yes, sir. Also, can I interrupt you and ask question? >> Yes. Yes. Okay. I was going to ask questions about the operating, but you can. Yeah, go ahead. >> Um, so this um I just wanted to kind of focus on the request to the county. [clears throat] >> Yes. >> Um, of that 1.8 million >> and some change. Um, when we say
0151.8 really we're immediately removing 600,000. >> Yes, sir. So, it's really well 600's going to go to our maintenance reserve. It's still 1.8, but only really 1.2 is going to go into our operating to accomplish all what what I'm talking about now. Yes, sir. I just wanted to make sure that was Yeah, that was what I was understanding. >> Yes, sir. [clears throat] >> Um, yeah, you can interrupt and ask me questions as I'm going along. That's fine. This is a budget. >> Um, we did look at when when we have such a large insurance increase, you want to look at how are employees affected. So, I took our lowest scale, >> applied a step plus a 3% and said how would they come out monthly. So, for our full-time employee on one of the
016lowest scales, employee only on the plan, um that would go up $20 a month on the insurance and their salary at 3% would go up close to 100 108. If it comes out at 2% increase that we have to go to ultimately with the state, $84 increase a month monthly and pay $20 increase to insurance. So, they're not going backwards. a lot of large part has to go for insurance, but it's not like they're going to get $20 and it's all taken away. So, I wanted to make sure the board kind of understood the metrics and that at that's at the lower end of the pay scale for a full-time employee. I will make the caveat with that. If you're not a full-time employee and if you have employee plus, no guarantees there. Um, I
017couldn't run metrics for everybody's salary at part-time and employee plus. There's no guarantees, but usually the board it wants to make sure for a full-time employee only that that's taken care of and everything builds off of that. So I'll pause there for question it gets comp. Yes, >> that 30% is that our increase to the employee or is that employee contribution? What's the break? >> Yeah, it's a 30% increase overall to the whole premium and typically we we split 8020 with the employee though with our new um consultants. They ran it through their modeling on what is the common practice out there in industry and everybody else as far as splits with employees plus and stuff. So actually it's um the employee only didn't receive as much of an increase. Some of the employees plus
018had a little bit more. So typically there's a split between when rates go up. We usually do about an 8020 split uh between employees taking care of 20% of the increase the board taking care of 80. That's just a starting point. It doesn't have to be that way, but our um consultants ran it in their modeling and came back with a little bit of tweaks to that. So, a little bit lower for the employee only, a little bit higher for employee on some of them. Uh but we wanted to make sure we ran those numbers so people the board members were saying, "Is somebody on the lower end of the scale going to go backwards?" They're not either with two or 3%. >> Okay. Um, this plan also f fully funds the uh additional SRO's
019uh that we have in place. So, receive cost estimates from the county on what that would cost. Um, so that's built in. I will say that there um the sheriff has applied for a grant. We won't know the result of that until May. So if we need to do it now if that grant comes through it would free up probably the money that we would have given for SRO's maybe for some other security things mater you know equipment uh because that would not have to be spent next year but we won't know that until late May or maybe even June. So uh we'll know that late after the budget cycle on this. So we've built a full cost in for next year. Um there are two added positions for inschool suspension aids at elementary schools
020to help uh with um the schools regulating that. Um and then everything else in there is technical adjustments. And I believe um Mr. Hill, you asked a question. I was going to conclude with that it's really 1.2 million after the 600. And I'll stop because I kind of went through this and answer any questions. That's the operating fund. and I'll go down to the other funds here in a minute to see if any of the board members have questions about any of these line items or any of the things that I've mentioned tonight. >> Um, any questions? >> I have a question about the um the [clears throat] ISS positions. >> Yes. >> Um, obviously I'm more of a probably >> I'll refer to Dr. Wood on that. So, >> than you on that one.
021Um so I guess I just want to kind of what is that? Why is it important? Why 80,000 you know this? >> Sure. So um in our secondary schools you're probably very familiar with in school suspension. A student does something um and part of their discipline is to spend a day doing their work in in school suspension. So elementary schools don't have that. But we're seeing more of students who are misbehaving um and the principles are giving them a day of inschool suspension and they're keeping them in their offices or the counselor is keeping them um where the teacher really just needs to send that message to the student that your behavior is not acceptable. And we're not talking a first time. We're talking maybe this is happening on a regular basis. Um, and so
022we don't want to suspend that child and send them home. We want them to be in school. We want them to be doing their work. So, this would be a place that we would put those students what that's um not in the main office, not where they can see everything going on, but they have someone in there who can help them do their work. Um, and it's not taking staff or the guidance counselor or the principal away from doing the work of the school. We do have IDs services and that's our higher level of services for kids who are really disregulated and they have significant behavior problems that are influencing other kids in the classroom. They're the ones who are refusing laying on the floor that we give them much more intense services. This is
023simply for a student who is misbehaving on a regular basis. It's not so much a a mental health issue. it is just a behavior issue. Um, and we just have not given those supports to our elementary schools before. We've been able to manage it. Um, but we are seeing more behavior um, in our elementary schools. So, we'd like to start with just possibly our our larger elementary schools that have a higher level of behavior. Um it's very entertaining for students to be in the office during the day in doing their work. Um so we want to make it so it's not as pleasant so they're not being entertained. They actually are learning that you can do your work in the classroom with your friends or you can do this work in the room with someone
024making sure you're working all day. So that's the difference. And do you have any statistics numbers like how many kids does that mean in in the larger elementary schools in a given week? >> Um in some of our larger elementary schools um I would probably say every day there's probably a student who is removed from the class for maybe two to three hours um who are being watched by different people in the school which is much larger than it used to be. Um so um I can go into The two that I'm thinking about right now are two larger elementary schools and I can bet that there'll be someone in one of the main office areas um doing work that has been removed from the classroom. So I would say if not for a few
025hours every day at least two to three times a week when they're not if we do have just like in our middle and high schools if we have a day that we don't have students in ISS then that person would be out supporting students in the classroom and you know helping out with remediation or whatever we need probably substituting if we have teachers out and things like that. >> So is that a full-time position? It it is a full-time position. Um it's at a paraprofessional salary just like at the middle and high schools we have a paraprofessional. So when you say two or two two different >> two different elementary schools >> and they would not go to another school. They would just stay in those schools. >> Yeah. >> What about these schools that
026are more spatially challenged or that are at or over capacity? How would that work in those type of situations? Um, I think that probably I'm trying to think specifically. >> Are you trying to associate overcrowding with behavior? >> No, I'm what I'm what I'm asking is we've got a room for them. >> Me and Jill just went through Jill and I just went through um Forest Elementary School. >> I don't know that there's room there. I mean, we've got I mean, every storage closet, the stage is full. How would that in that in that particular school, I use that example if I just went to it. >> Where would you put this? >> So, so I would say that probably um just like so instead of putting the um student possibly with the counselor, we
