001And we'll recall to open session. Jackie, roll call. >> Bailey >> here. >> Nick Atwood >> here. >> Steve >> here. Jose >> here. >> Mr. Boyce >> here. >> Maria. Right. >> And now for the pledge. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> All right. And we'll now move into the public hearing on the fiscal year 2025 2026 budget. Do we have anyone that would like to make comment on the public hearing? Hearing no comment, we'll now close the public hearing. On to public comment. Members of the public who wish to speak to the board should complete a request card prior to the start of the meeting. This section
002of the meeting will be reserved for comments from the public. All comments should be limited to three minutes. Our first speaker will be Bill Nicholas to talk on district and kish college co-op. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. President and members of the board. I am here in a personal capacity tonight, not a professional capacity as I have been from time to time. Uh I just want to very briefly say thank you. Um this board uh in particular uh our superintendent and the team that have been working on a dual credit program for a number of years are are really making a difference. Uh how is it that I am concerned about that? Um I have uh had the uh the privilege of of uh not only working at Kishwalki College in my career but
003also in supporting for quite a number of years a healthy scholarship program for nursing students. And one of the things I found out in talking with young college students uh who who are attending and looking for an associates degree is is the speed that they can get to their their goal. And u as I understand the program as as it's evolved that you've been promoting and and uh funding uh it does uh practically give a uh district 428 uh graduate uh the opportunity in their uh junior senior year to earn additional credits that can count almost to two years of of uh associates uh credits. And that gets you almost all the way to an RN degree if you're in nursing. And if you want to then get your bachelor's is really one more year
004and you're in the market and uh that's important. It was important to my late wife. It's important to me and I wanted to say thank you to you. >> Thank you Mr. Nicholas. >> Our next speaker will be Sydney Null speaking on funding for Scholastic P. Um, hi. I'm Sydney N. I'm an eighth grade student at Huntley Middle School. I'm a two-year Scholastic Bull member, a one-year Scholastic Bull captain, and I'm supporting the joint team continuing to state. It has been a dream of the Scholastic Bull program for years to get to state and we finally may get to see uh it come true. We have really excellent chances of advancing to state. Sycamore, a team we beat last year in our game, in our general season, and in the tournament, was able to advance
005into the top eight teams in their entire division in the entire state, getting to the highest level in the state series. Last year, we could have made it to the state series, but we did not have the funds to register and make it there. If you fund us, we will work even harder than before. And I truly believe we can get to state with all of our combined efforts. It means a lot to a lot of people. You would help create more opportunities for students at the middle schools, build up our talents, encourage hard work, and help us fulfill our dreams. Please vote yes to help us reach our potential. Thank you. >> Thank you. Our next comment comes from Kaylee Norris on ELDC Building. >> Hi, my name is Kaylee and I'm an eighth
006grade student at Hunley Middle School and have been at Hunley for the past 3 years. I was born into Kelvin and I've lived here my whole life. I went to ELVC during the 2016 2017 school year and I went to Founders Elementary School for six years. I don't remember much from ELVC given that I was quite literally four years old. What I do remember is my teachers, Mrs. Mac and Mrs. Brooks. Going into kindergarten was scary. As you can most definitely tell, I'm very tall. On my first day of kindergarten, my parents put me with the kids that looked my age. That ended up having to be the second graders. Being at ELC gave me the confidence and reassurance that my teachers had my back. I was able to find my classes and all was
007well. Given that, I love ELC. But it is a simple fact that Honey needs more space. My first example is a choir room or lack thereof. I was the first choir class to use the auditorium as a classroom. Having the auditorium is very inconvenient. We have distractions due to it being a public space. People walk in and out constantly, and the lunchroom is also right by the auditorium, making it so you can hear everything. It's especially a problem during concert season since band and orchestra use this space. It's also an issue during the musical because props and stage equipments are all over the auditorium in preparations for the musical, making it so that you have to do an obstacle courses to get to your binder and into your seat. Another con of the auditorium is
008the seats. The seats have been there almost since the very beginning of it being built. These chairs are very weak and they are constantly having to be fixed because they are being used every day rather than once a month like they used to be. My next reasoning for Huntley needing this space is the hallways and passing periods. The hallways have always been a cramp space because of the amount of students and very little space. Passing periods can be overwhelming for lots of people, myself included, because you feel like you're running from an alligator from the amount of sharp turns you have to make to make sure you're not running into people. Thank you for your time and please take this all into consideration. I'd also like to thank my language arts teacher for teaching me
009how to do a C so I could write this speech for you today. >> And our final comment comes from Katherine Norris also in regards to ELC building. Hello. Uh my name is Katherine. I am here today to speak to you about needing a new space for ELDC. As a lifelong member of this community, a proud graduate of D428, a parent of children in the district, and as a taxpayer, I promise you I care deeply about the future of our students and what steps are taken to improve their education. I have to be honest, I'm feeling very frustrated. For a while now, we've heard community members and district staff emphasize the urgent need for a new preschool building. Early childhood education is not a luxury. It is a necessity. However, instead of feeling confident about
010receiving a decision from the school board to move forward on this, I get the distinct feeling that you maybe would rather deflect making this important decision and pass it off onto the community via a referendum. At first glance, a referendum might sound reasonable, responsible, and a way to build community trust. I would argue, however, that a referendum would in fact add unnecessary costs, delays, a loss of trust, and provide no guaranteed results. In fact, if memory serves me correctly, a new preschool was already included in a referendum more than a decade ago, as it was part of the high school referendum that passed. Since then, the high school has been built and quite a while ago. And yet, we are still here without a larger space for ELDC and debating whether or not it is
011necessary and how we might go about execution executing that necessity. The truth of the matter is a referendum is not required by law. This is a necessity and not a luxury. And as such, it's going to happen sooner or later. The responsible thing to do at this time is to make it happen sooner and in the most coste effective way. By making this decision via referendum, you would be adding unnecessarily to the cost of this project. On the low end, this might be as little as a couple hundred,000 or if it fails to pass, multiple millions of dollars could be added to the cost via delays, inflation, and potential legal challenges. The annual the average annual inflation rate is about 3%. On a $10 million project, that's an additional $300,000 a year due to inflation
012alone. The kicker here is when I looked it up, Mitchell Elementary cost over $30 million. And inflation has been known to reach rates as high as 7%. Every year that we wait, the price tag rises and that money is straight out of the pockets of the taxpayers, our community. And for what? To avoid criticism, to delay making a tough decision. The role of this board is not to pass off responsibility. It is to make the hard choices and in the best in the best interests of students and to educate the community about why those choices matter. So I beg of you, keep your constituents, your community, and your students in mind. Don't waste time, money, and trust on an unnecessary referendum. Show the community that we can trust you to allocate resources with a student
013focus. Give our youngest learners the facilities they need and deserve to thrive so each student can reach their full potential. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Next portion of the meeting will be board correspondence. I'll go real quickly. Um, I had the pleasure as well as director Parker and Jessica Null of attending or Dr. Null attending a meeting last week for America 250. For those of you who are not aware, next year is the 250th anniversary of the signing of Declaration of Independence, which means it's going to be a real big kind of we're going to have a party next year because America's turning 250 years old. So we as government bodies, we as nonprofits got together to go, how are we going to holistically uplift this event, not just for one day on July
