001Who do I blame for getting behind myself back? I'll put it here. >> What's that? >> Did you read this? >> Yeah, that's what I wanted you to do. >> It's all good. It's fine. >> Um, there's rationale on the back. You can >> Okay. All right. We don't care. >> Yeah, I don't care. You ready to call to order? >> Yep. >> All right. Uh minutes from 7825. I was good with them. Yeah. Good. Approved. >> All right. Uh nutrition detail profit loss. >> Yeah. And the passed out on your second page there. Um I got two pages on the financials from the uh nutrition department. Last year we started taking corrective action, you know, in regards to the previous year's losses and kind of we're updating you on that. Um, so this is
002looking at uh revenue, expenses, profit and loss, the margin, and then also adding our meals per labor hour last year by school. That's a common way they look at it. That's where you allocate certain amount of hours to uh breakfast, lunch, and also alocart, and you come up with meals per labor hour. Uh you can see the changes uh that we put in effect for 2526. And so we're confident that we'll have a big reduction um in some of the expenditures and bring um a lot of the schools back to about a level playing field on those meals per hour. There are a couple schools that um I'm digging into more details on this uh that look like they're a little bit out of whack. Um one is Manita. Um so I'm going to do
003some more research on that. We are cutting back the hours there. They had a large capital expenditure this year. that happens every once in a while when we're installing things or major equipment. Um, but you can see a lot of the other ones, anything over $10,000, I'd say, is an anomaly that's not given each and every year. The other school that had a large capital was Liberty High School. We installed those um dispensers where kids can go in and put in their ID and get a and get a qualified lunch meal right from the dispenser. So, those >> those are a one-time expenditure there. But still looking at the uh meals per labor hour, I think um I need to give some attention to Liberty High School. They're kind of low compared to the other
004high schools and middle schools. So, we'll be working on that um and making some changes probably there this year. Manita, I'm going to do some more digging into there um to see um their their profit loss was uh the loss was significant compared to the others and it should be more in line to probably where Hudson is as a break even operation. So I think the combination of the uh the reduction in staff will help there. Um but on the second page I'm looking at the material cost, food cost and also um other costs and Medita was a little bit high there too. So working with that manager trying to get that back down to a break even proposition is what we're going to be looking at. U Liberty High Shield should be a break
005even or profitable operation with uh schoolwide u lunches and breakfast being provided. Um, and you can see really uh at the very top or the third grouping of elementary schools, you know, when when it's not entirely uh free and reduced lunch or C school, um, none of those schools will be really profitable. Um, but we have made reductions in three of those schools to drive out the meals per labor hour. So, >> couple of questions. >> Yes, sir. >> With the capital expenditures, that's equipment. >> Yes, sir. >> And that's on the P&L, not balance sheet. >> It's all on the P&L. Um, so everything that they expend in here on a cash basis is just flown on there. So yes, I it'll it impacts the P&L when we report to the state. Yeah. Any
006capital any expenditure there goes on there. >> Okay. >> So some years are going to be larger, some years going to be smaller depend on what we're doing at the school. >> It's not a lot of revenue and you get decent capital expenditure, it's going to >> Yeah. If you look at high school, $40,000 is probably, you know, it's more than what we do at the other schools. I'm thinking between, you know, thousand and 5,000 per school per year is kind of like maybe in a acceptable, not acceptable zone, but a normal zone. Anything beyond that, we're replacing major equipment. And like I said, Liberty High School, it was really the investment in those dispensers. I think there's three or four of them. Uh kids can go and type in their code and get get
007a lunch. They don't even have to go through the line. So those are in the school now. So we're hoping that will drive up revenues and they were installed I think in March of last year. So, we didn't we really don't have a good trend on the revenues of that yet. >> Um, you're showing the the revenue and the food cost and the percentage of revenue. Is that is that a is that a cost of is that a true cost of goods sold or is that a cost of goods purchased? >> Purchased because we have uh ending inventory. >> Do we do a beginning and an ending? >> Yes, we do. I have a month for that. Um, they do it each month and then at the end of year I have to account for
008that. >> Okay. Yes, sir. >> So, that's just a cost of cost of goods purchase. It's not really >> it's the uh Yeah, it's everything that was purchased during the year. Uh ending in inventory would uh impact that and bring that down a little bit. >> Okay. So that is so because I mean without looking at if that's the case I'm going to assume inventory to start the year and end the year is the same. >> I can add that. I have that data on the detail sheets um I'll add this for next time so we can look at what ending inventory is. Um that will impact that. And then I would I would I would ask people in charge over there, how much waste do we have if they're you know because that's a
009factor of what percentage of stuff is >> a lot of stuff just you know it's if you were to go into a cafeteria and I've been in there um if it's not packaged and sealed you know if it's like that it can go back onto a share table but anything else has to go in the trash and to get a qualified meal you have to have certain components on there and they've got to take it and it's unfortunate like to get a complete meal you got to take this and the kid might not eat and that's going to go in the trash. Um, the other thing we'll have to watch as we go through our supplies on the styrofoam is that's not allowed anymore. So, we're going to have to deal with that this year.