027might use the counselor's office or some of that itinerate staff that's not there all the time. So, we have a space like for ESL or speech or something. We'd probably the principal would just have to get creative and probably that student would work in a space. Um, the big piece is that they have somebody to monitor them so that the teachers and the principles can continue on with their work and that may be in a corner in the cafeteria for a little while or, you know, in a an office in the gym or something like that. So, um I think it would be easier to find a place. It probably won't be a place that that person like has a space all the time. Um so, uh luckily some of our more challenging schools don't
028have as high a discipline right now. So, just like with our kids who are getting IDS services, we might even just send them into the classroom to help regulate that student and work with them in the back. So, it really depends on the situation. I think our idea is that we just need somewhere for our kids to work quietly without pulling our principles and teachers away from working with the other students. And so, >> and just kind of piggyback off what you just said on on the schools where so if we provide the position for all the elementary schools on the schools where there's not as much behavior issues, what would this staff member be doing in the meantime? So, honestly, what we've talked about to keep the cost down um is that our smaller
029schools who don't have a lot of discipline. I mean, believe it or not, we have one or two schools who haven't had a discipline referral all year. Um so, we probably wouldn't initially put anybody there. Uh but if we did, we would probably share those resources. So one person may be um at a school with uh discipline that's not heavy maybe three days a week and at a smaller school for two days a week. So that principal might have to say I can't give you in school suspension today but I can give it to you tomorrow. Um and so maybe sharing some of those resources but I will say that that I don't think there's probably an elementary school who wouldn't love to have an extra person. we always need people covering classes or substitutes
030um especially at different times of the year. Um and there are always kids to work with and so we would just kind of have a schedule where they could go out and help and support the teachers and the kids and um yeah and that's what we do at the middle school and high school. Um if we have days then that person just go we we assign them to support somewhere else. I would say this is for two positions this year. >> Yeah, >> it it probably would grow so we could provide services for other schools where we see this happening, but for with the challenging and some of the things we're dealing with in the budget, we we thought it would appropriate just to ask for two this year instead of 14 >> and be
031sure that it's effective and be sure that it's, you know, we [clears throat] don't we won't want to waste money at all. And um we we do know there are some schools that need a lot of help. >> This has been a discussion across the state. How do you how do you um bring these kids out of a classroom where they're disruptive to the other learners? Um how do you get them assistance? How do you keep them in school? Um I've been at a conference and this is one of the topics that we spent about a half hour on one afternoon and no one has a solution. They all know what the what the root causes or they think they know what the root causes are, but these children [snorts] are kind of gaining on
032us. And we kind of knew this was going to be an issue a couple years ago and we're now seeing it come to fruition with some of our kids who were not regulated properly at home maybe. And so, um, [clears throat] I spoke yesterday at the Smith Mount Lake Chamber of Commerce, Regional Chamber of Commerce, and the superintendent in front of me was speaking on this topic. I didn't intend to speak on this, but he was literally when I walked in speaking on this, and everybody's trying to come up with a solution because it's growing across most divisions, all divisions, but most schools. So it's a way of of taking the child out of a situation where the others are not held back can be very disruptive. >> And I would like to say ISS
033is a after the fact kind of solution. What I want you to know is that we are working on a before all of that happens solution because we know what we've got to do. Our preschool I was just talking to Dr. Trosper today. Um they're bringing back like parenting university where they're going to do parenting classes for our preschool parents and we're going to talk to them about screen time and you know um being outside and let's be healthy. And so trying to bring some awareness to our, you know, our parents with young children. Um and then really working on our programs and helping our teachers with, you know, different ways of classroom management. So, we're not just working on the what do we do with them after they misbehave. We're really trying to get
034um how do we change the culture and how do we change what our kids are coming with and how do we get our parents on board with helping with that. So, there's a lot we're doing on the other side, too. >> Dr. Wood, if you >> Yes. If you foresee this, let's say this this gets passed and two years down the road the the discipline drops dramatically or you or you see this position evolving in some way, shape or form, would it be similar to like us reducing the testing coordinators in school and basically evolving that to fill in other gaps? Is that kind of how you >> I would love to not even have to have ISS at the elementary level. Yes, I would love I I really think one of the things that
035we have seen is our um our IDS program which are it's more of a mental health um professionals and they're specifically trained with working with young children to change behavior over time. Um with those positions, principles actually reach out and they they let us know like this is the behavior we're struggling with. We send someone in to kind of observe. Um and then that person goes in and works with that child and that teacher for six to eight weeks. We are seeing that to be the most effective getting those students in their environment working intensely with them. We just don't have enough and that is that's a big uh cost. So this is kind of our way of we'll bring these two ISS people to our trainings hoping they will get some assistance with that
036so that we can give more individualized. But yes, if we if behavior went down and we didn't need it, we would be happy to let that go for sure. >> Anybody else? Mr. Her, real quick, you're going to you're going to go through all these sheets, right? Okay. >> Yeah. >> Before we move on, um that going back to the insurance. >> Yes. >> Um the the number you gave out for kind of an example of your of our lowest scale y >> was 108 to $20. If if we get a 3% raise, >> yeah, if I went to our lowest scale full-time employee um and I looked at if you apply the step in a 3% increase, they their monthly takehome would go up 108 and the insurance goes up $20. >> Is that
037$20? I know the 108 is is depends on where they're at in their steps. That 108 can change depending on >> that's the lowest will be different. >> Yeah. So the highest obviously would be more than that. is does that correspond with the $20 or is that >> $20 employee only static? So I guess my question is for the for our lowest wage earners, you know, that's 18 and a half%. >> Um that's a pretty good chunk. >> Y >> is there any way that we can and I don't know the legalities of this either. Is there anywhere we can do a a sliding scale to where our higher wage earners would not necessarily pay more percentage-wise, but would pay more dollar-wise and and the percentages would would even out a little bit more to
038to make it more equitable for our lower wages? >> Nothing's impossible. We did ask our consultants that and they don't know of anybody doing something like that. I mean, they have a big book of business. Um what you get into there is you know the payroll system behind the scenes having multiple different setups and who's where and where do you put the cut offs? Um it's you know a sliding scale. So is it somebody making you know so if somebody goes from 25 to 26 is that the break? Is it 30? Is it 35? And so you got to figure out where that break is and apply it. Um there's the way we've done it. We've asked our consultants if they have, you know, examples of that and stuff and they just didn't have any
039examples of other books of business doing that. Um, it it, you know, it's the same rate. So, >> is it impossible? No. I mean, anything's possible you can do. I don't think there's any legality of not, you know, you can do that. As far as I know, it's setting it up and, uh, managing that. And then, you know, your rate sheet, which I'll show you, gets it just gets it gets very large. to manage. Um, but you know, once it's set up in the payroll, we can do it, but it gets a little bit harder. >> So, in your example, that $20, is that the 20% that the employees responsible for? And it's really a $100 increase. >> So, picking up the 80, >> correct? So, um, >> so it's an 8020 split. >> Yeah.