0144th, but it's something that we're going to work towards as a community. So those meetings have just started to happen. There's a lot of great brainstorming, a lot of ideas. We're definitely going to be leaning on the high school, the middle school, and the elementary schools to make sure that we're engaging our students in lessons and just different civic activities so that we can make sure that we're really celebrating and honoring that. Now with that being said, the district has formed a committee that will be leading the charge on that and that will be headed by Jessica and Aman Quinnette. So they'll be kind of the main people figuring out how are we going to make this happen. So I'm very excited for them to kind of lead the charge on that and I'm very
015grateful that you guys have stepped into that role. So thank you. Does anyone else have anything? Yes. Uh Friday night had a lot of fun. Attended the Jefferson Multicultural Night. Awesome event, beautiful weather, great music, face painting, tons of food, which I took advantage of. Great turnout from uh Jefferson families, uh staff, a lot of the neighborhood attended as well. Great community event. When they do it next year, should all go. Um I want to let you Sorry. Okay. Um this isn't really correspondence with anybody other than the community. I drove through the roundabout at Lucinda and Normal and it's incredible. Um I personally think that maybe we need to reapproach our approach on the roundabout at um Sycamore and uh First Street. And uh I think we it did some research that it is
016safer than the current intersection we have. So, we just need to I think we need to take a look at it again. >> Steve. >> Yeah. Um, as a former uh I spent two years as a Scholastic Bowl coach at Huntley and uh Scholast Bowl is a really important thing to our community, our kids. So, uh I'm fully in favor of supporting it because it's awesome, especially if we beat certain >> and we could talk to the city about like a parade through downtown if we went state, right? Okay. Is there any other correspondents? All right. Not hearing anything on that student board correspondence. Um I know that Maria is working with Dr. Larson and I don't know if they've started to work with any directors on anything yet, but I know that traffic flow
017in the parking lots was a big thing that they wanted to try to look at. And then I know mirrors in the bathroom was another big thing that they wanted to look at. So I know those were the two things that are kind of on their periphery as a student board right now that they're looking into. So that's kind of just the quick update from that. Moving on to the next thing, we have consent agenda. It is recommended the board of education approve consent to agenda items 5B through 5H, which is the approval of board minutes, approval of personal action items, approval of payroll for August, approval of purchase order requisitions, approval of account payables for September, approval of financial reports, and co-op scholastic bolt funding for the CRM and HMRS teams. Is there any
018items on the consent agenda that we have questions on before we vote on? Hearing no questions, I will entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda. >> So moved. >> Do I have a second? >> Six. 6A. >> Six. >> Oh, 6A. >> I just read the thing. >> So, all right, Jackie, roll call. >> Nickwood. >> Yes. >> Steve, >> yes. >> Jose, >> yes. >> Christopher Boyce, >> yes. >> Bailey, >> yes. >> All right. Seven. Moving into old business. A IG with the decal county health departmental alternative to suspension program. It is recommended the board of education approve the decal county health department as attached. Do I have a motion? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Jackie. Roll call. >> Uh Steve Buyers. >> Yes. >> Jwez. >> Yes. >> Christopher. >>
019Yes. >> Mark. >> Yes. >> Vinyl. >> Yes. >> Kristen Bailey. >> Yes. >> Nick Gwood. >> Yes. >> B. NCTTE professional development conference request is recommended that the board of education approve up to three teachers to attend the NCTTE conference November 20th through the 23rd. Do I have a motion? >> So move. >> Second, >> Jackie. Roll call. >> Jose. >> Uh have a question. Is there anybody that can answer the question? >> Depends on what the question is probably. Same. >> All right. Next board member. Jackie. >> Christopher Boyce. >> Yes. >> Bangham. >> Yes. >> Kristen Bailey. >> Yes. >> At Catwood, >> yes. >> Steve Buyers, >> yes. >> Item C, DCTA program/course approval salary schedule credits in PRC. is recommended that the board of education approve the programs, courses, and
020CWC courses as recommended by the professional relations committee. Do I have a motion? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Jackie, roll call. >> Christopher Boy, >> yes. >> Mark, >> yes. >> And >> yes. >> Bailey, >> yes. >> Steve Fires, >> yes. >> Jose, >> yes. >> All right. Item D, benefit renewal rates proposal for 2026. So, I guess before we vote on this, since I know our insurance people, consultants are here, I'm just going to ask, you know, in the art of negotiating, you know, there's normally the starting number, then there's the ideal number. So, I feel like, are we not right now at Blue Cross Blue Shield's ideal number? Is there not a final push to be like, hey, don't play this game with us right now to get that to a
021more reasonable number? We are at the final final number. >> Microphone come to the mic. >> Sorry. >> We are at the final number with Blue Cross Blue Shield period. They started off at a little over 52%. And through going through all of the carriers that we went through and validated those numbers, that truly is it without modifying major modifications to the plan. >> Okay. So, real quick, the effect on our budget will hit as of January and will half impact the budget we're going to approve. Correct. >> Is my understanding right? >> Correct. Okay. Thank you. All right. Does anyone else have any other questions? Hearing no other questions, I'll entertain a motion to approve. >> So move. >> Second. >> Jackie. Roll call. >> Shot. >> Yes. >> Bum. >> Yes. >> Kristen
022Bailey. >> Yes. >> Atwood. >> Yes. >> Steve Buyers. >> Yes. >> Jose. >> Yes. >> Christopher Wise. >> Yes. All right. Thank you guys. Item B, fiscal year 2526 budget adoption presented and our mirror is going to go over with us. There were some adjustments today, so we're just going to go over everything real quick again. >> Yep. Thank you. Um, so let's use this use. So, uh, yeah, when it comes to our budget, uh, just it's kind of worth repeating, uh, this is a financial plan. It's just with the information that we have uh currently uh we do use this budget to just keep things in online uh bring uh some form of uh plan and barriers and guard rails for our departments our expenses. Uh so it is a you it's used
023as a tool for projections planning and monitor spending. Uh and a lot of the revenues that we receive expenditures that are spent uh those are not actuals. uh it is estimates of uh best estimates at the time of what we have uh know that we know else that we know as right now. Uh it is worth understanding also what's a modified acrruel basis. Uh so we don't run a cash basis. So what was recognized and what's realized it's not at the time uh of happening. So we do rec record record revenue when received expenses when are paid. Uh this is particularly important when we think about uh the uh invoices that that we would receive for the previous fiscal year that belongs or that uh were fulfilled during the previous fiscal years and the invoices
024just come late. So uh there is up to 60 days that we can uh we can recognize that expense as of the previous fiscal year uh even though it is 60 days after the year has closed. Uh what's particularly important with this one is the property tax levy, right? So the property tax revenue uh what was selected uh the rate that we uh was adopted back in December of 2024 is actually fully within the budget of this year. So uh and the uh the property tax levy that will be adopted in this December of 25, it actually uh affects the budget starts July 1. And I think that's kind of important uh because what the money is uh that property tax lev is really earmarked for is for the budget year of the following. So
025uh it's important to note that part um and budgets they are a one-year cycle. I mean we start come we come to the board on January we ask for the calendar to be adopted and then from February March April uh we just start having these staff meetings we prepare building department uh budgets they submit uh their request what they are earmarking for next year uh the projects the the staffing needs uh and also every school before they leave for the summer they submit what the school budget they would like for the following year. So, uh this is all compiled and uh at that time come April, we also know our final tax extension and that is something we always talk about that the December adoption amount may change come April due to the appeals and
026the final EAV numbers actually being finalized and come May uh our homeowners or property owners will get their tax bills. So by that time May, June and July uh we would have most of the understanding of where our budget kind of fits in. Uh at that time we'll know a lot about what the uh federal government the state government is doing. Uh what is there um and in this case uh we found out about our benefit renewal rates that come uh that comes sometime in August. Uh and any grants allocation uh come August we do approve a tentative budget. So, because it needs a 30-day public inspection, uh, and as of September 3rd, I'm sorry, as of September 30th, by law, uh, we need to get that adopted by the board. Uh, so we keep
