001School District number 531 on July 14th, 2025 at 6 o'clock. We'll have our attendance, please. >> Kelly >> here, >> Nadia >> here, >> Alicia here, David >> here, >> Jeremy >> here, >> Carrie >> here, and Lisa. >> Vision is Byron public schools, a community of learners committed to making the world a better place. Mission is to learn, share, innovate, inspire, and priorities are to personalize learning in the pursuit of academic excellence. Inspire students and staff to develop their character, share their talents, and apply their learning and maintain excellence in resource management. Move on to the approval of the agenda items. Are there any questions or discussion on the agenda items? >> We would entertain a motion to approve. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Motion and a second. All in favor say I.
002>> I. All opposed. >> Move on to discussion items. The levy amount discussion. >> Are you going to lead the way? Absolutely. I will. Yeah. >> Okay. Um so, uh it's my intent that this levy amount discussion um is almost the entirety of our evening tonight. Okay. So, we're about to navigate through a thing and you'll feel like it's a little long-winded, but I want you to know um that that's intentional. the the remaining agenda items. We'll happily walk through and talk through anything that you want, but I just want you to I just want to forewarn you that this first one is like 99% of our time and the other three is the other one. Okay? So, just setting the expectations. So, um I have sent this out uh beforehand, but obviously it's on
003the agenda for you to link. Um tonight we're going to follow a uh a protocol that I've used with all of the focus groups and I've I've used in um other situations some time past to good effect. Um a couple of you who went came to the focus groups uh participated through this. Um for those of you who haven't um the basic idea behind this is a way to to organize our collective decision- making. Um and it makes it so that we um can feel good that we have um gathered any pertinent information and that if there's any additional information that um you make the assignment to me to go gather that information. It also provides us time and opportunity for everybody to react to the information. Um this is both an emotional reaction. So
004you say, "Boy, this thing really makes me angry or this thing makes me happy." But then it's also an opportunity to to try and drive some connections. Oh, when I see this chart, it makes me think of this other thing. And that's the time to to navigate through those reactions. Um the next step is to um compile options. So any option is brainstormed. So if um initially you may think, well, this option that somebody wants to throw out there is a really airbrained idea. um it's not the time to to cast any any idea is acceptable and we list every option that anybody wants to think about. And then um we go through each option analyzing the pros and the cons. And then at the end, as scary as it sounds, we end up becoming
005experts of this topic because we've gathered a ton of information that's pertinent to it. We've been able to react to that. We've analyzed all the options and now it's time to arrive at a decision. Okay, as I said in the board report, it's not necessarily my goal that the end of tonight we arrive at a decision for a levy amount. Um, it is my goal by the end of tonight um that you will have looked at a lot of information. We'll have had a chance to react to that information and we've also will have had a chance to um gather a list of options and analyze the pros and cons of those options. Okay. Um, so those are my goals. Anybody uh think I'm totally headed in a terrible direction here? >> Okay, perfect. That's
006good. I wasn't sure if all of you said yes to that question what I would have done. So, so anyway, um yes, please. >> Who's been through this already? >> Um let's see. Uh Nadia was at one and David. Oh, no, sorry. And Jeremy came to one. Yeah. >> Oh, and Lisa was at one, too. So, okay. Um so the first one and I do have printed copies of these as well is our levy projections. Boy, this uh mouse is not treating me well. Okay. And this first chart and if you need I will I'll send a printed version around on both directions on me. >> I don't need a huge stack going that way. >> Can we write on them then? >> You absolutely can. Yep. And if you want more copies, we can
007make more. Um, you just have to live with the guilt of going through all those copies. Just kidding. Period. You can have as many as you want. Okay. Um, so in this stage, we aren't going to the only questions I want you to ask is if you don't understand how the information is organized or what the information is telling you. We aren't going to react to this information. And we aren't going to say things like, "I'm really surprised about this," or, "I wonder what the years before this would look like." We're really just trying to make sure everybody understands the information as it's displayed. So, I'm going to explain it to you, and then you'll have an opportunity to ask any clarifying questions. Okay. The top part of the chart, it's really in two parts.
008The top part of the chart are our assumptions for the chart below. Okay. Um you see on the top it's organized by um year and we have the 2425 school year, the projections for the 2526 school year and then moving forward into the future. The top four rows are all assumption factors that impact our revenue streams. So you have the uh general ed formula, you have the L, and you have the anticipated special education revenue. And then all of those or many of those numbers are derived directly from our enrollment. Okay? And that's the enrollment projection over time. The rest of the rows are the assumptions that we're making on our various expenditure lines. Okay? These are just assumptions. Okay? And so obviously we know things can go up, things can go down, but we
009just needed something to project into the future. Okay? Then if you go to the bottom of the chart, as a result of those assumptions, we've compiled a chart that shows what are what is the total dollar amount. Um oh, sorry, what is the fund balance that we get to at different levy amounts? And then under the real dollar amount, you see a percentage, and that is the percentage of expenditures. In other words, that's our policy percentage that we're chasing after. Okay. Um, and so we start at $500 per pupil with no inflation means that we did not ask for an inflation factor on that levy amount. So that will be that amount stays static through the life of the levy. Okay? And then it goes it goes in $100 increments all the way down to
010$800 per pupil with inflation. Okay? So I've now explained the chart. Are there um things about the chart? And it's okay if you're confused about it. Don't be sheepish. This is the time that we need clarity. Okay. Is there a part of the chart that you don't understand? Again, we aren't reacting or sharing opinions about the chart yet or its implications. Just is there anything about the chart that you don't understand? And it's okay if the answer is no. It's also okay if it's yes and you have a long laundry list of questions. >> The fund balance percentage just sometimes you're talking about different things. They were talking about it in the way that our goal was 8%. Correct. Correct. Yep. Great question. >> So, our special ed revenue is forecast to continue continue to