010Um, so at a future meeting, I'll tell you what our plans are for that, but we have some supplies to um use up in that area. So, uh, but it's going to be a higher cost for those materials in the future, which is going to impact it. >> See if we can sell any styrofoam cups to Chick-fil-A because I am really upset that they don't get my >> Yeah. Um I encouraged um Susan Quizenberry, our supervisor said that actually applications in the forest zone uh were coming in a lot a lot, you know, um they were coming in quicker than they were last year. Uh we did do some marketing and making sure parents knew about that. So we were putting special emphasis on that to make sure people were filling those out and I
011think she was pretty pleased. We'll see how that results um and our revenue in the end. Um but making sure people were aware of that uh every possible um when parents were coming for the open night uh to visit their teachers, making sure we were advertising that please fill these out if you think you qualify. Even if you don't think you qualify, fill it out, maybe you will. >> So, um and and I I drew attention to Manita that it looks like their percentage of revenue for the food and also on their materials a little bit higher percentage than the others. So, um we're going to go back and take a look at that. Um so, this is data that I now have in summary format. Um, we've got details on each school by month,
012but I want to start bringing this to you periodically. So, you know, we'll keep an eye on these um this level and knowing what's causing this. >> Yeah. I just want to make sure I understand. So, expenses are made up of food, labor, and equipment. >> Yeah, that's everything. >> All right. So, expenses are everything. >> Anything that we paid cash for. >> Okay. So, then if I look at the second page, >> that's just the food expense. Yes, sir. So for example, Bever primary total expense was 231K. Food was 1080K. >> Yes sir. >> And then incidental materials like supplies and stuff 12. So we're we're separating that out. So the rest would have been salaries and benefits. But because I'm looking at salaries and benefits really on a meals per hour basis, not
013just basically here's the expense. So I'm giving the overall P&L based on total expenses. Then I'm looking at what are the food. Is that within reason or a target range? >> And our target range is that both food and incidental costs outside of capital will be right around the 50% range. A lot of these schools are hitting that which I'm pretty pleased at. And then meals per labor hour, we're targeting somewhere around you know 13 to 15 or higher than that. So those that are below those meals per hour we have to address and look at reductions in staff to deal with that. Um I I guess the only other question I have is like as far as the free and reduced launch, there's two zones that have a it's a big big big percentage
014of that, right? Is free and reduced. >> two zones are all the entire schools are okay. They call them C. But just so anybody that's watching that doesn't mean you get the same reimbursement rate per school. uh it can vary greatly um depending on um you know the numbers for that school and the poverty levels for that >> where our reimbursement is at least equal to our expense. >> We we actually have a calculator that the state gives and then we can put in some assumptions on there that if a school goes entirely C you should see a jump in lunches because now it's free. You're going to get more participation than when people were paying. But my but my question is are we getting money back the the dollar that it's costing this is
015every expense dollar covered? So if we're we're going to see increase in lunch, but are we getting dollar for dollar for everything we're spending for those lunches? >> Before we move a school into CP, I'll try to answer that. Before we move it in, we'll go through an analysis of that school based upon the reimbursement dollars we're getting back compared to what's happening right now. So we may get you're charging this amount for u a full meal. So you're not going to get that anymore. You'll get this reimburseed from the federal government, but you might go up you probably you might go up and with participation which drives up revenue. So if the overall revenue is coming in at a higher level than it was prior to going to a C, then that makes it
016a school that is something that we want to move to. >> But when we sell a lunch at full price, right? We're not selling it at full price to break even. Correct. Um most of it's you know a lot of the modeling and what we're doing now in the past we were building up reserves uh u to be totally honest but not huge reserves uh the last two years we've seen those erode so actually what we're charging right now is probably not even taking care of what's happened in inflation at this point. >> That's what I'm saying. So if it's if it's $3 and we it cost $3 to make the meal. We're operating at break even. If it's $3 to make it and we have to give it to him at 250 we're taking
017a 50. On the federal reimbursement side, um you can see in some of the schools that are C, uh the revenue dollars are coming in is paying for our staff and also the food prices to make it and everything. So, we're profitable at most of those. >> Okay. >> Um and some of those we've gone back, if you look at that sheet, we're making reductions in staff. So, we anticipate those schools to be uh um profitable. So, that any school that's a CD should be bringing in a profit and actually offsetting some of those schools that struggle to make a profit that are not. >> Yeah. I was looking because you would think that with the amount of students that we have at JF, they would we would have the highest amount of revenue there
018and they're not. Uh Stanton River Middle has has more revenue than they do. Even Bedford Elementary is fairly close and Bedford Elementary was profitable. Stanton River was profitable and JF was profitable but only 2%. >> I mean, when you look at some of those schools, uh kids going through the line for lunch, it could be 85% 90% of the kids going through lunch. So you're getting a reversible for every one of those where a JF you might have less than half going through and they're and they're being charged. Some are free and reduced with the application. So it it's not a slam dunk. You have to do the analytics to see if you want to move a school from um to a C school where it's all paid for and it really depends on where
019their um the poverty level is which um drives that. So there's some that are getting closer um than some that are a lot further away um that would never it would it wouldn't pay to move to entirely CP and by and by the code is is that if that happens then the locality has to make up the difference to the nutrition program to keep it at a break even level. So that means you'd have to move money from operating over there uh to make sure it break. So we've we've not pulled the trigger on those. We look at those other schools especially in the forest area. look at the schools to see what the levels are to see if it would be a school that might qualify and uh in the future we may move