040So, there, you know, so the school board's picking up a big part of that. The employees picking up $20 of the increase. Yes. >> Right. Now is it an across the board every employee whether you're at the low scale or the high scale you're getting $100 increase >> the same the same appre the same premium applies to everyone. >> Okay. >> Yeah. Did that answer your question? >> Yes. >> But they all get the same benefit too. >> Yes. >> Yeah. It's the same plan. >> Yeah. >> Um same rates for everybody. Uh there is decrease in board contribution if you are part-time employees. So if you go from 100 to 80% because realistically at 80 or 60 or 50% the board doesn't even have to offer insurance according accorded with the affordable care act
041you do but the employees have to pay more for that or the board doesn't contribute they we base it all on whether you're working 30 hours a week or more and that's 100% cont those are 100% full-time employees so um so Mr. um that can be looked at but I mean we did we did invest and asked our consultants if they had any modeling or any plans like that and they had nothing in their book of business um that they could recommend to us like tears or anything like that they just >> not their experience. >> So doing a flat percentage would be difficult to manage. >> If you think about a payroll system we've got all you you've got all these plans whether you're part of the wellness plan or not are you 8020
042and we got all these rates set up. So, if you go to a percentage base, it's like you got to set up every single combination. I'm just thinking out loud. It's like that would be behind the scenes. I would have >> 20,000 different insurance deductions. Yeah. >> Instead of 80. Um, it it just multiplies >> and trying to do that. Um, >> another person. [laughter] >> I'd have to investigate whether there's a different way to do it in the payroll system. I just know how we're working right now and how it's set up with the deductions. you set up deduction, it's applied to everybody like this. So, um um if the board wants me to do more research on that, I will um bring back something. But we did do some research on it. Uh
043I think the finance committee in pre uh from a year or two ago asked us to look into that. We reported back on that. So, we did do our due diligence on that. >> Oh, it affect you know I understand what you're saying you know with the percentage and stuff. Um, typically we don't have a 30% increase. Um, you know, usually it's a lot lower than that. So, and and like I said, five of the last 10 years we had no increase at all. So, um, it's just a 30%. It's a big big big pill swallow in one year. I agree. >> And obviously, I know we've not had the these increases in the past. Looking at the landscape, I I don't believe we'll probably ever go back to the the place of not having
044increases year-over-year. How do >> Well, I when we didn't do an increase, we were um you know, our reserves were about 6 million. My runout claims, if I went back to fully insured, I estimated about 2 million. So, we had a good healthy bounce. So, if you began the year with six million, ended with 6.4, it's hard to go to the board and employees and say, "Now pay more." I mean, your balance went up and so we were just running real well. Um, there's been an inflation. This is typically with a self-insured plan, they say about every seven or eight years you have a bad year. You just see a lot flow out. This is three years in a row. This is not just bad years. This is inflationary. And it is, you know, there's
045a lot of other districts and other people are saying they're getting 18 to 25% increases this year. So, it's not Now, some aren't, but uh there's a lot just bearing that brunt right now. Um, I don't see us not going up in the future just to so we'd never have another 30. If I could go back and give a four or five in those good years, it wouldn't be a 30 now. Um, so that's just learning how to manage and um do things going forward. So, >> so you're saying and forgive me I don't understand this. We don't have Anthem or something. We are selfinsured. >> We're selfinsured. Anthem manages it. They manage all the claims. the back end >> and so they send me a bill every week and I pay the claims as
046they come in. >> We do have Anthem. Then >> Anthem is our provider >> and that's the network and they do the administrative side because they have, you know, the computer systems and backend systems, but the actual claims that are submitted, they send a bill to me once a week and I pay that. We wire transfer the money. So, we're paying the claims as they go. So, I know a lot of people will say, "Well, what if you go out and get a broker, you do this or you do something different?" The claims are the claims. We're running at 123% of budget right now. So, what I'm bringing in right now, we're spending 123%. It's not enough to cover. It's it's it's eroded the reserves and we got to build that back up. So, if
047I were to go out fully insured or go to something else, the claims are still that high. >> And that's how I'd be quoted on um and and what we're actually running. Overall though, our high deductible plan I think is a very attractive plan when we compare ourselves to other districts and even you know uh when you go around um we're going to go up to about I think the 20 extra to it 74 or something like that for a high deductible which is around $3,400 deductible 100% paid once you hit deductible. It is a nice plan. >> Can we keep that long term? We'll see. Um, you know, we looked at different alternatives to changing that plan up, but if we change the plan up, you're back you're basically putting it on the employees
048anyway. You're you're saying you're going to have to bear more of this brunt on a deductible or or something. So, we're always looking at that, seeing what's happening in industry and recommending different things and trying to stay with the times and be as competitive as possible. But um >> there's a lot of >> we had some good years, three or four or five years there where I didn't go up at all and this one came. So um actually last three years have been bad and we just we went up seven then we went up 10. Now we're up. >> It's a big cumulative jump. >> Yes. So a lot of this budget has to take care of that. you have to bring in you you got to cover those claims because if I if I
049go down to zero I have no more money to pay the anthem bill when it comes in and we need to have those funds set aside >> but we were able to maintain once you hit your deductible it's still completely covered which is a big deal most people don't have that >> we did not make any changes to the plan >> can't guarantee that'll be indefinitely in the future because we did institute the high deductible plan >> 14 years ago it was a PO plan to the high deductible and that became our standard plan going forward, not a PO, just increased costs and stuff. So that became what the board basically is funding. If you want the PO, you got to pay a lot more. >> Where the PO used to be the standard, it
050switched. That might happen in the future. Um, we'll have to work through that. >> Did that help answer your question? >> Yeah. >> Anybody else with any questions what we've heard so far? >> I'll move down to the other funds. I know the operating is the big one. Uh it's most of where all of our employees are, but I'd like to touch and that's on the same page that we're just stay on that same page. The textbook fund, uh we're reduction in state funding, enrollment [clears throat] going down a little bit, a little bit less in state funding. However, even with that reduction, um we're currently putting $300,000 of local money into the textbook fund and looking out four or five years, we we have the funds to do adoptions in the future. So, no
051recommendation to change the $300,000 of local funding going in there. That can stay the same even with the slight reduction in state funding. Um the maintenance reserve fund, the $600,000 mentioned above, uh the county takes $500,000 off the uh their initial revenue and they put it into there also. So, you're going to see a $1.1 million increase into the maintenance reserve fund. Those funds will be spent on maintenance items. That's cash that can be spent on that. But long term, I'll get to it later in the meeting. Those funds are theoretically are going to go back into the operating once reversion ends uh to make up the huge gap that we're going to experience there. Uh later also uh in my presentation, I have a uh five-year CIP, capital improvement plan that the facility committee
052has reviewed and I'm going to be presenting that to the full board from the committee and uh just looking five years out of what projects we're looking at. So that'll be later in this meeting. the nutrition fund. We're going to try to reduce some additional positions. Still challenges with the nutrition fund. Um, if you overall in that budget, I will say we put together an accurate expenditure budget for the nutrition fund. But what we've experienced last year, we're hoping for better this year, but I still see an erosion there. The revenues are not going to be enough to cover the expenditures. We'll continue to spend down the reserves in that fund long term. If that continues and we continue to try to do reductions, I don't know if we're going to cut our way to
053uh balancing that. We may have to divert money from the operating fund to the nutrition fund. We don't have to do it next year. Maybe not the next year, but we're trying to address this as much pos as much as possible. Last year, we reduced nine positions, eight or nine positions. Recommending reducing another six this year. Most of our elementary schools will only have two nutrition workers working there. Um, so that's going to be if one's out sick, we got to scramble. So, we're trying to do the best we can to cut expenditures and do the best we can. Um, it may mean that there might not be as many options. You know, if you're used to four options, it might be one option, two options. Uh, with less staffing, you just can't do as