027the budget available for public inspection, have a hearing, and then we will submit it to the county and the state by October 30th. So we we we did bring forward a tentative budget. Uh that was with information we had back in August. But things changed since then, right? Uh at that time we explained that the EBF state model which is our um the largest state funding sources. Uh we didn't know how much our tier money was coming in. Tier money simply is based on the calculation uh at what pot of money we would be receiving. um uh the new funding for this year. So the higher the tier is, the smaller the actual pot is. So in this case um our EBF calculation of we fell on tier three and we really got only about
028$137,000 more than what we received last year. Why is that category important? I'm going to go a little bit uh one slide over so that I can explain that. But um if you look over here back in 23 uh we were getting uh tier money up to $1.4 million. So and that was kind of a big uh boost for us. Uh the the the funding formula uh put us on tier one category which is the biggest pot of money you can take from uh and it is the most needy ones as well. So based on the our adequacy level of uh we were at that time we were at a 71% adequacy level which kind of put us uh giving a signal to the state that give them a boost. So you can see the
029boosts here uh are the tier one allocation which is the extra money but at that time we're also eligible for the property tax relief grant which was another 5.4 million. Moving on to the following years, you can see that as we uh we have moved between tiers from tier one to tier three in only in only four years which indicates uh our local capacity target ba based on the calculation has grown tremendously. We all know that uh the with the developments in the south corridor meta eone uh that has raised our tax base. That's what the state sees on their uh funding formula. Un for uh well for us the reason why we moved to tier three is because they kept seeing this tax base grow. However, we have taken abatements. We've discounted we provided
030taxpayer relief. Uh and that is uh not taken into account what our extension is or what we actually took but uh what the local capacity is. So you can see why that moved in and from between year 2023 we had about 6.8 8 million. We moved on to about 6.2. Still kind of steady, still kind of nice. Uh and then as uh 24 um another 6.2 and then this year we're here you we have uh we're in 137,000. So we do like this EVF funding formula because it is the largest state money but also the most reliable as well. uh the state does provide us something that's called like mandator mandated categories other grants uh and transportation reimbursement is another one. So the state does provide in other areas but those are normally the ones
031that are affected first. So normally the state will hit those other grants those other um mandated categories before they hit the state evidence-based funding model. So that's kind of important to know and you can see why uh we really focus a lot on that money because it was a big boost. If you look from FY23, we started with 44.8 million and right now we're at 57.6. So always uh it was always a big boost taking from this EDF funding. Something to note here, the property tax relief grant eligibility for us um we were not eligible uh back in uh FY25 and you can see why we're probably getting into a higher tier which meant less money, less priority, and a lesser need for those districts in that pot in that category. Uh being in tier
032three also hurts us because that means we're just not a priority and we may lose qualifications for that property tax grant the higher the tier comes. Right now uh kind of a good news and not a good news but basically they froze the property relief grant for FY26. They're looking to re review the funding model. We were uh we had the advantage when they renewed that model a few years ago uh where the elementary school districts or a high school district was getting more priority than a unit district like ours. They changed that formula and gave priority unit district and we became more favorable in that sense with a new model. So I guess the good news is if they're looking to recalculate it, hopefully we get an advantage to it. Uh because we are
033in need for taxpayers relief and uh also seeing that a lot of expenses are hitting us. Uh hopefully that model puts a lot of this into account. Um but at this time it is frozen. We don't know what the model will look like. So we're going to see next year. hopefully they open it up with a new uh calculation formula uh where unit district like ours uh that does take taxpayer relief is not penalized but actually comes up front. So that is something that we will be advocating with the state as well. Okay. Um so going back so we talked about the changes from last uh tentative budget. The next one and uh in the circles of the business management business managers uh this CPPRT it's a corporate personal uh property replacement tax. This used
034to be levy to the local taxpayers until the state kind of took over. They kind of picked that up and then flowed it through back to the uh to the schools. Well, uh it is basically uh it's based mostly on sales taxes. So in in a kind of a surprise move, the estimates from the state came in 30% more than what we we were projecting. I mean most of the business managers expected that uh there's contractual on our sales tax revenue for the state but they came in with estimates saying that uh you know you guys get uh full funding from last year in addition of 2%. So so I added that back up to our revenue at about 584. The estimates came from the state. So we believe those are reliable. Um if we
035can switch to federal um to the federal side uh with a federal grants. Last time we came in we said they they froze our grants. We we don't know what's happening with it. Uh and title two and title three programs and activities were not running. Uh and um the good news is the federal government did unfreeze them eventually and we are getting those monies. So about 370,000 on that end. Uh I do want to note that we still don't know what's going to happen with the federal funds. There seems to be still some volatility there where we don't know if they are going to extend it the following year. So, uh it seems like uh even though those funds have been unfrozen, uh that doesn't mean that they're looking to keep those grants permanent. So,
036uh another thing we're seeing because of a um uh because of some expense ticking up for us, which I'm going to go over next slide, uh we were looking more of a uh cash flow to bring in a little bit cash flow a little quicker. And within this fiscal year, we're going to change our investment strategy. We're seeing that rates uh are on a short-term investments are at about 3.8 or 3.9, while a longer term, meaning six months and over are coming down at 3.4. So, we we want to take advantage of that. We want to take the cash flow and bring in a little bit more money on this fiscal year so that we can hit uh the expenses that are kind of uh uh affecting our budget for this year. Um we can
037go back to the state. We talked about the state uh prorating our transportation. So we were we always uh uh we submitted reimbursement vouchers for our mileage. Uh and then this year they said, you know, for your regular route, we're not gonna pay you dollar for dollar. It's going to be about 31 uh 21% and for special ed 31% drawn down. So that affects us. We we are we are going to uh we are going to be looking for other funding sources to provide the same level of service we used to provide. Um and um but at this time we're also seeing the state uh showing some symptoms, right? So and we've seen this before back in 2015 this the state is not paying its um obligations. So it's payment for obligations. So uh currently
038we are the district is owed 241,000 from the state from previous year. We do hope and I I we do believe that we're going to get it at some point this year. Uh but at this time I am not including that in the budget. So this is another symptom that we're seeing that the state has is showing some contractual uh contractions in its revenue and its obligations to pay the school districts. Um with Medicaid I left it at 30%. And there are some circles that are saying that um Medicaid cuts will be 15% for school districts, but we're being conservative, so we'll leave that at 30% for this year. So those are the revenue. Any questions before I move on from revenues? Uh these are all the changes that we are that kind of pushed
039the revenue up from our tentative budget. Are you going to go over the uh tenative revenue all funds in your report? >> Sure. Yeah. Yes. It's uh so I'll just uh explain a little bit what really affected our expenditures. Uh for the most part it is the benefit rate renewal. So we uh there was about 38% increase. Uh we're about 6.1 million. uh we will see a lot of uh maybe staff will see it in their paycheck starting uh January 1 that may push some organic movement between PBO PBO low plan and a PO high plan. So uh that does impact our current budget because it starts on January 1. It's on a calendar year. Uh we will uh be facing about a an impact on our current budget. A we projected 3.45 45 million.