020one uh make a move to one >> um to see how that does. I think this board or this committee's asked. We'd like to see the results of making that change. Um we could either pull back from a school or move one in and see what the results are to really see what that change is. It's been quite a long time since we went uh moved all the other schools to C and I just don't have the data to do a proper analysis of that at this point. >> Yeah, I I'm definitely interested in where we've got $93,000 loss understanding. I know you said you >> Yeah, I'll bring back that. You know, this was we put a lot of this together at the end once we had the final data. Um so and looking
021at this uh the reduction in hours the capital expenditure definitely drove that but um I think the food p the food level percentage of food and also incidentals was a little bit high on that school too. So um we'll be giving some attention to training and watching the uh u the purchases at that school. Is there any possibility of a consolidation of the lunchroom at Stanton River and Stanton High, Stanton River Middle and High School to >> um >> Well, I'm not saying every student come in at the same time. >> They're >> saying to consolidate like the staff and the food being prepared in one place. >> prepared in one place. Um we have not looked at that. Both those schools are a little bit older. Um kind of small. Um, I'd say >>
022you run three lunches. So, you'd be having to run six lunches, which means you'd have to start it if you did it that way. >> You would prepare it at the high school and move it over to the middle school and they would come through the middle school line, but it's prepared at one place. So, you cut down on this maybe the the cooking staff, the the chefs and the people that are putting it together. You'd still have staff going through >> one school like a bag lunch, right? Um, I know Lynchburg, I think Lynchburg, I'm not 100%, but when you got a smaller city, I think they have a centralized kitchen and they just ship it out. >> We're too we're too big for that. It's problematic. But we can look at the schools
023that are close together and that there may be opportunity. >> JF, Forest Elementary, Forest Middle, >> you know, having one location >> moving through. So, it's just a thought. I mean, as we continue to pitch dollars, >> we're we're going to have to be creative. >> That's what these meetings are for. I mean, we we're trying to think of everything we can. um we addressed um the hours and getting into that. Um we're addressing the revenue, but if there's other things, we'll explore that. So, I'll add that to our list. Yeah. >> How do you calculate the meals per labor hour? >> Uh there is a sheet that is um that Suzanne uses. You it's when you're looking at it, you get it's a factor of so much for lunch, so much for breakfast, and
024so much for an alocart. >> Okay? Alakart doesn't usually require a lot of labor hours but you still got to put it out there and account for it through the going through the line. So it's like if a lunch is a one factor breakfast might be a 0 75 and alakart 025 and allocating all that. So it looks at the the amount of meals you're serving and allocating that across. So there's a there's a calculation for that. >> What do you want to see? >> Uh we wanted to get up I'd like to see them all around. you know, if you see where some of the ones that are profitable, we want to get them up to the 145. Uh the high schools and middle schools a little bit big. They're bigger, so you don't
025need as many chefs because they're doing bigger quantities. You're up around the 20 mark. >> Um so, we want to see those get up. Um you can see Liberty High School, we need to get that one up. We got to address that one. >> And that is a good metric to use. That's we use that. >> Yep. >> Um and state gives guidance on that. So we started applying that last year when addressing the issue and that's why you see those reductions. I think Liberty High School was like those new machines are coming out. We're seeing if that's going to drive up revenues and we'll see what happens there. But if it doesn't change, we'll be making some changes there, too. >> We would use meals per labor hour. >> All right. Well, we're keeping
026an eye on it and um I'll continue to brief you probably coming back to you on this one probably after the mid year. I I think the first quarter might be too soon to kind of present how we're going to do the whole year. I can, but kind of just starting off. Um, so that's my goal and I'll look into centralized kitchens and see if that's a possibility. >> That's a good idea. >> So the next topic that's on the agenda is that should that not be in close session? >> It will be in close session. I just put it on there because this committee asked me to look into it. I do have somebody doing an appraisal. I don't have it back yet. I hope to have it at the next board meeting. Okay.
027>> And which we'll add a closed session item for the full board to review. So that's all I wanted to say on that. >> Okay. >> I don't want to go into any details because it is closed item. >> Okay. Got it. >> Town park update. Same thing, right? >> Same thing. Um so just letting you know I got some um some information back on that one and so I can brief the board on that one at the next closing. >> Okay. >> So >> uh preliminary enrollment numbers for 2526. This is very preliminary. The school year just started, but we watch the numbers because it drives a lot of our revenue from the state and so we are a little bit down compared to budget right now, but some kids are showing up each
028and every day. So I'll be able to give a full briefing probably at the board meeting on where I f we we usually go to the first 10 days. We look at the 10th day and say that's going to be a pretty good close cut of what we're expecting for the year with some dropouts and on you know some kids leaving between here and the spring. and I actually get funded off our spring numbers, not these numbers. So, it's a good gauge of how we're doing on budgets. So, I'll brief the full board. Um, right now, uh, we're a little bit down >> down compared to spring numbers >> to compared to what I budgeted. >> Okay. >> So, um, it's not catastrophic, but we're watching it and each day we're getting more kids back
029in. So, we're going to wait for the first 10 days to come in to really kind of give a true read. And I'll brief the board probably at the next meeting. And if it's and give a dollar figure of how much less I'm going to get from the state and say, okay, then what do we do? Um what are some things? And that would come back to this committee. If you're going to be down from the state, you know, a million dollars, what actions do we need to take place to bring this budget in on for uh for the year? Because we do have to take actions if we're down that much. If we're down $200,000. A lot of things change over the year. I'm not that concerned off $125 million budget. 10023000,000. When you
030get close to a million, you got to shut things down and make some tough decisions. >> It's not that many kids to get to a million either. >> No. Um it's about 9,200 per kid. So, um it adds up quick. >> How many are we down right now? >> As of today, when I did uh did it at noon today, 79 kids. So, you're in 7 700,000 range. >> I expect that to come down. I hope. Um, you know, you could pick up 10 kids tomorrow. >> And that that can be that's that's a lot of money. >> It's better than two days ago. Yes. So, >> so just as a to let them know, what are schools instructed to do when they are no kids are supposed to be there and aren't there? Are