054much. So, we're going to have to address that working with Suzanne Quizenberry, our supervisor. But, I would say the nutrition fund, I don't believe it'll work out next year. We're going to have to dig into reserves to to break even >> um on that nutrition fund. Yes, >> I know members of the finance committee understand this, but [cough] just [clears throat] so the public knows, I mentioned this at a meeting last week, twothirds of the county get free lunch. >> Yes. >> Correct. Um the reimbursement rate is different, I guess, depending on the student, but those reimbursement rates a lot of times do not cover the costs. Correct. Correct. >> Yeah. >> So, um, we we put it into a modeling system. So, it's referred to a C school when an entire school gets a
055free lunch. That means every kid comes through gets get a free lunch. When you put in your reimbursement rate from what you have to model like what am I collecting right now by free reduced kids getting it for free. They put the application in, but I'm charging some kids. So if I go to the entire school being free and I'm not collecting anymore, will will I break even or do better? So the ones we haven't done, we're not we're not going to break we're going to do worse because the reimbursement rate is not big enough. So the other schools we've put it into that modeling and and said if we go forward with CP the entire school because of everybody going through you get more money in to pay for that staff and what you're
056doing and it makes sense and you you get above that break even or you you think you're going to do better than if you didn't go C. So that's why in certain schools you don't have that in certain schools you do. >> So who who uh those are federal funds correct? >> These are federal funds. and who mandates that they're getting free lunch. >> It's part of the uh free and lunch um you know federal program. So the rules involved in that as Mr. Daniels knows and talking to Susan Quisenberry when we've had finance meetings very complicated on what you can and cannot do, what you charge, what you can serve, what you have to do. Um it's a complicated program to run. Um, but >> I don't find complicated >> the the the model
057the modeling to whether you go to C. Suzanne will look at that and look at uh what level they are and we'll put that in the modeling to see if we should switch them over to C or not. >> Mr. Hegler, I apologize. I'm not great with acronyms. What is C? >> C is just whether the whole school qualifies for free reduced lunch. Actually any school can qualify and you could say I'm going to move [laughter] schools to the entire school or free and reduced lunch. It's just what is your reimbursement going to rate? It's a design is it's a designation for a school that we're going to move it to where all the kids are free. You don't have to put an application in. Everybody eats everybody's free. But if we do that if
058you were to do that districtwide um we'd have even a bigger shortfall >> than we have right now. >> Because you got to staff it. >> Huh? because you'll have to staff it, >> not staff that your reimbursement rate from the federal government would not make up for what kids are paying going through the line right now. Uh so you would face a bigger deficit. >> On top of that, if you're doing a 100 lunches and you now all of a sudden you're doing 300 or something like that. I'm just making the numbers up. Obviously, >> a lot of kids a lot more kids might go through, but that's what the modeling not everybody's going to go through. So you have to assume how many will go through now that it's entirely free. Not everybody
059will. Some will still pack. And so that's what the modeling is doing is saying our best guess based upon previous things that have happened if you go free for uh for a whole school I expect these kids that weren't buying to stop go through increases your revenue but not to the point where it would offset >> yeah I get >> it's not a perfect science but we use our best uh modeling that we can based upon previous practices. >> It's a federal federal designation that says a CV school is entirely free. That's what it is. Whereas if you're not, you have to put in an application and then you can get a free or reduced lunch if you qualify. So kids in these other schools can still get a free and reduced lunch, >> but
060they have to do an application. >> The primary reason that we are doing that is because we are concerned about food security in some of these schools. >> We're trying to balance the budget and do that. Um, in the schools [clears throat] that we have done it, we we looked at the modeling and said we would at least break even or do better by moving the whole school to C. [cough] So, um, it's just easier to manage because if you don't have that, you have to process every take. Everybody has to apply and you have to process the application and then you have to put it in the system. >> Whereas kids coming through on this evening, they just go through the line free or just launch and you just count your numbers. Um, when
061it's not that way, you have to process the application, put it in the system, and then then they come in and they actually audit that to see if what the parent put in is actually true. And I will say there have been audits where they've picked four and all four really didn't qualify after the audit and we had to switch them back and say, "No, you don't qualify anymore because the information was not accurate." >> Nice way of putting it. Um >> I'm concerned about their health the k the [cough] quality and we had talked about um removing a lot of the food dyes as well as the styrofoam is that >> those mandates are coming down where we're h we're having to move. So any kind of regulation that comes down from the federal
062or state level we have to we have to move with that. So if those aren't but the manu when they come on down with that the manufacturers have to shift and make sure they get that out of there because we don't manufacture the food. >> So is that going to affect the price? at >> the prices. Um, here's my opinion. The state and the federal government really doesn't know what it costs to run the nutrition program for our schools. Um, and so it puts a burden on us because I don't I don't think we get the reimbursement rates we need to to really run what's happening. Inflation has been true. I mean, we've gone up on minimum wage. We've the the food prices have gone up, but the reimbursement rates have not kept place. So,
063that's putting a more burden on the locality. >> Right. >> So, >> and Mr. horns to just I don't have the exact stats in front of me, but I know that we've talked about this in in meetings in the past when you talk about food insecurity. Um, we have many of our students that if they don't eat with us, they don't eat, >> right? >> So, I don't know what that number is. I Mr. Mr. Hager, I thought we we've had that in the past, but it is a it is >> a it's a surp it's substantial, but it's very surprising >> and and I would say anybody can put an application in to apply for free. We just launched just because you're not at a if you're not at a C school, you can
064still get a free lunch. Just got to put the application in. [cough] >> So, it's not like we won't do it. We will. You just have to go and do the application and you could qualify [snorts] for a free and just launch. >> Does that help? >> Yep. No, it's clear as mud, but that's [laughter] fine. Um, >> I I I am concerned about u two staff members per elementary school in a environment where I don't know about you guys, but my kids were walking petri dishes of disease when I when they were young. And I I am concerned about that. I I don't see how that's sustainable in the environment that that is. >> Um, >> well, we look at how many kids are coming through the line. Okay. >> And so how many
065kids are the traffic? So at some of your nonC schools, there's not high participation. They probably can do [clears throat] it with two. We do have um each zone has a full-time sub that we can go to different area and throw and jump in and help if somebody's out and take care of that because when you go down to limited staff, you have to have backup somewhere. And so we've built that in. And so we will monitor. We're looking at how many um and it's not every elementary is going down to two, but some of you are very small that do not have high participation might go down to two, but that's not every word and uh we'll monitor that and if it's if we can't do it, if it's breaking, we're going to have
066to put more staff in, but then that creates a bigger deficit. So, some of these are things that we've gone down on and we think we can go a little bit more, but we will not jeopardize the uh the food quality or safety of the food. Um, I will say, you know, my all four of my kids worked in the cafeteria and they've been in restaurants working. Um, I I I'm going to u our cafeterias are the cleanest places they've ever seen because they're trained and they know how to keep it clean and know how to serve and take temperatures and do all that. Not all the restaurants do as well as that, but um and that's just coming from my kids. All four of them have worked in that system and then gone out
067in the restaurants and they said um we do a good good job of making sure it's clean and taken care of in the food quality. So >> fun. I I old [laughter] but when I was in elementary school, I remember working in the cafeteria, you know, when [snorts] I was in fifth grade and helping out. And do we do we have any of the kids coming in and helping at all? >> We can't do that. you know, you're back there with equipment and things like that, you know, liability there. So, yeah. >> Well, they're I was more just collecting >> Yeah. >> food afterwards or cleaning up for they don't do any of that. >> I don't know if some kids will go around and do anything like that, but usually our cafeteria staff and