011decline to accelerate enrollment is going down. Do we see special ed revenue increasing because we're seeing a higher ratio of special ed defined kids or funding is going up and are our hands tied on even if we get $3.4 $4 million and we can only allocate 2.9. Does that make sense how I ask? >> So special ed funding is tied to your expenditures from the prior year. So what we get in special ed revenue this year is tied to our expenditures from the last school year. Um and that formula is going to continue to increase. They recently changed it from uh 6% across subsidy to a 40%. >> That makes sense. >> And down and down the road they're talking about increasing it again to 50%. >> So these are actually probably a little bit
012um conservative as far as increases there. >> And you're right, there are there I say historically more students are receiving special education services in some capacity or another. So that's part of why that is increasing too. That makes sense. Thank you. >> The other thing I would just dump on to that is um there is a maintenance of effort required where we are demonstrating year-over-year that we in essence there's a there's requirements built in that we continue to expend and then eventually we get to the point where we're collecting more revenue. I will say our maintenance of effort is not just Byron by itself, but it's also computed with all the other zed schools at the same time. But >> how do we land on 10% for health insurance, especially after seeing multiple years in
013a row over 20%. >> So for this year with the renewal we're getting, the switch that we're making, it's 1.3%. Next year we're capped at 15. So kind of average is about 10%. Some years it could be more, some years it could, you know, could be less than that. Um, local medical trend is about eight and a half. >> So, but to your point, David, uh, health insurance is kind of the wildest card out there because we have no real control over it at the end of the day. That also includes not just um premiums but also um staff taking it. If we have a bunch of staff choose not to take health insurance, that increase isn't necessarily going to match what the revenue is. >> And would you say the assumptions lean optimistic or
014conservative? >> So when we look at when we look at projections revenue wise, I would prefer to air on the side of less revenue. Mhm. >> And expenses. More expenses. >> So conservative. >> Definitely more conservative. >> That way if you're if you're surprised, >> ideally you're going to be surprised. Good luck as opposed to >> Yes. >> That's the rule of thumb. We want to be pleasantly surprised from now on. >> Good. >> I like that. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> Great questions. Are there some more? Okay. If as we're moving through these other ones, if you want to come back to this, that's totally fine as well. Okay, perfect. Okay. Um, let's see. The next one is a chart that display and I again I have printed copies here too. A chart that
015shows that at various levy amounts, what is the tax impact at various um uh value or property values? So across um on the first part of the table across the top you see different levy amounts. So we have 500 600 700 800 and 1,000. It's important to note that on the levy forecast sheet that you were just looking at 1,000 is not on that chart. Okay. Um and this chart is not showing anything beyond one year. So it's just showing 2026. Okay, right below the levy amount you see the total amount generated um for our for the pupil the pupil projection from 2026. Okay. And then on the bottom of the chart you see each row is an estimated market value and then as you go across the row you see what is the very
016important yearly tax impact at each levy amount. Okay. So if you wanted to find the monthly, you obviously take that number and divide it by 12. Sean can do that in his head. I need a calculator. No pressure, Sean. >> I've got a spreadsheet up so I can do this. >> Not very good. >> Okay. So when you look at this chart, um again, this is a time for just asking clarifying questions, not necessarily reacting or opining on what it means. Um, do you have questions about how how it's organized or or what some of those numbers shake out to be? For your reference, according to Ellers, the average home value in Byron is $350,000. Okay, the next one and again I have this one printed is the budget. summary. Um I see a couple
017of you are on this um on this thing virtually. Uh good for you. Um I would encourage you just look at the budget summary sheet um as the rest of the sheets uh get pretty deep into the the nether verse that is school finance. Not that we're trying to hide anything for you, but there's lots of there's lots of things that we we would need to explain to get you there. Not that you couldn't understand it, of course. Um this provides you a current snapshot with no changes at all to our revenue of what happens districtwide over the next 5 years. Okay. So we have the very first row is obviously the titles and definitions. The next row is the actual audited 2324 school year numbers. Okay. And then we have last year's school numbers
0182425. That's still considered a budget situation or a projected situation because those numbers have not been audited yet and that's happening in the fall. We have the projected 2526 budget which is um in a shocker this coming school year somehow. Okay. And then you see moving forward uh projected um let's see five this one has four additional years into the future. Okay. Um the the top chart gives you obviously different items like revenue, expenditures, fund balance, unassigned fund balance, percentage of fund balance compared to expenditures. The bottom part includes the assign. So this is another chart that's just highlighting the assumptions that are made to arrive at the at the projections. Okay. For for those not named Sean Ellbury in the room, the most helpful things are the revenue expenditure line, the fund balance line,
019the unassigned fund balance line, and the percent unassigned fund balance line. Okay. the revenues, expenditures, fund balance, unassigned fund balance, excuse me, percent unassigned. Okay. If um numbers are red, that means negative. Okay. >> Sean, was there a rumor once upon a time about the the L potentially being increased? Yeah, they they've talked about it, but it's it's been more than a conversation. >> Yeah, they they did increase it a little bit this year. >> Okay. >> It wasn't a lot though. Okay. >> Not not enough to really >> not not enough to move the needle for a smaller district. >> Okay. They um my understanding was it was either choose between the L or the um school board power to do LTFM roof living. So there was a bit of horse trade in there.