040Uh but we did get some uh some estimates from our consultants that we're going to meet be mitigating costs. We're going to be looking at things. We're going to be auditing uh dependents um uh spouses plans uh to just see if there is any uh uh savings on that. And that could go down from 6.9 million to 4.8 million. But again, it's very speculative right now. So, we're just uh kind of putting a hold on it and seeing how that that will change come uh as early as November actually when the benefit uh open window is uh uh is basically benefit open window. So again, we might see some increased movements to medical plans. I do want to bring up the life safety fund. So for the past two or three years we have saved
041some money on this fund. So remember what funds are funds are um are separate accounting for particular activities. So we might have a boiler or some major uh uh um facility improvement that may uh that may need to be looked into. Uh and u we're still monitoring. We had we did save some money for it. Uh but something that we will we're kind of monitoring but we have it into our uh budget as well. So that might be an unknown at this time but can Okay. Uh well let's go. So to explain a little bit how budget works we talked about what funds are. Funds uh are separated. So the first one is called the education fund and really that is a um where our salaries for our teachers for our support services for psychologist
042for um speech pathologist anything that is directly or uh indirectly affecting students will be in that education fund and and a lot and you know that's where as a school district I mean that's really what our main services which will be our education fund uh we do get a combination of local, state and federal sources. Probably the major federal sources come go to this education fund which is obviously affecting teaching. So um uh operations and maintenance is to upkeep our 12 now 13 uh schools and um this includes uh from uh payroll benefits uh but really it is only a local and state sources that pay for it. Sometimes uh we keep looking for new avenues uh to fund this fund and it's really relying on levies and uh the EBF uh formula. If you
043look at the debt service fund um if you I think the budget tells a story and and nothing tells a better story than just looking at the debt service fund. What that is, that is your bonds for the referendum for the high school in Courtland. Uh basically, if you look at that, you you're saying why is local sources zero dollars? Well, to provide taxpayer relief last year, uh we decided to um abate or discount that money. So, no property taxes were collected to pay for this that service fund. It came out actually out of our fund balances or uh a state funding for uh from the EDF to pay for it. So which would have otherwise been into our fund balance. So that's kind of an easy thing to see with a transportation fund. Another
044story you can to see here uh it is a combination of local and state sources. So this is how uh we uh federal sources do not pay for it. So uh this is where our reimbursement would have uh kicked in at that time. Um and then municipal retirement that would be social security uh capital projects in this case uh the 158,000 that you're seeing that's really a uh interest from the debts uh the the the debt that we issue that is still waiting to pay the invoices uh from the construction of the Mitchell. Uh we're we're gonna keep getting those invoices even though they seem a little bit late but up all the way till December. So all right and then the life safety fund is was there anything particular on this and >> quick
045question because we presented this back in about a month ago and I compared the uh revision that we made that we literally got today compared to the one that was put out last month. Um, and I'm curious, the local source when we had the first version was under education fund was 64.1 million and currently on the slide it's at 65.2 million. What changed in the local source funding? I noticed some numbers change as far as revenue goes. So, regarding the education fund local sources, which would be our property taxes, it looks like it jumped up a million. Where did that extra million come? So that's that would be the CPPRT. So the uh if you recall we we talked about how it used to be a tax levy that we would run it ourselves while
046the state collected it and it flow through back to it but it is considered a local source. So you so that is coming from um the CBPRT estimates of 584 and the investment strategies. >> Okay. So that that's not projecting what we're going to levy come in December. Correct. Uh, no. This is what's coming in this year. Yeah. So, the levy of December of 25 will affect July 1 of 26. >> Right. Right. >> That's the only question I have on that slide. >> Okay. Good. >> Uh, so and then uh with the expenditures kind of the same idea. These funds are are they work kind of their own budgets. There's so many rules behind it. We cannot move funds between um whatever money is coming in for the education fund has to remain there
047and has to be spent there. So same idea uh the expenditures are broken down by salaries, benefits, purchase service, supplies and materials, capital outlay and other these are categories provided by the district to keep a uniform uh standardized budget uh uh terminology. Um, and I I kind of like this because it's the the actual chart of it. It gives you kind of a big idea that if you look at salaries and benefits, it's almost more than uh it's about threequarters of the whole chart. So salaries and benefits do take a a big part of our expenditures. Uh this is a kind of a nice snapshot. It it tells us again that that side of the story. Um you might see the first thing you might see it's the transfers between funds. That's the 1.96 million
048over here. Um well that is paying for the debt proceeds or the issued debt uh for Mitchell Elementary. Uh and the stipulation of that debt proceed was that it has to come out of O andM. So we have to take it from O andM and give it to that service fund. In addition um in that O andM we had to pay for the purchase of Mitchell and pretty soon it's coming up the beyond transition center will also be paid out of that fund as well and that's because by law that's how uh where it has to come from. So you can see that money coming in in there with transportation fund. We see that whatever we projected for expenditures uh uh we moved some uh EBF money to uh pay that and be at even.