068custodians are taking care of cleaning up and taking care of things in the cafeteria. They usually go back to class. Um um the cafeteria staff is preparing the food and running the uh uh running the line and also the cash register. >> I don't know about y'all, that seems like a really good position for an ISS coordinator. [laughter] >> You need to clean up all the food. >> I'm just saying. >> Well, what's even more concerning is that six positions only add up to $96,000. >> They they're not full-time. So the positions that are on there, they're working usually four hours a day. Um, so it's not a full-time. So what you'd be left in is probably with a manager and closer to a full-time employee there. It it would be that additional, you know,
069staff coming in. >> This is not all at elementary. Some of this is at the high school where we think we're over staff and we've got adjustments in other areas, too. So I don't want to say all that is at the uh elementary level. It's not. >> Gotcha. Okay. >> We look at the metrics of how many meals served per employee and compare them across the division. And so if there's some schools doing it with this many employees and serving this many meals and it's out of whack with someone else, we adjust down and we're leveling it out and we have metrics to look at what we what's ideal there. >> So we're watching all that. [cough and clears throat] Okay. Nutrition. Um, if you go to uh the second page, um, the second and
070third pages are really the summary pages of what's behind the budget. Um, once the meeting is over, everything will be posted on our website online on our budget. And so all 5,000 lines of budget code will be there. This is a summary of all that. So when we come back next week, if the board makes it makes any changes to the budget, I will change it in here. If there are no changes, this is what will you be voting on next week are the numbers in here and I'll guide you through that. But you actually list these numbers and this is what you're approving for the following week. But this is a summary of all those like 5,000 line items in our budget. Um I will mention at this time um if I I mentioned
071it already I mentioned a caboose bill for this year. There is uh we're talking about the budget for next year but there was an there there were amendments to the current year budget. Usually those are minor. Uh the Senate and House both had a bonus in those budgets. Um I'm not ready to present on that tonight. Uh Emily, who's next to me, will be presenting our third quarter forecast at the April meeting, what is our balance in there, and then we'll make a recommendation to the board on what we can do with the bonus in this year's budget. So, uh more to speak on that. Have to wait for that to get passed and see the language in it. But we'll speak to that at our April meeting. And our recommendation on that is just
072so employees have have heard about it. It's been in the newspapers, waiting for that to finally pass and see the language on what we can do and we'll have a recommendation on that in April for this year. Okay. Um if you go to the um next page, page four, this is where I do a reversion calculation. I type numbers in from the current state budget, do a whatif um analysis. And so this is also showing how money's flowing and what's happening. And really the LCI, local composite index, and I did a big presentation on this several weeks ago, has been the big driving factor here since we started the reversion back in 2014. There's been almost an added $4 million to that gap. just because of our local composite index going up. That's why we
073started pumping $600,000 into that and decreasing our operating fund to lessen that gap. it just has continued to expand and um so my projection now so this is based upon the governor's propo initially proposed um budget because I don't have worksheets for the others but I typed everything in and I predict that um the at the end of reversion the money that would flow away from us from the state is 11.7 million that's down below at the bottom our current plan for set aside which is at 1.1 1 million 500 from the county, 600 from us. We would get up to 8.7. So $2.9 million gap. I will say that's based upon projected budget for next year. There will be the 2728 budget which I imagine that gap will get bigger and then in 2829
074several things are going to happen. The state will rebenchmark off these last two years. So that means more money come from the state in the calculation and also there will be a new LCI composite index coming out that could go up or down for us. Um so I expect that 2.9 to increase. I don't I don't know how high at least 3.5. I would g I that's just me just guessing right now because of the money the state's given us in the budget for raises and other things will get refactored in into their uh SOQ. So, just painting the picture of what's coming down the road. Um, and that's with us putting that additional 600 in there. That as of today, I I predict 2.9, but I expect it to increase. >> Just keep giving
075the board >> the LCI hasn't hasn't gone down at all in the last 10 years. Um, been a few stagnant. >> Yeah, the 26 27 27 28 has stayed exactly the same statistically. I don't know how that's possible, but it it did. But um we've been we've been increasing the last since 2014 it's been going up. So the last bianium it stayed the same but I don't know if it'll hold there or not for beer county or not. So that's an update on you know the reversion funding and that's coming in 2829. So a lot of things can happen between now and then. What is the state budget then? What is locality funding? How are we going to deal with that? But that's going to have to be dealt with um coming up in 2029.
076>> Um yeah, it's got to get dealt with soon because we can't operate on assumptions of what we think they may or may not do. Let's pause here. Does anyone have any questions on uh this wonderfully uh positive [laughter] um I don't remember the exact number from last year and I don't know if you have that number. Do you remember your projected difference for the fiscal year 282? >> Yeah, I was at Yeah, I was at 1.5. >> Okay. I thought it was 1.7. >> It went up another 1.5. And I'll say the big part of that >> because our LCI didn't date change. The biggest part of that is in the last two in the last two budgets, the state was given 5% increases in each year. So that's a 10% increase to staff.
077That all got rebenchmarked and factored into and the state [snorts] budget just went way up. Yeah. >> And so when you apply that LCI for that difference, that's what cost c cost it. >> So if you follow it to its conclusion, >> really that 2.9 that you're projecting right now, if everything remains the same and we continue on that path, we're really looking closer to five $6 million once we actually hit >> there's two more years. If they do a 2% or three percent, it's going to go up another could go up another million once that gets refactored and rebenchmarked in where I can do the calculations. That's my best guess. >> So, and I know obviously you are beholden to today's metrics. >> I can only Yeah, I can only use their count tools
078to predict what I have right now. Um, some of those things were like they putting money in, but it doesn't get rebenchmarked till later. There's no way for me to do a calculation off that. So I have to wait for some of those metrics to come out, but I I think easily that could go up another million. Yes, sir. >> So I mean we're looking at >> four million maybe more depending on Yeah. Okay. So >> the other things that happen on that is the LCI could impact that but also your student enrollment. >> Yeah. So, I'm I'm guessing and kind of the point I'm trying to make with that is is is more to to you all and to to the public listening is we are going to have, you know, not only are
079we going to have a a budget deficit coming, we're going to have to figure out how to >> start really cutting over [snorts] the next little bit. Um because what's going to happen is not only is our deficit going to be at $5 million, our maintenance reserve is at $0. And and I know I don't want to steal your thunder later on, but it's not great what we need to do with maintenance either. >> We'll I've got another sheet here to talk about that and I'll I'll speak to that too. Yes. Uh this is assuming this deficit is assuming that everything that would have been set aside for maintenance reserve would move over to the operating fund. >> We're already so we're already going to be $5 million short on the oper $4 million short
080on the operating fund. And if you move all the money over, you would have zero in your maintenance reserve going forward. >> Yes. And I don't I would and I would not recommend that. I don't think you can rebuild it overnight, but we're going to have to address that, too. Yes, sir. >> We've talked previously about trying to put a couple of quarter percentage points and different things to try to bolster that. And it's like we just don't have it. And our maintenance reserve will be zero, but quite honestly, we're still going to have maintenance that's still going to need to be done. So, we're below zero. Um, >> we've caught up on a lot. >> Did an HVAC unit go down? >> Yeah, we've caught up on a lot. I think you I will
081recommend when we get to that point that you have to put money in there for reserve because you you have to have some contingency there. But we've done a lot over the last few years. So, I think there it's not ideal, but I I think over time you need to rebuild that fund up. And I'll give estimates when I get to that sheet here in a minute. I brief I briefed the facility committee on that. And I think also the county was working on their CIP and I briefed um their administrative staff over there what I think that fund needs to get to long term. But that's our last page. I I'll wait to get to there. >> So if we don't see a great increase in funding, we're going to have to potentially have