020Any questions about this chart at all? Okay. Um, this is a new chart that I haven't showed any focus groups yet because the idea behind this chart came from the focus groups. Um, this combines a couple of elements at the same time and this was constructed by Shawn. So, thanks Sean. Um, as you'll see, this combines the the projection chart that we were just looking at with by Ellers and then it applies three different levels of of levy to that charge. So, the first one is if we passed a $500 per pupil, the second one is 600 and the third one is 700. Sean, I know it doesn't make a huge difference in the terms of numbers, but are these were these inflation? They had the inflation adjuster on. Okay, thank you. >> So, on
021this one, the intent behind this is so that you can see in terms of real revenue compared to expenditures, what it looks like over time for um for the district at different levy amounts. Any questions about this chart or the information on it. All right, the uh next one I did not print out just because it would be um an obnoxious amount of paper. Um but um I wanted to walk you through I wanted to walk you through um the report on both the um the the survey that was commissioned right at the end of the school year um to try and gather information from the community and then also um some ideas that were brought forth as we did our community engagement plan that we decided on at the end of the year. Um,
022I will rip through some of these slides quickly, but again, if you want me to stop and we can talk through it, that's okay. No problem at all. Okay. It's most important that you understand the information. So, um, we had uh close to 900 responses. Um, and it's really important to note that due to the nature of the questions and the way that these the survey was distributed, this isn't a statistically valid survey. Um and so that that should be taken into account. Okay, here's the breakdown of the demographics. Um there was an oversampling of females and parents. And then here's um also gender breakdown plus age and years in the district. If you recall, as part of our conversations in the leadup to the survey, we wanted to get a sense of where if
023a levy passed, where the community would like to see those dollars head towards. And then we also wanted to try and get a sense for what is the tax number that people feel comfortable with at this point in time. So first one gave this idea of did you know that Byron schools is the third lowest fund in the school district? Do you think they're adequately funded? So the left side represents what the community said and the right side is what the parents said. If election were held today, would you support or oppose the levy for learning? This is overall. This is the parents. This is the staff. And this is the community. Um, we stated some reasons for why we would need a levy. And so the question was to try and take the temperature
024of which one of these reasons moves your needle as a community member. Okay, that was kind of the purpose behind it. So that we received $0 already and this was kind of an even split among the parents. And a way to interpret that is that that particular idea doesn't necessarily convince people to move towards it because it's just an even split. Okay. State funding has not kept pace with inflation. Same similar story. two years of cuts. Similar story and the mandates from the legislature. Here's the community. Same ideas. Zero dollars. Here's their response. State funding not keeping pace with inflation. two years of cuts and mandates from the legislature. Um, coming back to this idea, given that we're the third lowest funded district in the state, do you think Byron schools are adequately funded? It's
025kind of interesting that there was a consensus that folks said, uh, no. Um this one, oh sorry I went too fast. This um summarized is essentially what are the what are the places that you would like to see the dollars flow towards or in other words what would what would get you excited to go out there and vote. Yes, these are all respondents. And then this is parents as far as attracting and retaining high quality teachers. This this subject was the biggest, you know, this one brought out more positive feelings than other responses did. This is from the community. It also felt strongly that way. And then um the next one was about strengthening safety and security. This is the parent response and the community response. Um this question tried to test what is the
026tax tolerance of our community. In other words, how much tax would people be willing um to accept? Um, the one misleading part of these charts is the charts are listed in per month, like $20 a month or $40 a month, but the charts that I've given you so far are more listed in annual like this is how much it is annually. So, this is the parents and just remember for a levy passage, we just we need 50.1% of the vote technically. And this is the community >> and the 20, 30, and 40 they approximately equal to 20 or >> Yes, 20 is uh $400 a month. Or is that 500? Sorry, I'm looking at Sean. I knew I should have written these down, but uh uh $20 per month was um I believe $400 per
027pupil. >> We talked about this. >> Yes. And then the $40 a month, um I think that was just right under the $800 a pupil. Is that right? >> Y just under six year. >> Mhm. So, sorry that that's a little the metrics are different there, but okay. Um, this is talking about the quality of work and this is using that A B CDF F scale that is pervasive in high schools and colleges across the country. What grade would you give Byron on these issues? Are these skills or things that they do and I want to highlight that you know especially with the and we'll see this in the constructive response answers that um for surveys for constructive responses Um there's a nearly it's not unanimous, but it's pretty clo it's as close to unanimous
028as we're going to get in support of the teachers and the and the instructional staff, which is great. These are con some constructed responses. So, um responses were dropped into one of these wordcloud tools and the word that comes up most frequently is the word that is biggest in the cloud. And these are just some excerpts of things that people said. What's the most serious issue facing public schools? And here are some excerpts again. This is additional information. It's not necessarily going to it shouldn't necessarily aid us much in the levy or the levy amount discussion, but it can aid us in understanding how people receive information from us or how they prefer to receive information from us. So, some summary findings are um respondents agree that we're not adequately funded. They are divided on
029the support of a referendum, specifically the amount. Um messages surrounding state funding mandates or district budget cuts um can potentially or they aren't necessarily going to move our needle very much. um when it comes time to to talk about the living. Um because of a lot of the transparency and and lack of trust talk, providing targeted, appropriate, accessible, and accurate information is going to be critical, of course. And then um anything we can talk about relating to attracting and retaining teachers and strengthening safety and security of our district. Those are going to be those are community priorities and those do have a likelihood of of potentially moving some needles. Um this was just a percentage breakdown of um and we didn't fill in the blanks there um but we we have that number of course.
030So there is good support for $20 a month. Um there is kind of, you know, push in one direction support of around the $30 a month number. Um but the $40 a month is it's going to be hard to reach that one at least according to these survey results, which is not statistically significant or valid, but uh but at least gives us some insight. Is that something that um the community can see as a breakdown of how that impacts the school if we go 20 30 40 or does that does that kind of list of the things that could get potentially cut or cut back or >> Yeah, that's a good question. Um for the survey we just listed the amount the tax impact. Um, part of what what we'll do is once we arrive
031at the levy number, um, we'll construct a list of, hey, if this thing passes, here's what it here's what it looks like. >> If it doesn't pass, here's the here's the doomsday list. So, I call it the doomsday list. It's not appropriate. the data there is pretty accurate when it comes to they they're aware of the being low so low funded >> but yet not wanting to like budge on the issue but I I suppose that is the area that we >> move on and okay so that that that's what I was kind of curious about thank you >> yeah um we're going to move into um we did some individual um interviews I wouldn't call them surveys but we did some individual interviews of some opinion leaders across the community. Um, before I walk
032into that, was there any of the charts from the from the survey of the 900 some pe or the less than 900 people that you wanted to revisit or you had a question by because I just was going through it too fast. Okay, great. So, these were conducted um over the past couple of weeks. Um these were uh folks that were identified by um school district leaders. Some of you provided some insight into these this list as well. Um and again these are just some overall summary things about what they what they thought. Here are some specific some lifted quotes if you will. Okay. So, that's the end of of these slides. Is there um do you want me to return to any of these interview summaries? Good. Okay. All right. I know this is