049Um okay any questions so far? The capital projects fund that's still the invoices that we would be paying for the Mitchell elementary the construction invoices. We're still expecting all the way till December for those to come in. >> I have I guess just a quick hypothetical on kind of in a way the next agenda item as well and new business. So say that we get this meeting next meeting we approve the solar panels which I think are estimated to save us 900,000 something a year. Is that something that we would see being operational and then reflected for this next fiscal year or is that a project where we're not going to see that money for >> Well, the good news and they they will probably explain it themselves. The good news is that uh we
050don't put money into it. It will be kind of self-funded, but we will reap the uh uh savings for >> Well, I guess I guess what I'm more meaning is will that surplus of 125,000 hopefully be a little closer to a million dollars once we're saving money on electricity or is that not feasible for that project to be done by next fiscal year and it's more likely we're looking at 27 or >> Yeah, and I think they're going to go over it, but it will be what year will savings hit? the uh the construction is expected to wrap up next at the end of next summer. So >> 26 27 fiscal year. >> Okay. So it won't affect this but it's a good uh projection to see that coming up next year we might see
051some very good savings. >> Um and the and the good news here is our fund balance to our expenditures is about 72%. That means we can run uh if the federal uh the state and the local uh faucet is closed on us, we can run operations for the school districts for the next eight months. And of course, we'd always want to be at 12 months, but uh we are we do have a healthy savings uh balance or a fund balance as we further call it. >> Where were we at last year on the fund balance? Um we were I think we were at 70% but our expenditures were also lower. So uh our expenditures this year for example are at 158 million and I believe last year it was about 140. >> Do we know
052how many like millions it grew as far as the amount that's in the fund? Do you have that information? >> Um so on the the second to last column um it's project this is it's unudited numbers. So, uh, but it should be pretty pretty good. So, we're looking at about 102 million starting July 1 of 25 and then projected for next year to be at 103 million.9 because we're really uh raising maybe about 1 million on the operational side. So, so those two columns over there are our savings. So the savings that we started as July 125 and what is projected or estimated as of June 30th 26 should all of these estimates uh uh occur. >> But do you recall where that was in like July of 24 like how much that fund has
053grown since then? Do you have any idea? >> Um I >> I don't think it's part of these materials. I didn't know you had it off the top of your head. Yeah, I believe the the the rate was almost the same but the dollar amount or not because again it is divided by the expenditures. So >> good. So I guess just one kind of final follow-up thing. So, just so that we're all very clear, we're looking at we've only got about for this next year until July 1, right, of 26, we're looking at about $125,000 that we have wiggle room for the next year essentially. Correct. >> That would be for all funds. So, and you can see the operations. Um, this is what kind of ESB calls operation funds. That would be what operates
054the school districts to run our programs, education, facilities, transportation. So, that would be u so there is some room there. However, if you want to include what are you know referendum bonds are to pay the constructions and the workers comp and life safety and the pensions. uh yes it would be 125. So the the last row there is for every fund combined but if you want to focus on the on the operational side uh yes it would be about 1 million. >> Okay. >> So depending how people view it but you will see it in the state budget form uh the the operating funds are always kind of separated or have their own uh uh page uh to reflect on. So if there's any ever a deficit that a deficit budget budget deficit plan needed
055from the from the state, they will only look at the operating funds. >> Um since you brought up the state budget form, I pulled up last year's that we filed in the estimate that we have for this year and you mentioned operations. I'm kind of curious. The one line item that really caught my attention here that was an eye openener was under operations and maintenance. Last year it was 10 7 million and this year it's 19.3 million an 80% increase. Now I'm assuming much of this has to do with Mitchell. How much of that number? I mean just I don't need an exact number but approximate that's a huge increase going from 10.7 to 19.3 under the total amount for dispersements expenditures for operations and maintenance under fund 20. >> Sure. Um >> it's just
056an eye openener. Sure. Uh so included in there are uh the salaries with a new contract agreement. There is the p purchase of the construction of the Mitchell and the u and the beyond one bar. In addition it's that transfer between the debt service that has to come out of and so that there is about 1.9 million that has to be moved to a different fund to pay the actual debt and that's just a sipulation of how that bond happens. So there's a few uh I can provide >> is that like a one in other words next year will that amount be lower? Will we go down from the 19.3 or we kind of stuck at that level for the foreseeable future? >> It depends on the projects that are being um that are are
057part of a five-year plan. So um so it and I'm not sure but yeah that we can provide that information but um every year there is a a there is a out outline of what it needs to happen this year >> because of things that that are need to be replaced in the following years. So, >> and some of this I would keep in mind too for some of this budget I'm assuming is, >> you know, a lot of the summer projects. So, you know, seal coating, parking lots, that kind of stuff. And some of those things are probably getting to the point where those bigger portions of the project have to come in now where I'm sure when Peter was here, you know, he presented his athletic five-year plan. So it's just there's obviously
058as we prepare to try to be more long-minded that includes coming up with budgets that involve long-minded. So I think a lot of that is still ultimately is going to come down especially with operations and maintenance to the summer projects that we're approving which is where I think we'll have to make sure that we as a board are very cognizant on how are we going to spend those dollars to properly support the students. I'm just nervous come tax time and I know the state puts us in the predicament of having to pass this by September 30th and we start looking at levies come November and December. I don't want to get into the position that previous boards have had that said, "Hey, you approve this budget, but we're not going to see these revenues or
059we're going to have to raise taxes." Does this budget and this is the big question that I have keep will we be able to hold the taxpayer harmless if we pass the budget as presented here tonight come November? We've done that. The board has done that before and I'm really nervous about when we get our final numbers in come November and and of course come the appeals of property tax come early spring or what have you with the board of review. Will we be able to present the taxpayers with an option to hold the taxpayer harmless in terms of property taxes? >> So uh we have to look at the numbers. So I did put in here that our always our intention is to provide taxpayer relief uh within our means of course. So this
060year for example we do have limitations uh so under our um for property tax levies we're under PAL which means we are capped that we cannot um we cannot levy more than what the CBA or inflationary inflationary uh expenditures would be which for this year is about 2.9%. Plus any new construction. So what's been favorable for us previously where we had the um where we provided that hold harmless uh was because there was new construction coming in we had property tax relief grants we could discount it uh but at this time we just need to see where we're at where where the numbers are. Um I think overall the county is seeing their uh market or their property value go up 9%. Which means to really keep the uh the taxpayers harm hold harmless we'll
061have to lower 9% as well and and that hits uh knowing that there is so many expenditures coming forward. So again uh there is at some point uh providing whole harmless provisions for so many years uh may not be visible on our end on our budget end but uh we have to look at it basically we have to look at the the any new construction coming in. We have to look at what our assessors are uh the county assessment is saying and how much really we can provide. So what we have provided before is uh paying out of the referendum um debt service uh the the bonds that would have come and levied. We paid it out of our funds. Uh we use the property tax relief grant and um and we also were able
062to uh use the new construction to to to uh make that feasible. So again, it's so difficult to say right now. It's so early. uh but I mean seeing 9% decreases on market value and ex and and you know uh and and having taxpayers hold harmless would does does affect our budget as well. So we have to look at what uh we can stomach and what we can uh what we're seeing. So >> I did request to possibly look at a budget approval tonight. I know everybody submits their items of their wishes and wants. There's some things obviously we have to do. If you're going to have a boiler that you think is going to break, we're going to have to replace that. But are there any things in this budget as presented? Because I
063haven't seen the exact request. We just see line items here. And I have requested over and over to see what they call the chart of accounts, if you will, um, of the exact bigger expenditures. I'm not talking about pencils and pens and folders or whatever, but projects that perhaps we could put off, defer, safely defer until future years. Are we considering any can we make any sort of considerations in terms of putting off some projects that we don't need to do now so we can hold the taxpayer harmless? But >> I guess Oh, I I'll jump in real quick to say that I already spoke with some members of cabinet today and I mean the the budget that's before us is because this morning I said, "Hey, don't like these numbers. Needs to be revised."