031they calling those kids? Are they >> They have their protocols. it like it's kids that don't have their physicals yet or it's kids. >> Yeah, there there are some of that. Dr. Cornet, I'll refer to you. You were a principal. So, Dr. Calbert, what do you do? >> Secretaries are following up with our principles, calling getting why they're not there, reasons of why they're not there, um, and trying to get the the numbers accurate. If if the child's not showing up and and you need to enroll at a different school, we haven't gotten those records or we have gotten those records, those kind of things, >> right? You can't count them present till they physically show up. So even though you expect them, you can't they have to physically show up before you can start
032counting them. >> Yeah. One of the things that I've seen that I think we need to be very cautious of is a lot of the social media tied to our schools are saying you have to have certain vaccines. That's not true. There are ways that you can submit a form that say you don't require that. But a lot of the messaging is you cannot step foot in our schools until you have this and that's not true statements. And so we need to be very careful with that. So I don't know if that's driving some of the numbers being down. Uh but we definitely want to make sure that whoever are running social media understand that that's not the only way you can come to to our schools. There are workarounds on that. So just >>
033do we go back and look? I know that Mr. Blanket Chip used to do a report shows how many more kids we're projecting and everything else >> when they show up or when we start the school year. We go back and look to see how accurate those numbers >> have been. I mean, I do a detail. I'm watching the first 10 days. So, just on those >> with Dr. Calver and I, we're because you're staffing during the summer, so you're working off the budget, but you're watching the numbers come in. So, every week we pull the numbers of what enrollment is. Now, traditionally, the first day of school, you see about 200 kids disappear. They don't have their vaccines. They don't have their paperwork. They don't show up. They're on vacation. They come back two
034days later, especially a Wednesday start. Our biggest input, our biggest jump this year has been Monday because they took three days and came back on Monday. We don't encourage them to do that, but that's what happens. So, I look at historical trend throughout the summer. What happens the first day? What happens to day 10? And do we make that back up? And where are we going? So we we look back two or three years on that and whatever these numbers will factor into our budget for next year forecast that you know if there's truly a decline at the end then that will kind of have a factor into how we project the following year. So >> and we allocate staff according like if the numbers are up then we might allocate another teacher to a
035school or if the numbers are down we might move a teacher or we might not rehire when someone leaves. Like that's a constant thing all summer long. >> Do you have any schools that are over what we had budgeted? >> Yeah, we gave one to Newon London, right? >> Yeah, we give out when we see that it's hard numbers and we're really sure about it. The hard thing is when you're seeing things enrolled, sometimes they don't know that they've moved like you were just asking. What do secretaries do? They don't show up. Hey, oh, we moved. Okay. But what happens is we have our numbers in our system. we're anticipating this and then I say the first day if they don't physically show up they're unenrolled and then they re they enroll the second day.
036So you see a big exodus the first day and then it usually comes back. So when we're looking at our numbers and the signing staff we're going >> is there going to be a big exodus and do they come back? Because once you sign a contract with a teacher you've kind of committed. So we you know we're playing that game. this does this even work with nine or 10 or whatever because you can cut the classes look and see if it's impossible, you know, we we do all that. >> So, it's a balance between doing what's right for the kid in the school but also watching the financial side so we don't overcommit because if you have a school where it's like our numbers are here I need two more teachers and they don't show
037up. I just hire two teachers they don't need and what do we do then? Then we can move them around during a year to bring our budget in. But we're always watching that and we watch that every week. And yes, we look at what is the historical trend so we can get it as close as possible. >> Yeah. >> All right. Vendor analysis. >> Um I'll defer to you on that. I sent out the spreadsheet to the two of you and with all the details and also um vendors and their names um kind of like who are we doing the business with top dollar-wise and working down and so I'll defer to the two committee members is do you want additional data from that on any vendor product uh what are they doing? >> No,
038I got to go back and I appreciate you bringing that up but you did send that out. There were like five or six that like were big top dollars >> that I need to figure out and I'll I'll reach out and find out what those were. >> Yeah, a lot of the top dollar ones is either going to be construction. >> Yeah. >> You know, with with some of the construction, nutrition, the food purchase going to be up there. >> Um and like the bus leases that we're phasing out of that are still there. Those those are the big hitters, but there are some other ones that um yeah um I'll be happy to pull in more data. We need I need to we need to look at that. >> And depending on what department
039it is in, I'll bring whoever's there that's responsible for that budget line item and they can talk to you about that uh purchase. >> Okay. Um this might be I'm just going to ask it since I'm thinking about it. with the facilities and the spend that we've got going at the two high schools and Bford primary. We were doing some of that um self where we purchase it and it's tax. >> Yes. Yes. We're doing direct owner purchasing. >> Direct owner purchasing >> and that'll produce savings on the overall project. >> Are we keeping up with that? uh Taylor Bell is keeping up that within and and and what happens is with the Jamerson contract as we direct purchase it goes in as a change order as a reduction because we bought it ourselves. It's
040not going to be paid to them. >> Can you can you have some preliminary numbers of what we have so far? >> It hasn't been a lot because the um mechanical equipment hasn't started showing up. It's been tear down and um temporary fencing so they can work while the school's open. So they got as much done as the canopies which was physical labor of working on those. it's the mechanical equipment. Um, so I don't think it's a lot yet. Um, but I just >> I'll add that to this list so I can keep track of that. I think the the facility committee is also interested in the same thing and they've asked for that data, too. >> All right. Uh, 2627 budget calendar. >> Thought I'd bring this to you because we need to bring