033a lot of information. Stay with me. I just have to find the mouse. Oh, went to sleep. Okay. Um, the next one is not a chart I have printed off, but is on the and let me just put a couple lines in here so it's all on the same page. Is um these are the levy amounts for uh comparable school districts. And I have two columns here. The f column on the left is um close to us according to geography comparable districts in our geography. So Cassanderville, Stewartville, Hayfield um Blooming Prairie, Triton, Kenny, Mingo Bros, Pine Island, Chatfield, Dover, Yoda, Planefield, Jillville, St. Charles and Kon Falls. So you and that's their per pupil amount. Okay. And then the column on the right are comparables that we use for teacher negotiations. And generally speaking, these
034um these districts are comparable as in they have a similar number of kids and staff enrolled in them across the state. Um please note that there's other things that you should take into account before drawing direct comparisons to especially well to any of them, right? It's like on one hand is it wise to draw comparisons between what we do versus what Kenny Monomingo does just given the difference of enrollment. So just so the one is geography and the other is basically enrollment and staff size but >> and this is operating levy only. >> Operating levy only. Yep. Per pupil amount per year. Any questions about this chart at all? >> Maybe a comment. >> Yeah. >> So in our discussion about those numbers, you saw you see that they are all unequal pretty much and
035there are the question was why they are not like 400 like not not wrong number and the idea was um put out that maybe they were direct in a different way. So those district districts may have put out like a a request that we have shortfall by like 1 million or whatever 2 million. So they started with how much money they need to achieve their goal and then they divided that amount among the all the houses within their district and that's how they got to those individual numbers there per pupil. kind of a different way of looking in into the need >> for the district. >> Um, I should add another way that they could arrive at some of these wonky numbers is that they have an inflation adjuster >> and so there would just
036be like a three or a 4% added year over here. But thank you, Nadia. Um, I also have this same chart that we're navigating through right now. Um, for the for each of the focus groups, I'm not necessarily going to walk through everything that each focus group talked about. Um, um, as you have access to these um, and you can kind of see how um, how they arrived at these items. But I did want to just highlight I'll highlight for you the amount that they felt as they looked through a bunch of this data and what they arrived at. Okay. So this first one was the leadership group and they ended up arriving at um $700 per pupil. They did ask about looking for strategies about whether or not it was wise to go for
037fewer years, you know, like three or five or six. Um, and in the referendum folks I have talked to, um, I talked to the expert of them at Education Minnesota. I talked with Matthew Hammer at Ellers. Um, I also talked with Jeff. Um, no one no one has ever encountered a a referendum try that was any less than 10 years. So, if you're going to go the the prevailing wisdom is go for 10. Okay. Um the next group was a group of staff members and uh they uh couldn't settle on one option which is fine. Um and so they they suggested 580 per pupil or $600 per pupil. >> And what was the reason why they suggested 580? Um, I think they wanted to uh they they felt very strongly about the $30 per pupil
038kind of being a a very definite and hard line. >> And so the um $600 per pupil is right like right above $30. >> Mhm. >> And then if you went under like I think it was like 2750 >> that was like that was 580. So, it was a above the line and below the line for you elementary folks. >> Okay. Any other questions about that one? Um, this was the budget committee and the budget committee said no more than $700 per pupil. And last but certainly not least was a group of community members and they said between $6 and $700 >> and the community members excluding parents, excluding teachers. Um yes, there weren't any teachers. Um I do think well um three of the members uh three of the community members were parents and
039one was just a was I shouldn't say just a community member, one was a community member that had no kids in the district. >> Yeah. >> So four people in total. >> Correct. Thanks. >> Okay. Any other questions? All right. Um the last one is um this has less to do with levy amount. This is basically everything that we've walked through already. Um but um as part of our plan for the summer specifically um we are going to be doing a community engagement plan. Um, and I don't know, I can't recall off the top of my head how many of you were were part of some of these meetings about talking through things like getting out the survey, beginning to assemble a yes committee, um, analyzing the results of the survey, and arriving at a
040levy amount. Um, and so, um, Daylor and his, uh, well, Daylor PR put together this summary of our work so far. Um, I think it's worth highlighting the key findings, um, which is right here. I'll blow it up a little larger. Um, respondents agree that we're not adequately funded. They're divided on the supportive referendum. We talked about a couple of these things already. Um, but anyway, you can read those. I don't need to read those out to you. Okay. So now um is there any um are there any questions as we comb through all that information? I know it's a lot. Um are there any lingering questions? Not necessarily reactions or opinions on any of the questions, but anything that's not clear. Do you feel like there's any other pieces of information that we haven't
041collected that within reason we could put our hands on that could help guide our decision about what should be the levy amount? Do you mean feedback from the community type of information or uh or can we look into something else? So the way I'm looking at this right now is that I think our messaging would not resonate necessarily because of how we're positioning, right? X dollar per pupil and that will get us to X% of funding balance, right? That's a very, you know, cut and dry way of presenting this information. Um, a message that would be more something that I can react better to is well, we had due to the cuts our class sizes have increased to X pupil per class. Um if we want to like a dollar amount of 800 per people
042will get us to Y people per class. You know 700 will get us to some certain number of people per class. That implies that we're not going to use all of this money to fund our fund balance, right? But that we will spend that money. Are we prepared to have that? Well, um the messaging of the amount >> is frankly what comes next. >> The the thing that we should wrap our heads around right now is what is the amount we should arrive at. But your to your point um I guess as I've been looking through this at the end of the day the real question that we have to answer as a school board is given the fall where we asked for $800 per pupil and that that did not pass. Did that number
043not pass because the tax impact was too high or did that number not pass because uh because of the financial budget issues and the the lack of trust? >> Mhm. >> And I think and I'm just I'm really just trying to simplify this to get to the to cut to the quick. >> That is the 8% fund balance question, right? >> And the district sustainable question, right? And um and so I do agree with you Nadia in the sense that whatever number we arrive at >> Yeah. >> we will put that number into those sort of message boxes of saying >> hey if you vote for this levy >> Mhm. >> One of the results of that is right now our fifth grade classes are sitting at 33 kids. Mhm. >> This one of the
044ways we could spend this money is to hire another teacher and drop it down to 22 or whatever the numbers. >> So to me to cut to the quick that is the question is what was the no about in the fall? But that's my reaction. I don't have to dominate the reaction. I think when you look at the compilation of all like the excerpts or all the words that stood out um the things that um jumped out at people uh I think when you take those and you compare it to the opportunity cost I think that's where you're we can find the answer of verbiage or what how we go at go after that and I think the answer to your question is probably both was the answer to what happened in the fall but
045with with the the majority of the community with the knowledge that this is, you know, what Byron faces and yet we want top-notch teachers, we want reputation, we want all those things back. There is a bridge to that and I think with the the the right verbiage there with the community verbiage that they had used, I think that we can find happy place in there. So, with that, are we Okay, it's just a reaction, please. Okay. >> Yes, please. Yeah. >> No, no. >> I feel like the community is confused. Um, >> and I'm not sure I'm not sure they're fully bought in one way or not or one way or another. Um, to see on there they're preferred way of communication was 80% being emails. Well, then we also blast out every single email