064So I mean this is already after they went through as a cabinet today and cut out about $1.6 million to put us at the surplus that we're at. So, I mean, I don't know that there necessarily is anything that isn't necessary in this budget anymore. I mean, they've already gone through and started to cut things. So, it's no one's, you know, there there's not going to be a smoking gun within our budget, I guess, is what I'm saying. That's not going to be the there's that big expense where we were just putting $500,000 into pencil sharpeners for the last five years. like it's just unfortunately our costs are what they're at and previous board which I was a part of we agreed to very generous raises for all of our staff so that they knew
065we had their back but generous raises cost us a lot of money and now we're in the position we're in and I I guess I'll say I don't think that there's much more that we can do to really bring these costs down any more than where we're at just to be honest from what I've looked Well, like I asked before, I kind of wanted to see what the requests were. We all we get kind of a general summary. It's kind of like when you buy a car, you want to see what's underneath the hood and we just see as a board the summaries and that's what's been presented to the public and that's what the board has done year after year. I am curious to see what maybe these requests are. I haven't seen these.
066I don't know if any of the other board members have anybody else seen the specific requests. I'm talking about the large requests. Obviously, we know what the salary schedules are. We know what those sorts of things are, but what sort of projects are we going to replace a roof on a building? Are do we have any sorts of things planned? And I just use that as we don't need to go into that specifically, but I want to see if there's any other big expenses that perhaps we can defer. And I I don't think anybody's doing anything. Hey, we want this, that, and the other thing just to just request like extra frosting on your birthday cake, you know? I want to see if there's anything perhaps we can cut reasonably from this budget. >> Did
067Did we ever get that as a followup when Mark asked for that? >> I mean, >> and we had all I just realized I don't >> that would be something we would we have like a draft that breaks down. So like the report that goes into what we submit to the Illinois State Board of Education every year per law, but I mean >> we have never historically gotten a the high school has asked for XYZ. Like I mean those are the kind of things that just come to us as we approve them as a board throughout the year or like Tammy has all the summer projects that they're going to do for next year which they're out for bid right now. She'll come back later and be like hey this is what they costed. This
068is what we'd like to do. So I guess that's kind of the point in time where we then decide is this a budgetary thing that we want to pay for. We approve the general hey these are the pots of money right now but they're still not doing a big expenditure without our permission throughout the year. I guess it's just we don't get a giant master list that says this is every cost for the year. I wonder whether it might be helpful then in in the future when we get those requests to see them in the context of the pot of money, if you will, because that's something that's been very difficult for me with with reviewing some of the expenses is not understanding. Do you see what I'm saying? Like you're saying we're approving the
069pots right now, but then not understanding the relationships at the more granular level from which these pots are. Is that making sense to that stuff as a >> and and I get what you're saying? But I think part of it is we're we're the board. We're we're not supposed to be in the granulars. We're not supposed to be going through the sand and saying there's this sea shell and there's this sea shell. like we have hired an administration team because I trust them to go through the sand and the granulars. I trust them to say these are the things that we should be prioritizing within our budget. So I mean that's >> I I think that we get >> I just think we risk getting into a point where we are overreaching and how we
070administer the budget. >> I just want to jump in and I agree with President Voice. I think right now we're looking a little bit too much into the details. I don't think the board wants the responsibility of saying no, we are not going to put that roof on Holly Middle School or whatever it falling down and then you all as a board responsible for not passing a budget because you didn't want to spend on something like that. So I guess I question you back. Do you really want that responsibility when we have people here like President Boyce said that are the experts in that field to be able to bring those decisions to you? We're not spending the money. We still bring it to you and get approval from you and then you can say
071yes or no. We will prioritize what we feel and we will bring that to you. But I think right now getting in to chart of accounts and all of that like it's kind of I agree it's not your role and it's just do you really want that responsibility of saying no we're not going to do that we're not going to do that we're not going to do that something happens and now it's on you >> I will say that >> it's not so much that I'm curious to see if we know these expenses are coming I'm not saying we're going to scrutinize everyone at every meeting, but these are this is information that has been submitted that could be put in a board packet where we could review something as simple as that. A lot
072of times things come before the board. I'll see we're going to hire such and such person. I'm like, I didn't realize we were going to be hiring uh a new office staff member and that was probably approved in the overall budget but never made it's like I'm not going to say necessarily say no to this qualified person after we've decided we're creating a new position. A lot of this stuff I don't see until the last minute. The board doesn't see this till the last minute. If we're going to bring on new personnel, for example, obviously if the roof is going to go bad, this board's going to approve it, you know. But I'm just saying these little surprises. I've seen it just in my short time here. I'm like, "Oh, I didn't realize we were
073hiring this." >> So Mark, what you just said, it's like we taking from the kids to when you say it's like hiring from a teacher, it's like taking from the kids. Our main focus here should be on what we need to do for our kids and our employees. >> We need to just be transparent in this. I'm not saying these positions are not needed. It would be nice to know about it. When you buy a house, you know, if that house is going to have four bedrooms and five bathrooms, you don't just buy a house site unseen. >> I think Mark just wants to understand is what I'm gathering from you is that you just want a sense of what you're proving, >> right? Let me read the emails. >> But the thing is, we
074would know about it beforehand. Not I've heard from previous boards that we have to raise taxes because you guys approved the budget. You already approved the budget, so we're going to have to increase taxes. And I didn't know this thing was in the budget. I think one another question I have is what happens come February May depending on how much appeals and everything else comes in and our property tax money is less there's a process for us to adjust the adjust the budget if we just if we as a group decide that we are going to hold the taxpayer harmless we're not going to raise taxes on them and then we're going to go back to the experts and tell them you're you lost x amount of Correct. >> It has happened before. So two
075years ago, >> right? So there is the >> between December and March. Yeah. We come back to the board and if that's the decision but u it has happened before. Yes. >> Okay. >> But I do want to say for the staffing needs for example um before uh the school principles they do leave they we do present the staffing needs for the following years in March for approval. So and so that gives you so once the new board members will see the whole cycle of the year you will see that these kind of information is fed maybe a little little by little in a sense as they as that information or as that estimations uh come into play. I think there's probably a happy medium somewhere for us to try to find as far as
076understanding some of this because like I can appreciate Billy's sentiment. You know, we are ultimately responsible for the funds whe whether it you know we can point to an administrator and have them fall on their sword or not like we still have to approve it. But for example earlier uh you know we were in a deficit until earlier today and you guys huddled around and you looked at your departments and you decided where can we cut things right? So as we sit here today though we have a we have a balanced budget but I don't know what got cut. So, you know, there are things there that may be important to us as individuals, but we don't even know because, you know, some people would say, well, that's a that's getting into the administrator's micromanagement,