082a great decrease in spending. >> Yes, sir. >> It's got to bounce. >> Yep. So yeah, >> we can't run like >> and state budgets are uncertain. I will say balance [laughter] >> state budget. I would say [clears throat] the state budgets are uncertain on how much funding they're going to have. Sometimes they give me money that's one time. That doesn't help my recurring. >> That's right. >> I'll take it, but it doesn't help the reoccurring. Um the state, I believe, had a lot of money to work with this year, but Medicare >> took about two billion of it. >> So, not as much came to K12 education that could have. if they took care of that this year and if they have in increasing revenues in the future, hopefully some more money will start
083flowing to K12. So, this is worst case, but there may be more state funding that comes our way to help us. I just can't promise that right now. >> But you also don't know if our LCI is going to increase either. >> I do not. >> You don't know, you know, once we're what is it 28 is when they redo the LCI or do they do it every year? >> I will say they do it every two years. However, there was a bill I don't know if it passed yet. There was a bill for for the general assembly to give 1.5 million to JARK, who is their study arm, to redo the entire calculation on how they fund schools. Now, you can say, "Yay, I'm a bit scared of that." >> Sure. >> Because if
084the pie stays the same amount, it's just how you cut it up. And I know in Northern Virginia a lot of the money from Northern Virginia is coming down this way because their LCI is so high and they don't like that. I'm worried we lose. >> Yeah. >> But I can't guarantee that. It depends on what the general assembly does. But I'm not You don't know if you win or lose. Um so if they redo the whole metric and calculations, reversion's over and we're in a whole new day and I'll have to figure out how to do this going forward and I will. But that's a big unknown. >> Yeah. I mean, you're you're assuming that Richmond's going to award on an affluent rural community or relatively affluent. >> Richmond's Richmond's a different environment right
085now. >> Do they reward southwestern and central Virginia at all? I I I I don't know what's going to happen in the future. I don't mean to scare people, but it it's I don't know. I can only get the give the numbers and project the best I can. >> Yeah. But based upon this, yes, I expect that to be between three and a half to four million when we get there, maybe even higher. And we'll have to balance that somehow with So with that, I I won't ramble on it. >> Any other questions on the LCI and the shortfall in the reserve funds? >> Um, nobody. >> All right. >> Okay. Two more documents. Three more documents. Um, there's the insurance rates. I've already spoken to a lot of this. This is what we would
086publicize once the budget's approved. Once again, when the board approves the budget, they're approving the staffing standards, the insurance rates, the CIP plan, everything that goes behind the scenes to build the budget is part of that. So, these would be the rates. Um, and I've already spoken to these. Um, the next document is our staffing standards and just a couple changes on there in red and I'll speak to those. >> You spoke to those. I think we've already addressed these when we had the last meeting, but they're in there. Again, these metrics are put into u our staffing model and it calculates how many teachers, aids, principles, and everything you get per school. So, this is this is kind of the guts of the budget. This drives how many how much staff people in what
087we do out there. It doesn't save or cost anything. It's an allocation model. That's all it is. And so, the changes that are in red were addressed at our last meeting when we were presented. the final page. Uh this is um the facilities committee has reviewed this and looked at this couple tweaks on this that we we made, but this is our five-year plan. There's a lot more behind this where we track things over the next 2025 years and when they should be looked at and come on, but this is our next five years best look. This changes every year because something breaks and we have to address it and the facility committee works with us on that. But I would focus on the 25 26 26 27. Those are the projects we're gearing up
088to do. Uh the ones in green are the ones we're planning this summer. The other ones we'd complete through the rep next yes next year. And then we would revise this plan as the year goes on with the committee and move things up or backwards as needed. As you look down towards the bottom, um, you can see when we get to 2829, the re year of reversion, I put a what if in here and I said, what if we just put $500,000 in there that first year reversion, and the next year we went to a million, the next year 1.5 million. So, I just did that what if. You can see we go into the negative pretty quickly, but over time hopefully we could build up. I believe my best estimate with all the equipment
089that we're replacing. We need that we need that fund in today's dollars at 5 million. That takes care of HVACs, roofs, parking lots, painting, that type of stuff. It does not take care of um a renovation to a school or any add-on to a school. That's just maintaining. Um so we may want to change that 500 when we get there to a little bit more. Uh that'll be decision in 2829. >> [cough and clears throat] >> get a what if projection out and I'll um ask the committee if they want to make any comments on this but this is this would be our plan but we wouldn't bid or do anything until we get into that year in the future anything from the committee on >> I mean I would just say I know I
090know me and Matt's both with this anything that's on here you know we go through we don't just approve everything that comes on here it's it's you know like are the Otter River and Storzville wastewater treatment plant. You know, the DEQ is finding us right now for not meeting compliance on those. We got to get compliance. Um, you know, these some of these boilers, some of the other things, we're not just doing cosmetic things. We're not doing it because, man, we really want a new pretty architecture somewhere. It's just keeping these things running. Um, and so, you know, that $5 million I I don't I'm not challenging Ry's numbers, but I think that's a low estimate. I think that, you know, >> I would say that's minimum. >> Yep. Yeah. And and and minimum is
091a stretch, you know, if we're looking at, you know, in >> four years out from now. >> Yeah. >> And Matt and I know, you know, from construction, >> how much price has changed over the last four years? >> I mean, >> yeah. through a house you could have built four years ago, you couldn't get a garage for that now. And so it's it's things that that I think are are going to be a real concern concern. I think I think we're probably closer to six or seven million wanting to be in there. >> Um and that's again we don't have the money for it. We just don't. And so, >> and to run on those things, just to piggyback on that, um, my maintenance committee, I mean, my maintenance staff along with me with
092the committee, we meet together and sometimes even with like it's like, okay, well, there's a roof slotted for next year and we're going, there's no leaks. It's like, we can wait another year or two. We're pushing off getting the maximum life out of everything we can. We work with the committee and they push back and we go and do some more digging and do things on that. Um I said it was like in today's dollars but I would a lot of those things were based upon what we got them for. Um during COVID I think we everybody was doing HVAC so I think there was uh >> the prices were much higher and they've come back down but there's still inflation so it's hard to pinpoint what those would cost 20 years out. So that'll
093have to constantly be readjusted based upon current pricing. Um, you know, once you do the JF HVAC, you got a better idea of what's happening and you can adjust from that. So each year you do something, you go, "Oh, that's what that roof costs have per square foot." Now you refactor as you go out each and every year. Um, so yes, and none of our buildings are getting any younger. I mean, you've got Boonesboro Elementary in New London with 70ish year old gymnasiums. you've got, you know, some very So those maintenance costs in those older schools are [snorts] going to continue to rise as well. [clears throat] >> When you get 50, 60, 70 years on a building, you're talking about getting to more major renovations. Um, the plumbing gets shot, some of the electrical
094and stuff like that, and that's where it really skyrockets. And once you go in there, then you got to meet current ADA. Um, we do the best we can to do that, but when you renovate, you have to do more. >> Um, and everything just costs more. So, Anything else on that? Any other questions? >> And that's >> I have a question where I am right now. If there's any other questions, >> I do have a question on the staffing standards. >> Yes. >> Know last year we were running into something where we had a shortfall. We decided to use all-in money to keep our staffing standards the same. Well, actually the meeting so I apolog uh by I implemented the new staffing standards reduced our local I I took those positions out of our
095local and moved them over to all-in all-in money is going to be done those positions go away. >> Okay. >> So I'm applying the staffing standards that were approved last year which weren't as favorable as the year before. Those are that's what's being applied here. The all-in positions are all gone. And with that, you are >> that's what I have. Um staff and I free to answer any questions you may have. Um I I you know couple couple things that just provided you know the big increase in insurance a little bit difficulty but we need to share that up. I don't think over the 10-year time frame it's abnormal over the increases but it's a lot of it happened at one time. Um which prevents us from doing other things we may want to do