046that we have in the entire school district operating package and they still say we didn't give them the information. So, where where are we missing the gap? >> Okay. So, by the way, the people who responded to that survey did see the email. That's how they responded to the survey, right? So the public who took the survey were the ones who got it, >> right? But if it's 82% there, we still miss the whole other other side of the community cuz there's what 2400 emails. Is that what it is? Somewhere in there. >> Probably double that. Usually >> Okay. So 4,800 emails and we got 900. We got 20% to to respond. So, >> um, yeah, I I don't know how else to communicate some of these messages to people in the community. >> Short
047of going back in time and spending way more money than we have on exit polls, I think we I think the information we have in front of us is um, comprehensive and I feel like you did a really good job of getting us a lot of pots of information without spending thousands of dollars. So, I appreciate that. I feel like I feel like we have enough information to move forward and start talking about an amount. >> Do you want us to do that now or do you have >> No. Yeah. Yeah. We we'll keep we'll keep fishing. But if you have other reactions or opinions that we want to collect everything, we want you just to >> empty it all out here. That's that's what we want to do. The sense that I get is
048that um the reason the levy failed had very little to do with the actual $800 number and it had a lot more to do with other complex reasons. I don't know if you guys feel the same way. >> I don't because we went over information just like this sheet last time. We went over information just like this sheet last time. We went over information just like this sheet last time. There is no new information than what we had last time. >> Well, as a community member, it feels way different now than it did then, right? like that felt. I think if you don't have children in the district though, there might not be that emotional factor into that because people who were close to the school and kind of knew what was happening in the
049some community members may not have especially if they're not buying into the emails or getting newsletters or whatever. So then you've got people on out there on a fixed budget per se. you've got the elderly community and um people that kind of don't have stake in the game anymore. Their kids are grown, their kids are out, there's no grandkids. And so that is why I think that we have kind of a a mixed pot of people. Um, and I know we once talked about like doortodoor and I think that that demographic of people that aren't being reached because they're not getting emails or opting out or whatever, that might be our only way in in that that area. But for the other part of the community that are staying a breast of the the the
050emails and kind of going to be in the know now with um with Nate here, I think that that will be a great, you know, change for for that. But I still think we we have that other demographic of people that were just underreached. Mhm. So David, last year when you were going through the same process, what were the ranges and what were the dollar amounts that you were looking at? >> Very, very similar. 500 to 800 was the range that we really looked at. We didn't want to go any higher. And 500, I mean, it's the same thing. >> 500's not sustainable. >> Yeah, it helps, but it doesn't resolve. >> I agree. And you selected 800 because it was it provided the longest 10th period of Okay. >> Correct. I mean, just just
051looking at this, if I had to guess, even at $700, we're going to be >> back to a zero fund balance by year eight or nine. Just looking at the projections going with it. So, it was trying to maximize as far as we possibly could for the longest amount of time. And did you review numbers over 800 at all? >> We did and it was >> high. >> Yeah. >> Okay. No, that's good background for us. Thanks. >> Yeah, we went up to as high as $1,000. But >> I mean, yeah. What is it? Even on here, $1,000 is what 501 $52 a month. And we didn't feel like that was >> that was appropriate. >> That's a tough ask. Okay, other reactions or opinions? anything fueler. Okay. All right. So, we'll move to the
052options portion. Uh what we want to do and I just I have three rows here for options. We can we can do more rows. That's not that big of a deal. We can end up at 50 rows if we want. Okay. Not no I'm not trying to put a ceiling on the number of options. Okay. Um and so uh we want to first brainstorm the options. So you all can um can say hey I'd like us to explore this option or that option. And then every option we put on there we'll go through and do the pros and the cons for if that makes sense. Okay. All right. So, who um who would like to start by throwing out an option? And this isn't a vote or anything like that. This doesn't go on record.
053This is just us doing our due diligence and and process. So, the press will be nice to us, right? We are voting for these options. >> One thing we haven't talked about is the possibility of a technology portion or technology question. Um, is that something we should discuss, Matt, or >> Yeah, that's that's a good point. So, um, Sean and I met with um with others to talk about it's called a capital projects levy, and I I put just a very brief snippet in the board report on it. Um, but anyway, it's it's technically called a capital projects levy or it's um its street name is a tech levy because most um most districts use it to help fund their technology. Um, and with the tech levy, you can fund just about anything that has
054something to do with technology. So, you can do phone systems, internet, um, infrastructure, access points, security cameras, Chromebooks, subscription software, even the salaries of the technology staff. Um, all of that can go on the tech levy. um uh it's different than an operating levy in that um unlike funding it on a per pupil amount, you do a yearly real dollar amount. So let's say let's use our hypothetical of $200,000. And so, um, we would drop a question on there that would say, hey, for the next 200 thou or for the next 10 years, the you agree to let the district collect $200,000 from the tax base. And in the question itself, you specifically list out what you're going to spend that $200,000 on. So, it'll say telephone and security systems, internet access points, Chromebooks, and
055technology support staff compensation, and that this levy is good for 10 years. And then they just vote yes or no on it. um it's different from or it's still different from an operating operating levy in that um your capital uh projects levy covers the entirety of the tax base. So, if you recall from your phase 2 schoolboard MSBA training, your operating levy only um only touches the um the property owners, the specifically your residential property owners and then egg gets um just one acre wherever their homestead is sitting. Okay. >> Um the capital projects levy on the other hand is everything um including the egg land as well. um it is taxed at a the egg land is taxed at a slightly different rate, but um and so what ends up happening is on a
056capital projects levy, your um our residents end up seeing in a in a sense some tax relief because if it was just an operating levy, their taxes would climb much higher than with the capital projects levy because that tax is being spread across everything within our school district as opposed to just the residences. Um I'm trying to Am I missing another highlight? I'm looking at you, Sean. I think that's about it. >> I think you'll have numbers for us tomorrow. >> Yeah. And we're meeting and we don't have hard and fast numbers. We have some idea that like they put together a very quick chart that looks like the one I handed out to you for cap projects. Um but they were quick to point out that this was a very quick thing that they
057threw together in about 10 minutes. Um, but they were putting together a more detailed Byron Bears version and they're coming down to meet with Sean and I tomorrow morning. So, I'm sorry we couldn't get that information for tonight. Um, but um, there is the option of of that being one of the questions on there. Yeah. >> Are the tech lab is also usually gone for 10 years? >> Yes. >> Okay. And do you like if you don't know what how tech will change in 10 years? So, if you don't list something on that question, will you still be able to spend that money on that other item that's not in the question? >> That's a really good question, Nadia. Um the the strategy behind the um behind the ballot question is that you generalize those
058ideas enough so where you like we wouldn't necessarily say Chromebooks, we would say devices. >> Okay, got it. >> If that makes sense. >> Yeah. And we might not even say internet access points because maybe in two years it's all in our brains anyways. I don't know. But uh but that's where we that's where we pay the the lawyers to construct the ballot language that is doing what we want it to while also being general to general enough to account for stuff in the future. And do you what's if when you have that meeting with with a with our consultant, can you please ask if it's um how what what would they recommend um of a time frame between the operating levy and the attack levy >> year? Two years, three years. >> What's that?