077right? But there may be something in there that's really important that maybe, you know, we would like to try to find some other way like, you know, we have a healthy fund balance. Could we, you know, look at that and say, okay, well, that's something that's really important not just to the department, but to the board or to the community at large. Like, that's sort of our role to know those types of things. and and you know it it may have been nothing that was you know there was minor stuff that was cut or maybe we're delaying you know seal coating a parking lot till next year like but you know we have to approve a budget and like you know there's a couple million dollars gone that we weren't aware of and that's not
078you guys' fault we got hit with that wild you know $7 million benefit uh increase so we had to make cuts and I commend everybody for getting us into a balanced budget and finding ways to do that but as we sit here I don't know what just got cut from the budget and hate to make decisions about things I don't have the full picture of. >> And I think this goes >> Yeah. And I think this goes back to what Billy and Chris were saying that uh you kind of kind of trust the experts. So yes, we did we did have uh that uh looking for saving opportunities where it doesn't affect student service, it doesn't affect our staffing levels, it doesn't affect our programmatic. And that's kind of our view. We we are the
079experts. We know that area. uh and sometimes you know kind of being uh uh coming from the board that say may may do more uh unless it's not from a from an expert um may affect other things. And I will add uh Nick, I'll piggy back off that and say there's a much different tone in what you presented and maybe it is something that we need and maybe we are willing to to maybe go in deficit a little bit or even it out a little bit more if we really need it as to it sounding like let's just cut cut and not have any conversation. These are the things when you're asking for a chart of accounts. I want to see it so I can see what else I can cut. that's a different story
080than let's have a conversation around what are possible things that we really do need to keep. So I just want to share that >> and I think that that's a fair thing to say that is representative at least I know I that is where I fall too is wanting to have the understanding so that we can be the community liaison that we're supposed to be and ask questions and collaborate and ask yeah but use that information to help with the decisions. I think one of the questions that came up we can deal with later. So, I'm going to try to grab the idea and table it is how whatever they're asking for at a later date affects the budget that we're approving now. So, if if for whatever re um I'm going to use uh
081O andM because that's one I'm most familiar with. Um they come in and and they were going to buy a truck that was going to cost $200,000 and that's what um or $20,000, let's say. Be reasonable. um $20,000 and because of whatever happened now they're coming for 40. We'd like to know, okay, well, we're going to adjust the funders. It's going to take this hit off the fund and we're going to move. We're going to delay other things. We're not going to ask for more money. We're just letting you know we're going to spend this much money and this is the effect of the fund. We can figure out the details of that, but that was something that I would like to see that would help this conversation next year go a lot smoother. Sure.
082Yeah. And I I I'll let you know every director uh is kind of a master of their own budget uh which where where they do kind of move between funds knowing what they can defer for the following year because of this appro uh because of this increase in cost would not have anticipated. >> Right? But then to understand that the priorities of the seven people who are up here on on the board that has gone through the superintendent and say this is a priority of our board to do. We're not going to the directors and saying, "Here's our priority." We're going to our superintendent. Our superintendent should be going to the directors and say, "The board's priorities are these, these, and these things." As far as I know, we've never had that conversation. So, the
083budget was put together without looking at the pri looking from the priorities of this of the group, not individually, not my priorities, but the group of the seven of us. We haven't had that conversation. So if we haven't had that conversation, for the most part, everybody in the back table has been flying blind. Yes, we trust them to be professionals, but our job up here is also to guide them in which what we were elected to do. And that conversation with the superintendent about what the priorities of this new board were never happened. And you guys have been, and it's not your fault, you guys have put together an incredible document that's going to tell us what kind of money we can spend over the next year blindly. And I don't think that's fair to
084you. I don't think that's fair to us. And I don't think it's fair to the the taxpayer of the district. With with that being said, I know and this is something we can talk about uh down the road here. I know our finance committee doesn't really meet until what is it? August. And how much vetting of this budget did the finance committee have in the process? The budget that we're looking at right here. So um the finance again the the finance facilities committee is doesn't serve the same role let's say of other agencies uh like the city or that is more of a um administr uh a comm administrative committee uh so um so they do provide um some recommendations to the superintendent for it. >> Okay. So you basically tell me for this budget
085there there hasn't been that much term because based on the timeline it'll meet for the first time till August and this is already presented in August and don't get me wrong I know staff did a great job as far as figuring out what is needed but we have a committee here and it would be great to have some other individuals and I know we have some very qualified members on this committee who have lots of finance experience that could look at this. So I'm just saying going forward maybe the board wants to take a look at how this committee is structured down the line >> and I want to say that for the uh the new board members to once you see the full cycle you will see that the finance facilities committee does do
086a five-year projection of sustainability in uh February. >> Okay. >> Y before we move on can I ask an overly technical question about the property tax relief grant. So you talked about you know we got significant funds three years in a row. utilizing that property tax relief grant and we basically still enjoy those funds on an annual basis. We got like essentially a three-year increase and they're still part of our annual funds from the state. Is that right? Like we gave that property tax grant. So we got 6 million one year, 5 million the next, however much the third year we still get those, right? We just don't get those as increases going forward. It like raised our base level of funding, right? Is that how I understand that? So yes, so for example, if
087I take FY24, uh we did get a grant amount of 6.067 million. We had to provide taxpayers relief at 6.488 million. So it wasn't a dollar for dollar for the grant. We just had to chip in uh the remaining amount. Uh and we abated two for two years uh in 2023 and 2024. and the 2024 uh we only got the year uh the grant one year but the 2024 was in the base amount. So that's how we >> and so trying to think long term you know it's frozen this year obviously and you mentioned that you know there's certain factors they're going to be considering. So, like how do we plan to try to take advantage of a program like that again? Like do we have to like increase levies in order to even like
088show up on the radar or are we able what can we do to try to get another round of that funding? >> Yeah, that's a good question because we don't know what the new funding formula will be like. But >> so in the past, what were they looking at when they awarded it to us in the first place? Do you know off the top of your head? >> Uh the tax rate uh being high. So if we lower the tax rate, you know, as as we did several years in a row, right, the state looks at it and says, "Well, you don't need the money obviously, right?" So >> yeah. So you fall below the eligibility line. So it's normally about 38 the first uh depending how the formula works, the first third ranked 38
089districts will get it and we fell about 50 45 to 50 rank at that time. >> Okay. Thanks. Question. >> I have one question really quick before we move on to slide 13. Um, it's the one that's the budget laid out. >> Yep. >> Third from the end. Yeah. Can you just help me understand again these two columns on the right here? Because I understand the revenue and the expenditures and the surplus and these transferred. But what >> what are these and why are they so different from >> Sure. So these are the uh the revenue the the second column is the ins that are coming out throughout this year and the expenditure is the outs >> right right >> the last two columns is our savings basically our savings account uh that all the