096this year. With that I conclude and happy to answer any questions. Miss Dobson, any questions? >> No, no questions. >> Just that uh it paints a pretty grim picture on balance [snorts] in a budget. >> Mr. Hill. >> Yeah, I think um I've been vocal during this meeting. off of you guys realized. Um, but I I think I want to also kind of reiterate this this is a grim picture and you know whatever we get from state or locality, whatever the case is, we don't control that number. The only number we can control is once we get a dollar amount, we got to be able to, you know, we've got to cut to get there. We can't run on a deficit. I wish we could. It'd be a lot easier just print money that give
097us the power. So, you know, we've there's going to be in the next three years, really this year, we're going to have to start making hard decisions pretty quickly because if not, we're going to run into I don't want to kick it to where we're sitting here in 28 and we're going, "All right, we are completely out of money. We got an HVAC system [clears throat] that's failed at JF. What are we going to do?" >> That that's a bad place to be at. >> Yeah. I mean, even if we, you know, on the first page, I mean, if we were a lot of these things, it's still a drop in the bucket. >> It's really not going to help us for long at all. It's kind of just delaying the inevitable. I mean, we
098just need more money. I hate to say that. I mean, but it's a fact. I mean, things are just crazy. I mean for everybody. I mean if you can't see that you know and I look you know the the the LCI it's went up of course like Dr. Hubach said but it's still way behind the curve. I mean and the state as well which you know we don't have very much control of that here at the local level. So I do have a question for you Brandy. a for 1% uh increase right in in the LCI we're losing 730,000. >> Yeah. From the state. >> So what would a 1% increase in dollar amount be? >> 1% increase in what? >> The LCI. >> That's what I was saying. Any any best as I can
099calculate. If the LCI changes by 1% up or down, then our revenue from the state would go up or down by that 730. That will change over the next two or three. >> Yeah. I'm just wondering what the what the So, you can't really you could tell me what the 1% is in dollar >> amount far as the >> the change in our funding would be 730, but the LCI the 1% how they calc are you saying how do they calculate that 1%? >> They look at three factors. is they look at um income taxes, sales tax, and property values. >> Okay? >> So, they put that into this calculation and it spits out the LCI. Um the biggest I think factor that hurts Bedford County being a rural county and as big as we
100are, the county, I'm not arguing their policy here, um if you have uh land and agricultural use, you don't pay as much on your property taxes. The [snorts] state doesn't count that. they count the true value of the assessed value rather than a decreased one in which the county is collecting. So they're saying the LCI is that that high. I know um our our order supervisors in some county saying but that's agriculture use. You shouldn't be doing that. Well, that's how Richmond calculates. That's I mean that's that's their rules right now and they haven't changed those. >> So yes, um I can't tell you >> you know if income tax goes up, sales tax goes down, property tax, right? They all feed in and then then they divide and then that it spits out this
101formula. >> I got you. >> Yeah. So hard to tell what would what would force that to change? >> Yeah. >> Forgive me. So, uh theoretically if the LCI goes up, the state says, "Okay, you can afford a locality to pay more." >> Yes. >> Okay. So, that $730,000, it didn't go away. They're just saying, "All right, you need to pony it up from your local fund." Is that >> that's how the state that's how their metric works. Yes. >> Now whether the locality does it or not is up for the locality to decide how they want to fund schools, but the state's going to cut you. >> And that's why I'm saying over the last 10 years, 12 years. >> It's gone up dramatically. >> It's gone up like four over $4 million, but
102reversion, we've been getting a better rate because of the reversion being in place. So, have you really felt it? Not in its ty, but it's coming. >> Gotcha. >> What we have felt is that because it's coming, we've been putting money aside and not putting it into our operating fund to do the raises, do other things that we'd like to do. So, we've been cutting and doing other things to prepare for that. And that's just been a burden. That's, you know, it it it's been tough keeping up with that on top of inflation both hidden at the same time. But the and just so that everybody understands the flip side of that is that even though the LCI is going up, the tax rate hasn't gone up. So there's no more money coming in from
103the local locality even though the state assumes that it could. >> The state says it should. Whether locality does it or not is what what the community wants to bear and what they want to do. So it's a community decision. Yeah. Um you have different communities that have different things. Um, as I said, if you redo the formulas in Northern Virginia right now, some of them, the max that the LCI can go up to is 80%. So, if you go to Fairfax, they're max >> they're getting 20% from the state, 80% coming locally. I don't know if you're living in Fairfax, you're going, what gives with that? So, that's what I'm saying. When they redo this formula, I don't know what's going to happen. So, um, the state understands that some wealthy areas can pay
104and then they got to shift into other areas that can't do it and stuff. So, it's a complicated thing, but ours has been creeping ours has been creeping up and now we're Yeah. >> And and Randy, ours is creeping up because of the growth in forest. >> It's >> and even though we have not, correct me if I'm wrong, it it and even though we haven't raised our taxes, we are getting more money from those houses and things that are >> this the the county is getting that money. >> I'm jumping into an area that's not mine, but I'll say this is the way it works. uh the county collects revenue through several different me mechanisms, the biggest being property taxes. So if property values go up, and people refer to it equalizing, if property
105values go up and you drop your rate to equalize, that means you're going to bring in the exact same amount of revenue you did last year next year. And I think that's being like, well, that means inflation doesn't exist. And it does. So theoretically, when property values go up, you leave your property tax the same and you bring in the extra money to deal with inflation and things that you're dealing with. That hasn't been the case here. I'm not blaming anybody. I think in the last time they re uh they did something, they left they didn't equalize. They left three cents to take care of CIP issues of which some of that is benefiting us with the uh Liberty High School, Stan River High School, and veter primary. So they kept three cents and brought
106in more revenue to pay the debt service on those. So that some of that helped us. So that those are the challenges with the board of supervisors and where do they set the rate? Where is it appropriate? The state is like you do what you want to do, but we're cutting you. That's that's how they balance it. And as a county gets richer, right, they cut the schools. They don't cut the county. The mechanism of the state saving money is on the schools. And we have no revenue generating capability. We just have to advocate and do the best we can. So there's there's different competing things out there um that can cause that and stuff, but um that's how the state formula works today. We'll see what happens in the future. Anybody else? All right,
107it's up to me. Um I just want to thank you, Mr. Haggler, uh Mr. uh Dupair, and the rest of the staff for working um on this. I I know it's tough. I know it's a lot of hard work, especially with what we're up against. Um, I want to thank all of the board members [laughter and snorts] who came into this office and and first off gave suggestions for what we would like to do uh this year, but also looking into the future of what we're kind of up against as well. And I think uh um that was really important. It was good to set up our priorities and say what's what's important to us as a board. So, I want be I want to say thank you to everybody for that. Um, lots of
108things were discussed tonight. So, kind of want to go back to what Mr. Jupair brought up um of some of the things in in his um uh budget. Um, I was at a meeting, I think it was last week, and Sheriff Miller was bringing up uh about the growing mental health challenges that they're facing in the community and in the county. We're seeing the same things. Um, sheriff's department is dealing with it more and more. It's real and it's serious. So um I am glad that that we are addressing it with um our younger uh students. Um the other thing that we should when we think about that um is that it's really hard for a teacher to run a classroom. It's probably a lot harder when they're having disruptions all the time. It's definitely
109hard on the other students that are there. Um so it's definitely not fair for that. So I'm glad that we are trying to address it. I know we address it in middle school and high school, but I'm glad that we we are addressing that. I'm also glad that we're addressing making sure that we have SRO's in our our building. So, I think everybody in the community is is all for that. And uh I don't think you're going to get any push back from any of us, any of us here. Um at the same time though, as you guys all have heard tonight, that we are facing serious financial pressures and we need to be honest about it. Now we have a $3 million reversion gap. That's could be four, four and a half, five million.