059>> That was the other thing that we should have brought up is so thank you for that question too, Nadia. Um unlike an operating levy, uh you can do a capital projects levy outside of the November election. So we can do it in February or March. Like they have specific months, but it's not just November. So we can do that at other points in time. >> So we could we could ask two questions where one is an operating levy and the other is like a a tech levy on this one. We could ask an operating levy and then see what happens and then um go for a a tech levy in the future. >> Um and then again the advantage of going at a time that's different than the election is um we can strategize
060and use some different tactics for messaging to to uh to push the election potentially in our favor. Um, regarding the amount that you should arrive at, the suggested strategy was to say, well, how much are the sum total of the projects that you're trying to fund and then that is the amount that you ask for. So, for example, like let's say we wanted to to put two of the tech staff and then the yearly leases of the Chromebooks plus these ongoing end of life projects that always seem to happen. when you add all that all those numbers up, if you get to 350,000, that's the number that you ask for year-over-year. >> So, an option I propose is $700 per pupil and plus or minus a separate tech question. Um, the reason I'm prior to
061seeing this information, I was not gung-ho about a tech question, but with the prioritization on safety and security, I feel that might be a viable viable option. >> Okay, >> I'll second and add inflation to that. >> Yes. Yes. Thank you. And and I do appreciate your attention to Richard's rules of parliament, but none of these things are a vote, right? So we don't have to >> I just want to highlight we don't press people. We aren't voting on anything. >> Karen, I see you writing notes. >> But brainstorm ideas. >> I know. >> We're just brainstorming. And when you say second, that means we sometimes I like that idea. There's a synonym for that. Right. >> So anyway, okay. Sorry, David. >> I was going to say, do we know is the city also
062going out for a levy this year? >> They're not. They said they weren't. >> Yeah. I uh actually think that's a really good question. I met with Al today and he said that they've got a lot of ideas in the works and I just said, "Can you please put all of those ideas and the talking about those ideas off until after November 4th, please?" >> I said, "Sure." I was going to say I know they were they held off doing a levy last year as well to give us the best chance to letting it >> to letting it pass. >> Yeah. >> And they can only hold off so long before they ask for that pool. >> I mean they're they're already they're already starting the let's talk land question. So it it cannot be
063it cannot be far off. So whatever amount we go with, >> it almost has to be a slam dunk. just I don't know that we're going to win if you go up against a >> rate. >> I like the 700, but I'm going to put it as an option 650 at pupil just to just to have a discussion >> real quick. I just wanted to capture David's uh reactions there. So >> um >> a good point with the cities. Oh, I heard that. >> Okay, thank you. Okay. Um Jeremy, sorry. What uh what were you saying? >> 650 a pupil. >> Okay. >> Have here. And then I I'm just going to default to like with inflation because frankly >> frankly in the past like three to four years essentially every at least every operating
064levy I have seen on a ballot has the >> with inflation. So anyway okay um did I cut you off from anything else? No, I just I just trying to put options for us to discuss some >> good. >> I I don't know that we should go over >> based on all of the We got to write Write that down. >> Yeah, I don't think I thought >> the highest was 700 from all four of the groups. >> Now, in those groups, were the opportunity costs explained to? >> So, they were just going off a raw number. Okay, that's that's probably good to know that that was just a raw adjustment, but Okay. >> Yeah. Yeah, it was really it was very focused on what's the text impact for you as opposed to what is
065it that you get or don't get based on what happens >> and they didn't see this sheet. >> Correct. >> So I do think that you might get a different answer from people if they knew that's what we're going to get potentially. >> Yeah. >> For the survey. >> Yeah. In the focus groups. >> Focus groups. >> Oh yeah. Focus groups. >> Yeah. Focus groups. I remember earlier in the year that we had talked about like really the only way we could make it feasible was 800, but that doesn't even sound like we're we can remotely go that high. So I write in that 657 with the I mean what we need is about 1,200. >> Yeah. So for the option pair, should we also separate out the tech levy as like 700 plus a
066tech levy in the same cycle, right? Versus 700 and n tech levy in some future cycle. >> Yeah, I think that's a good idea to add to any suggestion at the same time. to that point. Nadia Alicia, would you be okay if on your one I just took out the tech levy >> and then we just talked about that as a 700? Okay, thank you. >> Yeah, >> thank you. >> Okay, for a frame of reference on tech, um our budget in tech this for this year is about 940,000. >> Okay, >> that's everything. Salaries, licenses, pieces everything. So, >> there's a little bit to play around with in there. >> Okay. >> And so, a way to think about this um and I want to be careful how I say this is if you
067win a tech levy like right now that $950,000 is coming out of the general fund, >> right? >> And so this $400 like let's say you go for $450,000 that now pulls $450,000 of expenditures off of the general fund. And now >> Mhm. >> So I just want to make sure that that >> gives us a little more room to move it all around. >> Yes. >> But it becomes an basically an assigned fund balance. >> It becomes it becomes a restricted revenue stream. Yep. >> Freeze up >> but it frees up some unrestricted stuff. >> What happens if that um that's for 10 years? What happens if that's we need more money? Then do we add to that? How does that how do you work around that? >> Well, we can do a few
068things. Um, if we we can go out for another operating levy, we can go out for another um capital projects levy. Uh, we can say um as part of our new operating levy, we can say, well, hey, we now need we need $1,200 of people. That's the total number we need. So, we could either say, well, we need $500 a pupil, right, John? Thank you. um we need $500 of pupil to get us to 12. So get us this other five. Or we can say we're going for $1,200 pupil and if this passes we revoke the $700 of pupil one and then this is now our operating levy or one operating levy. >> Okay. >> So with that the 10year tail may not be as relevant for us right now. Because >> because >> we're
069not going to make it to 10 years. >> We're not going to 10 years, >> right? Any other options that people want to throw out there? David, I know Alicia was asking you about what you thought a slam dunk slam dunk option was and then I think we I think we steered away to something else, but I was I'd be su That was a that was a super great question. I was curious if you had a suggestion on what you thought a slam dunk number would be. Well, I think according to all of them, I mean, it was 500. I I I mean, it was what, $20 and it was 75% or yes on on on that one right away. I mean, that is a slam dunk option, but >> it's not going to I