090surpluses throughout the year uh the savings that uh has been accumulated. So that's what we call a fund balance um pretty much our savings account. So we really don't dip into it unless there is a deficit but if there is a surplus will be moved into the uh fund balance or the savings account. >> Thank you. That's Yep. That's >> right. Thank you guys. >> Thank you. >> Thanks. >> All right. >> Okay. No further discussion is recommended the board of education adopt the fiscal year 2526 budget as presented. Do I have a motion? >> So move. >> Second. Jackie, roll call. >> Dante Vinham, >> yes. >> Kristen Bailey, >> yes. >> Nick Atwood, >> yes. >> Steve Buyers, >> yes. >> Jose, >> yes. >> Christopher Boy, >> yes. >> Mark Sherbet, >>
091no. >> And moving into new business and administration. Item A, solar energy project RFP results. This will be presented to us by director Carson and Ben Vale from technology and then our friends from is it Nania? >> Nani. It's Italian for solar in there. >> Thank you. Um, we came to the board back in May, you may recall, and we presented a recommendation to enter into a power purchase agreement um, and look at putting solar panels on our buildings or on our property. And with the help of Aaron and Becky from Nania Energy Group, uh, they did put together an RFP. It went out to a number of uh vendors, contractors, and we did receive six proposals back which were reviewed thoroughly by the um by NIA and they were rated anonymously. So, it wasn't
092based on a name put to it. And based on that, three were presented to Ben and I in regards to the top three that are being recommended and highly ranked. And then the uh top one that is being recommended today is the Sun Peak Power Holding Company and they're located in Madison, Wisconsin. And at their their average rate over our 13 of our 15 total buildings because we were not looking to put this onto the ed center or the Beyond One Barb Center if you recall because of the size of those buildings and the not having the land to support it. Their rate is coming in at uh 4.07 cents per kilowatt hour. Our current rate is 8.9% per kilowatt hour. So a significant over half the savings than we're looking at today. With that,
093I'm going to actually turn it over to Erin and he can go to a little more detail on that. >> No, she did such a good job doing I have nothing. Great to see you all again. >> Okay. Um yeah, so from our perspective, we were very happy with the RFP results. The six proposals that came in were all high quality proposals. Um the uh the scoring this is not a the power purchase agreement does not require you to award to the lowest bidder. You certainly can award it to the lowest bidder, but you're not there's no statutory requirement to the scoring criteria we recommend and that we utilized was based on qualifications, experience, um price, uh technical components of the proposal. So these things in this case the top ranked proposer, Sun Peak, um
094was also the lowest bidder. So in this case, it is it is the lowest bid that that we're recommending. And um if you remember when we were in front of you back in um March or April or so, we were estimating that the power purchase agreement rate would be about 6 cents or a little more than six cents. In this case, um we we were intended to be conservative in our estimates and and in this case it's it's significantly better at at about 4 cents or so. And if you remember uh the way a power purchase agreement works, there's no upfront cost to the district, right? the solar company's coming in and installing the solar at their cost and then they're selling you the power from the solar arrays over a predetermined contract length. And
095so a lower rate just means more savings for the district. We estimated before that you'd save about $8 million or so over the duration of the contract. And with this new lower rate, we're estimating you'll save about $12 million. So um all all good things. There was really no kind of no negative from our perspective as far as the RFP process and results. And so um one last point is the uh I know you have a a big package uh with this agenda item. Those are all the contracts and so we we vetted the contracts from a technical perspective and we made some recommendations that were accepted by the by the vendor and then your legal counsel as well. Um there was quite a bit bit of back and forth as well. So these are
096all vetted contracts that are put before you. >> I have quick question. Are those rates locked in for the duration of the lease so that even though energy prices will continue to rise per kilowatt hour that >> right >> we're locked in there? >> Yeah, great question. Yeah, that's that it's it's fixed. So it's it's 4.07 cents fixed for 20 years regardless of what's happening as far as energy markets or or anything like that. >> Y these are for leases. Sorry. >> Go ahead. >> Are these all leases? there. Um, there are there are lease terms as far as how they're contractually set up, but I wouldn't actually I wouldn't necessarily call it a lease because it's like a it's like a dollar lease or something, right? So, it's more I guess not um so
097it's more this power purchase agreement arrangement where you're agreeing to through the lease terms you're agreeing to let them construct the solar array on your properties and then they're selling you the power. >> It's like what Sunun has on my house, right? Similar. >> Correct. But bigger. Yeah. Okay. >> Um, >> forgive me. I either forgot when you presented it in May or we weren't some of us weren't seated in March when you first came. This is very much like the residential except way bigger. So, if anything goes wrong, all that that's on on which Sun Peak, >> right? Essentially, we we're just going to pull power from it just the way we normally do. >> That's correct. Yeah. And so, that 4.0 zero that 4 cent uh is an all-in rate. It includes all
098operations and maintenance on the solar arrays as well. Yep. >> So if there is an issue, are you guys the one to manage that or is it we would have to deal directly with Sun Peak? >> With Sun Peak. Yeah. >> And do we what do we know about their asking for reasons because I've had this happen? >> So there were reference checks with this as well. other districts and entities that have utilized them as the contractor or the service provider and >> they came back positive as well. >> Awesome. >> If I could add a point just something I think is pretty cool about the power purchase aspect of this is that the way that they earn their revenues and their profits is through the energy generation. So if there is an issue with
099any of the arrays and it's not producing power, they're not receiving payment. So it's kind of a vested interest where they are incentivized to maintain top operations for these otherwise they're not receiving those payments. So it's of a built-in incentive. >> If they go out of business over the course of this lease, is there any kind of a provision like who does it transfer to? Who takes over their position as far as maintaining and and operating the power? There's there is no um like designation in the contract as far as who would. But um generally speaking, you know, if if they did go out of business, they would likely sell or assign the rights to the power purchase agreement. Um so that kind of your best case scenario is that you take ownership over them,
100right? And now you get free power to a certain extent, right? But that's not going to happen. It's going to it's going to it's going to be sold as part of the liquidation event. Yeah. >> Thank you. >> Yep. >> Hearing no other questions. Do I have consensus to bring this back? >> Yes. >> Thank you guys. >> Thank you. >> And last item is item B, temporary facilities reports, Courtland, Jefferson, Lincoln, and Little John. Also presented by Director Carson. Every year we have our architect go around and inspect all of our U mobile classroom units. It's a requirement. And then submit those reports to us if any deficiencies that potentially need to be addressed within those. and then everything assigned and sent over to our regional office of education for them to issue our
101temporary facility permits. It's just something we have to do every year. Uh at this point, there are no deficits or deficiencies that have been found during the inspections of the four locations. So, I'm just asking for this to be brought back for approval at the next meeting so that we can have our permits issued. >> All right. Does anyone have any questions? >> Hearing no questions. Do I have consensus to bring this back? >> Yes. >> Thank you. >> And Dr. Garcia Sanchez has gone at a conference. So there is no superintendent report this meeting which means that I will entertain a motion to adjurnn. So moved. >> Second. >> All those in favor say I. >> I. Meeting is adjourned.