110Um, that presents a real challenge for long-term stability. We thought we were trying to come in for a soft landing. It looks like it's bumpy and it's getting bumpier. Uh, inflation continues to increase operating costs, which you've heard about tonight throughout this division. CIP costs, fuel, materials, food, and then a 30% increase in health insurance. And third, we're falling behind with salary competitiveness compared to other school divisions, not just across Virginia, but definitely in our region. It certainly makes that harder. It makes it harder on us to recruit and retain highquality teachers and staff that our students deserve. On top of that, of course, as I just talked about, our student needs are increasing, especially in mental with mental support. When it comes to um funding, we need to look at these facts. Um several
111years ago uh we decided to start putting 600,000 into our maintenance reserve and before that we that was like three years ago I don't think we put anything in. So we started doing that but our request to to the county I think three years ago our request was zero additional dollars. Two years ago was zero additional dollars and then last year I think we requested 4.5 million. Um we did get some there was definitely uh the uh the money from the debt service that we were getting for the schools but um we requested 4.5 this year requested 1.8 that's 60% less than last year. I believe that that request that's initial request is reasonable. It shows that we're trying to be fiscally responsible while maintaining while addressing the uh immediate needs of our students and
112our teachers. And I know as as has been said tonight and we all hear about, the county certainly has challenges as well. They have a ton of priorities that they need to fund and they also have limited resources. They have tough decisions to make just as we do. The truth is this. The people of Bedford County here deserve the truth and they're more than capable of understanding the reality that we face. Everyone here tonight laid out a very sobering picture. that three million to5 million dollar shortfall is going to come really quickly. Before we talk about the tough decisions that I actually see in front of us, I want to share an example. Um, most of us have all had a toothache at some point. First, you start out small, you take a sip, you're
113like, "That didn't feel right." You know, you go to sleep, you have a rough night sleeping, and maybe I just bit down the wrong way. Well, it's not that bad. I'm going to deal with it later. You ignore it. You think the problem, the tooth is going to fix itself, but it doesn't. Weeks go by, months go by. Eventually, that turns into a root canal or a crown or worse, a painful extraction. What could have been fixed with a small filling became a major problem. More pain, more time, and a lot more money. I think that lesson there is pretty simple. Doing nothing doesn't resolve the problem. It makes it worse. Leadership is not avoiding hard decisions. It's making them before the problem becomes bigger and more expensive. A couple years ago um on this
114board we had an opportunity to make a tough decision, very difficult decision. Wasn't optimal and nobody liked the options. But instead of acting, we didn't do anything and doing nothing had a cost. That cost us $2 million in repairs and it cost us $900,000 a year for the last two years to keep a building open. It's nearly $4 million that have gone could have gone towards programs for our students and raises for our teachers and staff. But we didn't act and now we must. Our teachers and staff deserve more. We're pushing for 3% increase in step raises. Is it enough? Absolutely not. But the reality is we cannot give them more because our denominator is too large and compared to our numerator. Our expenses are outpacing our revenue. We cannot cut our way to success.
115But we have a responsibility to be good stewards of the resources that we have. Small schools are expensive to operate. So the way that I see it is we have a binary choice and neither neither option is perfect. [cough] This has [clears throat] to do with our budget shortfall and what we see in the future. Option one, we can eliminate classroom positions across the county and we can increase our classroom sizes to the so SOQ limit. Option two is we look carefully at our buildings and consider closing one. One option that must be thoughtfully considered is the potential closure of Stewartsville Elementary School. I know this is not a decision that should be taken lightly. Stewartsville has a long history and a deep connection to the community. But reviewing this option allows us to determine
116whether resources could be better aligned to support student learning, maintain competitive compensation for teachers and staff, and expand uh essential services like mental health support. Under this option, Stewartsville Elementary would be decommissioned and K4 students would go to Good View Elementary. Within the Stanton River attendance zone, all fifth grade students from Stewartsville, Good View, Huddleston, and Manita would attend Stanton River Middle School and the eighth grade students would transition to Stanton River High School. We brought this up, this exact thing two years ago. The option, this option is projected to reduce annual expenses from $900,000 of today's money to probably close to a million a year in perpetuity while also avoiding millions in long-term capital improvement and maintenance costs. Again, this is still not an easy decision, but leadership requires us to act act when
117the facts are clear. Doing nothing is not neutral. Doing nothing simply makes the problem bigger. So with that, I would like to ask this board for consensus on next week's school board meeting agenda. So we have a public comment u period on this prior to our regular um public comment during the meeting followed by a vote on what was option two regarding Stewartville Elementary School at the March 12th board meeting. Our responsibility is to use taxpayer dollars wisely while providing the best possible education and support to every student in Bedford County. So with that, I respectfully ask for consensus so that we can begin addressing this challenge responsibly. [clears throat] >> So with that, I will ask consensus for that. >> Can I ask a question before you do that? >> Yes. >> Okay. Sorry,
118I always have questions. I'm see I have um so our vote tonight is not necessarily to follow that plan. Our vote tonight is do we want to introduce that plan to make a vote on next week? Is that Yeah. Okay. I just want to make sure >> and to have um a uh a commentary period before that. >> Mr. Chairman, if if I could also say too um like we discussed earlier, we could put um because not all board members were here two years ago. So we could do a recap infill item also on the agenda next week so that the presentation can be shown again. Everything can be shown again gone over again. >> Yes. Okay. Are we good at looking for consensus? So that's a yes or a no. >> Yes. Yes. >>
119No. >> Yes. >> This is from a Jordan. >> Okay. All right. Um if there's nothing else, we will move on to adjournment. So with that, uh do I have a motion to adjurnn? >> So moved. >> Do I have a second? >> Second. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. >> Any opposed. You are adjourned.