070I mean, that's that's what the slam dunk option is, but I I don't think it's a feasible option. >> And we don't need 75% votes. No, I know we don't, but we were we were hovering very close at at 30. So, >> I think 500 is putting a band-aid where we need stitches. >> Yeah. >> I mean, it's not even going to get us through a year. >> And I think it's important too to kind of show the difference of this is what this does and this is what this does. >> Yeah. >> And you have to see that. They they want to see that. They need to see that, too. And yeah, I mean, we already know that we're such a wellunded area and to have the top-notch teachers and educa, you know, like
071the programs that we have here, those things, that's that's the opportunity cost. So, we we have to mindful of that. So, >> I'm thinking these are the 20% of people that actually decided to take the survey. And if I'm at 50% on 20%, you're probably looking at 30% as your as your real number. I mean, it's >> I do think it's really important to consider the non-scientific part of that survey and also the way that question was worded. Like I do think that the the people who would support us a little like if and I think if they saw this, you might see a different response. So I think that I think that piece in particular of the survey we have to take with a big missle >> and all of this that you just
072said that's education before the question is being asked. >> Correct. Right. >> So do you think we should consider a larger number just to talk through it or is that just a waste of time at this point? >> I don't think we can. >> Okay. I agree. >> Well, let's um let's start going through pros and cons. I did drop in the um the $500 per pupil. I feel as an exeicio schoolboard member, I think it's worth exploring it and and considering as an option. But um anyway, so um the $700 per pupil, um let's start with some pros. What are some some advantages to that one versus other ones? >> Gives us the longest lifetime or the longest meaning impact >> or the highest. Yeah. The highest opportunities way back. Yeah. Right. >> Okay.
073>> Not necessarily long longest. That's that's I I I don't think we're going to last until like beyond like 5 years. >> What What word did you say? high highest >> highest opportunities for immediate impact and that's something we'll need to uh you know articulate in all the material >> to Nad's point you know where it's not going to last more than 5 years you know when you start forecasting out education and enrollment when you get to five years once you get past that you're talking about kids that haven't even been born yet >> that's correct >> so it's really tough to >> what what those numbers like five, six years. >> Um, another pro is it had the support of the admin team, the budget committee and community members. >> Okay. >> It's not
074800. >> What do you mean by that? >> Yeah. Um it's an amount that um is less than what we what was asked last year. >> So we're showing the community that we are we've heard the message or a message. >> Yeah. >> It's a shorter path back to Byron. >> Yeah, that's good. Yes, that's it. >> Other pros to that? >> How about some cons? May not pass. And how do you know that? >> Because on the >> I'm I'm not being precise. I'm just trying to get us to think about the data. Think about the things that we say. So I'm not trying to make >> Yeah. No. Based on the survey results of $40 a person, the acceptability was not there >> and $40 was equivalent to 800. So this is about
07536 of them, >> right? Yeah. >> So it might look like we weren't listening, >> um, also in the in the same way. um what we communicate if we don't communicate the ups and downs of that >> if not in a scare tactic kind of way in a very like matter of factly because I nobody wants to be scared but if we don't explain to them in a very you know they might be like well we if we would have known we would have went for more kind of a thing so I think it's really important that we drive that what what those things are buying in a way So, >> but yeah, not listening. So, that would be another way of maybe not listening or not presenting well. Or maybe a con would be
076that it's still not going to be all that we would have wanted, right? So, it's still beyond below what the district truly want needs at this point. But right, it's go going back to communication of like we we would say that this is we're intentionally not like asking for the best funding because we want to make sure that this passes and this is more important for us the passing than the optimal funding >> because we need money next year. Any other cons? >> I guess that it didn't have the support of the staff >> or that >> the focus group >> or the focus group. Yeah. Yeah. >> And that was for the group >> the seventh. Yeah. I thought six was or sapper. You know how I would wear that? >> Anything else on
077the con or pros for the $700 level? Okay. How about the 650 pros and cons? >> Everything same as above, right, since last Sunday. >> Mhm. >> And slightly higher chance of passing. Um should we talk about the the chances of passing in general? Um did we talk about the so by which percent did it not pass? The 800 did not pass. >> Mhm. >> The 700 I want to say was very close on parents but not on the community. >> I'm sorry. Last year the >> 743 and that was in the election year, right? just >> generally did go right. I think it was pretty I think I can't remember the number but I do remember being surprised at the voter turnout environment just given the population of it that I know >> well
078it was contentious but I'm just saying even with it being contentious it was a shocking amount of people showed up to vote >> yeah it was like 98% registered voters I think >> if my memory is correct don't quote me on that >> no that's that's a lot >> yeah it was high it was high income >> well the 650 helps us on the path to get back to the uh re-implementing and reinstating programs. >> Which is what like what 650 >> 650 I want to say was >> probably >> I did the math on that. >> So 650 per month would be like >> yeah about 33. So essentially two bucks more almost six. >> It doesn't start with a seven. So it feels like >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Yeah. >> It might feel
079different to folks. Maybe we should have done the $6.99. >> And that's where >> Yeah. Yeah. And that's where it would have been better if we knew how much we need, right, to to establish or to reduce class sizes, right? And then we would have gotten to that number that's not 700 and that's somewhere in between. But it's like we don't have that level of um that level of facts, right? to get to something that would not show off as paternalistic to our voters where it's $6.99, right? It's just a visual way of not saying 700. >> Yeah. I mean, you will we will have that soon, I think. Mhm. >> But um >> well the issue with knowing especially when you're talking about classroom staff is that you know when we post the position
080to reduce the class size you could get a firstear elementary teacher >> or you could get a 25-y year elementary teacher veteran that has her doctorate, >> right? >> And that second teacher is more than twice the cost of the first one. Right. >> And so it's hard to be able to say >> well with this >> well this is what we're shooting for and if we get and then you add up all those line items and then it's it's hard to say well then we need this amount of money on the living >> right. >> Um and then we aren't even talking about if they're taking insurance or not and all. So >> you have to be pretty strategic with adding positions backless. This is effort. >> Right. Right. I mean, I feel like