041it to the whole board with the calendar for next year, too. Um, and that's in your sheet if you I think it's the third page. Oh, by the way, just, you know, I gave enrollment numbers. Sales tax is a big part of our revenue budget from the state, too. And off of two months, the sales tax is 8% ahead of budget. So, that's 372,000. They take some of that back away from me in direct aid, but I keep some of it. So, that's a positive. We're not down. So, that is not that's not a negative. We're seeing a good trend on that off of two months, >> but >> you know how December drives a lot of that. So, we'll wait and see. But, uh, at least a good trend on that part. Uh, the
042budget calendar. Um, we were very aggressive last year to get numbers over to the board of supervisors. Um, and my concern for next year, it's going to be a long long budget cycle for the general assembly. The governor, who is going to be outgoing, is going to recommend a budget to the general assembly. don't know what the makeup of the general assembly is going to be, but if it stays the way it is, um you have two different parties and the outgoing governor making a recommendation, you could see a drastic change in what they do to to that budget. Um but um based upon previous years for a long year, um and the state has delayed giving me those cut sheets, they go through a much more thorough review process before I get them. I
043used to get them very quickly, but based upon a long budget, um I did not receive the House and Senate version cut sheets of what we're going to get until midFebruary. Um general assembly in April finalizing that and then finally governor signed it in June. That was a late one. The governor proposes in December. So, if we're going to present something in January, we're going to be presenting off of um the governor's proposed budget, and I don't know how valid that's going to be. That's just me speaking from I don't want to get too much into politics, but uh that does play a place. >> Remind me, Randy, what was our request to the board of supervisors? >> Total amount we were asking for, I think it was about 3 point, was it around 4
044million? 4.2 >> 4.2 4.2 and we got what? >> A million. >> So, us getting it to them early, >> is that worth our time? >> Um, I think engaging them um on what our needs are and and I I think sometimes the public and maybe others think that we just want wants and I think Mr. Paris put it this way. These are needs and I think we're struggling, you know, long-term CIP, uh, retaining our teachers, being competitive, um, health insurance rate. A lot of these are needs because we're becoming less competitive for our staff, right? >> And doing retire school, we're going up on our our ratios, which means more kids in a classroom to balance our budget. So, the I I don't think these are just wants. I think they're needs. I think
045we can still do that. But if we base something off the governors, then we might say I hate going out and saying, "Okay, we're going to base it on this and then all a sudden we get four million more from the general assembly." Everybody's saying, "You're you're crying, woof, or vice versa. We're getting this from the state and we get a lot less." So, it's just going to be a different year. So, I'm looking for guidance for you all. Do we go a little bit later? You've also got new board members coming in from a schoolboard perspective, you know, so you don't want to make too many decisions before January with the fact that you've got new board members coming in. >> I I think in the past we can go back to a later
046date. Uh it was nice getting it done and getting it over so we could have those discussions with this committee had with their finance committee. I think it was it was a nice conversation. >> I think we can do the same. >> Nice conversation. We can we we can do this we can do the same in advocating and just saying it's it's hard to predict what the state's going to do at this point. So my I'm kind of waiting on uh DE and F of your agenda before I go back to the county and set up some some quarterly or an additional two meetings with finance just to to because the discussion that I had with the chairman is what's the difference between a want and a need. >> Yeah. >> And we had that
047whole discussion. So what I want to see is what upper hand what would we have you know what what are what's our true need >> before I start that conversation again. >> I agree 100%. But what you know and I think it's important that uh Mr. Daniels and I remind the board at our next school board meeting next year is going to be a tough discussion when it comes to budget. >> Yep. I agree. And you know, we we tried to start the conversation two years ago about reducing our total number of schools. And Randy, keep me average of 850,000 to 900,000. >> It's going up each year because stuff it cost more. >> You know, we we started that conversation and you know, several people in the community know we love our community schools.
048We do too, but you got to fund them. >> And so that conversation has, you know, we've either got to decide you know what's important. Are we going to have community schools and we're going to get budget from the county or are we going to increase classroom sizes if that's what's needed and we're going to have to reduce some of the the schools that we have. Those are conversations that this board has to have and we cannot wait until April, May, whatever to say we got to make a decision for August because to be fair to you guys, it doesn't happen that fast. But we cannot wait to make decisions around budget. When we asked for $4.2 million last year and we got a million, guess what? That's probably what you're going to get next
049year. So we as inflation continues to go up, we've got to start we got to start having these conversations. >> So are you good with me going over there and starting that conversation even as early as September, October? >> Yeah. I mean, I'm fine with all conversations. I don't know what those conversations get you, though. >> Well, I think what we need to decide is to narrow down what our needs are because I want to go over there with those needs. and and I I think I showed you guys I I I put together a PowerPoint that she had made and several of them and kind of put them together and it actually caught their attention when I could say to them if we gave our teachers a 7% increase and everybody else around us
050gave a four I think it was we'd still be 14th out of 16. >> You only moved to something that that kind of caught their attention to some degree and so they know we're behind. Now, we have to explain with all the things that he just explained about in Richmond and the switches that could be going on there. I mean, it's going to look a lot different. And then when you throw in those other items that are negotiating tools, >> um, well, we need to start this conversation early. >> Not to mention, you cannot lose sight of 27 28 or is it 28 29? We >> got two more years. >> 2829. >> Yep. >> And that's reversing and I'm that's >> coming like a freight train. >> Um, yeah. So, and I think some
051of some of the, >> you know, when you look at it, this is what we need to do. This is what we want to do, but then there's things you have to do. >> Yeah. No, I agree. >> And and and I try to brief this committee and the board on those in January because I can do midyear. What's happening with electrical? What's happening with fuel? What's happening with insurance? What's happening So, those are like you have no choice. You You've got to adjust to what's happening on inflation or what's happening with things you have to buy. Um I I I come in this committee. It's like let's get rid of the lease payments on the buses. It's going to take seven years to clean that up, but in the end it'll be better for
052us. So it's cost a little bit now, but it'll be much better on the on on the back end of that. That's because the interest rates went up and started hitting us. >> So we can do so many of those things. Um but we've got to say we got to continue to support those. You cannot you cannot not buy buses because then your fleet will get old and you're going to be in a very big. So those things that we need absolutely have to do >> I can present pretty early. It's balancing the whole thing on what what is our revenue really going to look from from the state and I don't know if we're going to have a clean picture might depend on the outcome of the election and we might have an early
053read. I you just don't know where that's going right now and there's a lot up in the air. >> So let me ask the question because the next item here is committee request. about my request to you is if you just went through a a small list of things that need to be considered in this discussion, if you have some kind of list in your mind, send it to me. >> I think it's a conversation we need to have as a board to say, >> "No, I get that. >> What are the >> because what I think is important to more than think it's at the bottom of the list, but >> I get that we we cannot continue to fund schools that are not at capacity, can't continue to spend money that we don't
054have, and that's what we're doing. We're spending money we do not have >> and and we sneak into getting our budget even. >> And that's that's what we did. And and I understand if we had a surplus, would we be get cut? Maybe. Maybe we would. >> See, it's it's hard because the way the board balanced the budget last year in a sense is we went up on class sizes. Now, no one feels that globally. It's like it's not like sports has gone. Oh my goodness. It's like some classes went up. There's more kids in the class. Well, you can go to that so many times and all a sudden you have 25 in a kindergarten and people are going, "What happened? >> How did we get here?" Well, >> but we also supplemented that
055with money that does not continue. >> Correct. They're not feeling it this year. They will fill it next year. >> That's my point. We're spending money we don't have. >> That is a delayed impact because Yes, you're right. We're spending money we don't go up. It'll Everyone will fill the form. >> But my point is we asked for $4.2 million and we only got a million dollars. Not of wants, of needs. I think that's I I think that's you know again I think we did all our due diligence. I think that for you know our constituents, our the citizens, everyone that we serve, we could hang our hat and say we did everything that we could. We were I mean exceptionally transparent last year and I think we're going to continue to be exceptionally transparent.
056Let's continue to do that. >> Now I I would I would agree and I understand it's a lot of work and it could be Charlie Brown in the football, right? Where we just they just pull the football. It is what it is what it is. We can't control that. All we can do is make the best case that we can make. I have also argued um that again, I know it would be spending some money, but I'm going to say it and I've said it to both of you guys. I think we need to look at there's external audit auditors that can come in and look and say this is where you can get efficiency in your facilities. This is and and this is where you get fac uh efficiency in your curriculum. Hey, that's
057an outside party looking at it. Maybe it's going to confirm everything that we said, but it's another data point that we can point to and say something's got to change here. I'm willing to go through that exercise because nobody has their golden cal that they're holding on to. It becomes very apparent that of what we've been saying and maybe they'll turn over something that we haven't thought of either. But I think Mr. Hill is right. Continue to fund things that we, you know, because we couldn't pull the trigger on something because we got community push back and then we didn't get extra money. We then spend other money on, you know, HVAC systems for a school that's going to be 37% occupied. And then we go over these other budgets and I know they're separate,
058but it's all part of the same big thing. And and and we're losing money here and there because we got we're losing money in 21 school. >> We cannot continue to do that. It's not being a good steward of the money that we have and we're doing a complete disservice to the students because if we can reduce some of these other costs and even if we and even if there's a teacher shortage, right? So even if some of our teachers moved on to other places or whatever, if we had the same budget for those the remaining teachers, they'd get raises if we had we there's other things that we can >> do. You're getting very close. I'll say this. Um we look at that, you're getting very close to the SO standards of quality for
059teachers in the classroom. >> You're not going to be able to go to that well much more. >> No, you're just not you're going to be you're going to be at the max and you can't go there. To be fair, we didn't want to go to the well last year >> with that. We our hands were tied >> and I know the public and people look at it and they go the budget and they look at the operating. You're talking about that, but it's all, you know, we got the nutrition, we got the insurance fund, you got textbook >> and and and alluding to reversion. It's really the capital improvement and maintenance of all those maintaining everything we've been doing and continue to do that in future. >> There is no future funding stream for
060that. >> Correct. >> There isn't. It's not identified to me. You know, where I'm sitting, that's the biggest concern for me is yet, yes, we went up on class sizes. I think we need to be competitive with teachers. We need to make strides about that. But at the same time, we got this capital improvement long term. >> You need about four or five million dollars a year. you got 21 facilities and and alluding to that, I don't want to say yes on for but less facilities are less money for capital improvement because you you got less in inventory, >> right? >> And you don't have to maintain that. Um I know people don't like to hear that, but it it comes down to econ economics. You've got to maintain the equipment you got in the
061buildings you have. >> Yeah. I mean, sometimes it's not the things that you want to hear, but it's the truth. And the truth is what the most important thing because we can sit here and we can either take action or as one of my good buddies says, you can wish in one hand and poop in the other and see what fills up first. That is the truth of what we're up against. And we've got tough decisions to make. The public needs to understand that. We have said we want to put money into students and our teachers instead of bricks. Now, not saying we want rundown facilities either, >> but there's only the dollar can only get split so many ways. >> I mean, um, and then even right now, we could look at last year's
062budget. what wasn't funded and we're going that was a need the board can have discussions about that before even this January >> and say that that needs to be in there that is a need that's critical and you know when I do my midyear then I do my you know things you have to and there's a lot that'll flow into that but you can start with last year's those are things that we really needed and we didn't get those are on the list for next year >> look I mean there's a lot of hopes I hope electricity is going down I hope fuel is going down that's a hope. We don't know. But at the same breath, you got insurance rates, they're going up. >> Mhm. Definitely. >> So, I mean, I I think >>
063I don't think there's a problem having conversations, Mr. Dubai. I absolutely say go for it. >> I don't know. All you can do is be transparent. Get you anything. And I'll I'm saying that publicly. I don't think it gets you anything because we started it back in November trying to be transparent to say here's what we need, here's what we need, not what we want, here's what we need. These are needs and we got a million dollars out of 4.2. My investment goes a little what I'm attempting to do is goes a little different, a little bit deeper than just sitting here at a table and saying here's my needs. This is more about literally representing your constituents. Yep. >> And and that's where I am trying to to go into the conversation. So Stephen
064and I have talked about some possible meetings here in the future once he's done with one of his. So if we can start pairing up in different districts and and having this conversation, that's what he would like to do. That's what I would like to do. So we're going to pursue that once he makes his first contact. >> Well, I I don't think it it hurts anything. >> It can't hurt. >> Can't hurt. But, >> you know, it it it did >> I wish you well. >> It did bring a very good conversation with the chairman. That's all I'm going to say. We we spent two two different days together and it it was like, okay, I I didn't know that. So, it it it's transparency, but at the same time, it's you got to
065own it, >> right? >> You got to own it. >> Well, you have to. >> Yeah. I'm going to say that to me, we we've got to make decisions and we've got to stick to it. And unfortunately, sometimes those decisions are going to be unpopular, but we owe it to the schools itself, the system to make decisions to reduce dollars that we're spending that we don't have that we can't continue to fund. So, it it it's hard conversations and it's it's got to be it's got to be done. and that's coming if it's it's going to hit next year, but the next two years when that reversion comes, it it's going to be bad. And those are the conversations that need to take place. So, all right. >> If if I could go back to
066the counter, it would be my recommendation if you'd like and we can present it to the whole board that we push back instead of adopting our preliminary budget on the 29th of January, probably around the 25th, 26th of February. Yeah. >> Um, we can still have those conversations as we're going along, meeting with and talking to people, but officially you adopting and transmitting your request to the board of supervisors later in February would give me time to get hopefully cut sheets and get a more accurate state number. >> You and one of the things and we've advertised it for eight years that I've been on the board of, you know, public comment. Come tell us what's important to you. And I don't know if there's a different way to present that or to ask for
067feedback or for people to come attend meetings to understand here's where we're at. The these are the dollars that we have. This is what we're looking at. If anybody's got any recommendations on how to drive that conversation and to get people to come comment and uh and it's not just at this meeting, it's also at board of supervisors meetings so they're aware of what's needed. Those are the conversations that need to take place. So, if anybody's got any ideas of how to drive public comment for that, >> I don't necessarily like adding another meeting, but I'd give you a recommendation that we'll be briefing in our regular meetings on the numbers that I get and just keeping the board up to date. Committee will be meeting. You might call additional uh work sessions, but uh
068when the public hearing we officially do at your first meeting in January, give us feedback on the budget. >> I don't know if people are thinking about budget. No, >> they don't think about it until you propose it, >> right? >> So, it would push it off a little bit and I'm saying it's going to be tight to get it at the end of February. Hopefully, I got the worksheets from the state, but it's almost like here's our proposed budget. Then they show up and speak about it. Um, but I don't know if you're going to do a lot of cuts at that point because that's a preliminary where you're saying this is this is our need. This is what we need funding for. What what if we were to take the approach of if
069we were to get like for-like dollar budgeting that we got this year and the funding that we're using that's no longer there. Where does that put us? And then we start proposing here's what we're going to have to do to meet that budget >> just to meet it. >> And that's and I say we start that in November and December. I don't know if we have those preliminary or do you wait until January? Well, I mean, just, you know, top of my head, you mean when you're talking about saying, "Okay, we're just going to give employees a step, which is 1.3%." You know, no co not no cost, just a step, >> you know, you're talking a million dollars plus $1.2 million. So, if we get no new funding and there's no cut in expenditures,
070you need to identify $1.2 million in cuts just to give your employees a 1.3% raise, >> right? Well, that's >> that's it. >> Well, that's if the governor only gives a 3.6% six% increase, right? >> Well, that's saying the state doesn't recognize any increase. We have the exact same funding we have right now. Nothing else changes. Thanks change. We know that. >> Even if they give it, we still on the hook for half of it. >> Yeah, we have we're on the half. >> And if we don't have the money to do the half, we can't do any >> correct. Then >> that's where we got >> if you don't have new funding >> the steps and we were in a mess. >> You got to cut to free up money to meet the half
071to get it from the >> That's the conversation we need to start at. We're always playing to keep our head just above water >> and we can't keep doing that. >> I I think you know from board standpoint I don't know if there's you know engaging the general assembly and stuff. I think there's some that recognize it and believe me I'm not advocating I don't want more taxes and stuff but I think Virginia is one of the lowest funded they fund education is one of the lowest in the entire nation and so you know it's a double whammy there. So when you're you're doing that, so when you look at standards of quality, what Virginia recognizes as a standard of quality, like the bare minimum, it's like pretty pathetic, >> right? >> It's really costing
072a lot more to do it and they don't recognize that, >> but that's that's Richmond and that's a bigger that's a bigger hill to move. >> I'm good with your recommendation of moving it. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> Uh do we need to add another meeting or something or we'll just add them as we go? I only have the one work session. Um what we typically do is we'll propose the budget and then you come back a week later and you pass the budget. So what we could do when you said you want more input is that we come to the first work session. This is what we're proposing. You guys work through it, go home, come back that a week later, people have time and they can come out and speak and then you
073guys can pass it that night. >> Well, I I just don't know if they're going to show I think we need to start talking of like like I just said, if we have the budget that we had last year and we don't get any additional funding, take out what we spent with grants, where what what are we left with? >> Yeah. >> And then what are the staff's proposals of how we meet that budget? and start talking about what are the things that the board is going to have to make decisions on and give it two months, November, December, January. >> And some of those things that we might have to make decisions on are going to take a couple of years >> to come to fruition. >> Sure. >> Well, and then the things
074that if we do get funding, what are the top ranked things that we want to add back to the budget? >> Is it smaller classrooms? Is it, >> you know, what is it? Just like we had it last year, we had it in the the different categories. >> Yeah. >> And as you go and you go larger on the classrooms and if you ever want to come back on that, then you're fighting like I want to give a raise and go down on classroom size and it's just costing more and more and more. >> Y >> I know Dr. Talbert looks at and compares this with the surrounding being competitive for our staff and our teachers and yeah, when you're looking at multiple percent increases, >> it's a big number. So if you if the
075need next year was the primary need was like we want to give five six 7%. And we got no new revenue where are you going to cut four million 5 million from it ain't there. So uh you know there's only so much you only so many places you can go. So uh then it gets very painful and very ugly. Um and I don't know if it's doable. Um so then you just fall further behind everybody else in how competitive you are. So it it it's tough. Um but the discussions need to be had. So I'll push it off a little bit later. Um and um a little bit later in February. Hopefully I'll have some good information from the state at that time. Hard to tell. They politics get in the way and sometimes it
076gets delayed till June. >> I actually think that if we could with your suggestion is is to take that budget last year do kind of an overlay to project out. I I'd like to see that at our next meeting >> like taking the current budget right now. That's what we were at. No new revenue. What do we want? What are our needs for next year? >> Right. >> Well, first of all, we got to take out was it 1.8 million that we found to subsidize the class size. >> I don't think it was that much. >> We didn't use that much, but we're using all in. Some of it's still available for >> seven or eight positions. >> It was about 800,000. >> 800,000. Okay. >> We need to take that off the top. >>
077Well, that's coming in from our U ending year bounce. So, the expenditures there ending year bounce that just comes out. So, it's kind of wash on both sides. So, both of those will come out. >> Okay. >> Committee requests. I think you just heard them. >> I got well the two I've got just to reiterate um when look at uh centralizing nutrition kitchens um where we can if it makes sense and um reporting back to I already do it to the facility committee but also to uh this finance committee on the um direct owner purchase and savings. for recognizing them as we go forward with the two with the PBA. >> And then one of the things that I did and I want to commend um Mr. Lee on um the the transportation I read
078it was it six routes that we were able to reduce five >> okay combination of routes that added up to a total of five. So there might have been one, half a one here, >> but a total five. But you know, and as he grows in that role and we get more confident in what we've got, we could possibly see some of that reduce even more. Is that right? >> I think we definitely have some room. Right now we're in the point where we're having to consolidate routes because the lack of drivers in some situations. We we definitely need more drivers as well. So unfortunately we never want to hear consolidation but that's just that's the name of the game when it comes to dollars. You you've got to start looking at what can we
079consolidate. So um you know lunchrooms one but you know are there other things? So >> and if um just for the next meeting we'll schedule the next meeting but if you have any questions on any of the vendors let me and I'll bring together dive into that. All right. So, next meeting. So, September 11th is our school board meeting, right? So, 23rd or 30th. Does that work? >> September when? >> 23rd. Um, if you would like, it's a very busy time for me, but still I'd like to get the first quarter forecast to the board as soon as possible. Okay, that's where I'll get a true read on what >> payroll I think is going to be for the year. And, you know, I briefed on the numbers here, but they're not official numbers and
080stuff. >> I can't do that until I finalize September's uh payroll, >> right? >> If you want to move it to when will we be meeting in SE October? >> October 9th. >> The 9th. It'll be a quick turnaround, but if you want to meet on the 7th, I could probably get you the financial forecasts, a first quarter look, and present it two days later to the full board. >> I don't know if you like that or not. >> I can I can I can do it. >> Okay, >> that's pushing it off a month. You know, we're not going to meet in September, but at least I'll have a financial forecast and a little bit follow up on some of these other things. >> I don't know if I have anything big uh for
081the next agenda except for that. >> Okay. Um that's the main thing to say our first snapshot of the year on how we're doing on both expenditures and revenues. >> Okay. >> What time are we thinking? >> 3 to five works for me. >> Looks good. >> Okay. I'll put that >> and that'll be a late that won't be I'll probably have already posted the financial um numbers to board docs where other board members are looking at it, but we go into more detail here and I'll review that with you. anything else we need to talk about? >> Um, can't think of anything right now unless you guys have anything you want me to bring back. >> Any other concerns? >> I have a motion for journment. >> All right, we're journed.