081the bottom line is we might not be adding a lot of positions back >> regardless to be >> regardless. So, I think um >> I think I think we had to be at that 800 beyond before we even had that conversation last year. >> Yeah. So when um yeah when we talk about going back to the buyer we know like unless we're talking about like you said 1,200 that ship has kind of sailed and I think that's okay. That's kind of just the nature of public education right now you know but we do have the greatest of the greatest here. So whatever we can build from we can still build great again. So, I think that um I I feel like I'm a taxpayer, too. I mean, I don't I don't want to have to
082pay any of it either, right? But I I feel like in the cuz right now at the 600, we're at about $31 is if it's broke down and we're looking at maybe between that 6 650 maybe is a solid number that we could I think I feel confident that we could could, but I don't want to overshoot either. I want to let people know we're heard, but I also would love to see we get a little bit step closer to, you know, making that partic. I would love to go for more than 700, but it's not realistic. So, >> right. Right. >> And there's not going to be an option. It wouldn't be like, well, for $3 a month, we could have $700 of people >> versus 650. Doesn't that I mean, >> we won't
083be able to tell that. What are um are there additional pros to the 650 per pupil? Oh, thank you. How about some cons to it? >> Got to start thinking about the future faster. >> Yeah. Yeah. It just doesn't go very far as far. Do we know what the retired population is in financial? the retired population. >> A pro for step 700 is uh being able to get back to our projected fund balance. Potentially will reestablish our higher credit rating to allow for better interest rates when necessary. That's a lot to write. >> Yeah. >> In the long run, it could save us a lot of money. >> It would. Right. How do you convince the community? That's important. >> And fund balance isn't just to sit there. It's typically Dr. Newbeck always said 45
084days of payroll. Is that about what we're looking for? >> Not a fun balance. >> It's not fun. No, >> that's and that's part of the messaging part is that >> right >> the difficulty of it is like that's your goal, but it's not it doesn't inspire the mind, right? you know, or or cause you to have any kind of dreams beyond, >> right? >> Budget's boring. >> So, >> okay. >> Other cons or pros for 650 a pupil? >> I guess a pro could be it um is a better compromise amongst all the focus groups. It kind of hits the sweet spot of probably the average of what they recommended be a little better than 700. Anything else on 650 a pupil? Okay. How about 500 gross for that one? You >> get money.
085>> David says slam dunk. >> Sounds like better than nothing. >> David's slam dunk option. >> Most likely to succeed, >> right? Okay. Tell those voters we listen. >> Might have listened too much for that. What was some cons? >> Let it ride on the forecast sheet. >> There's only one year that >> seems close. I think it puts us in a position to go out >> for another option, whether that be a tech levy or another operating. >> You could argue that actually does more than good. Like just continually ask >> Yeah, you're right. >> And would that likely drop make more cuts at that at 500? >> So that's a huge. the biggest con right there. Yeah. >> Question of when. >> Yeah. Right. >> And also like from the voters's perspective who
086are not that involved into everything, right? So it was okay. Last year you asked for 800, right? Now you're asking for 500. Right. >> So what what has changed? We don't need any money at all. Right. >> You're just doing fine. >> Right. Right. >> Well, that's definitely have to be pieced through our communications. >> Right. Right. Right. For sure. >> So that's why I think the mass changes because like nothing changed, right? We don't we need as much as we needed before. We're just trying to like intentionally not ask for as much as the last time just to make sure that this passes right now. >> Right. >> But we don't want to go like below below a reasonable amount. >> Right. 500 feels likeable. >> And maybe this is not something I should
087even say out loud, but >> won't write it. >> Yeah. for the amount that it saves taxpayers on average per month to go. It just doesn't feel it it feels like it does so much less for our budget for the what it would actually save the taxpayer. It does not feel >> worth it to consider dropping that low either in that regard. >> I don't want to undermine I know how the the tax burden of this is because I know that's >> I agree because you're really talking about five bucks. Mhm. is >> Yeah. Right. Yeah. I >> was trying to see if Ellers had sent me the chart about the tax levy for the tech levy. Any other pros and cons to $500 per pupil? I feel like there's just going to still be
088a the a lot of disappointed people when it real when it's realized that this didn't do much for the district. So, >> you mean even at 700? >> At 500. >> Oh, yeah. >> Yeah. I I feel like >> Yeah. And I know I've just beat it to death saying about the communications, but it's it's got to lie in in that. um being effective with with letting them know because you're right, at the end of the day, between five and 600 bucks, we're talking about on the average of $350,000 homes, we're talking about $5 difference. Um 500 isn't going to really do anything. 600 is really still a band-aid, but it gets a little better than we were. And you're looking at maybe 33. So that's a breakdown. >> Mhm. >> If we look for
089a tech levy and say it did fail, how soon can we go out for another one? How does that look? >> Um I know the operating levy you have to wait a year. >> I thought it would be like for the next session. >> Yeah, I think >> I believe the soonest was was it February or April? like the soonest we'd be able to go out for a check levy after November would be and that's not that's even if we didn't ask for uh for a check levy in November was February and then then I think you had to wait like 6 months was a year >> okay and there's some there's some law around the amount it has to change by a certain percentage I don't know if it's up or down but we
090can get that >> okay >> but on that end just remember that special elections are run and hosted by us and so those don't come free >> right >> as Ann well knows >> and we aren't just talking we aren't just talking bottom line we're talking Ann's as well >> right right >> entire answer your question about 80% of Byron's adults are 65 or older >> okay 18 that's actually more than Um, Kelly provided a nice segue into the pros and cons of the the tech levy. Like I said, I thought Ellers had sent me a chart, even their their base one. Um Sean, from what I remember when we were talking about like the annual tax impact of like a residential one, I felt like it wasn't quite like 50% less as compared to
091operating levy, but I recall it being significant. >> It was a significant difference, but like Yeah, it wasn't quite 50% less. >> Yeah. So, like if if we were generating $400,000 of tech levy, the the same amount in operating levy, you know, if that would run taxpayers, I don't know, $18 bucks a month in a tech in tech levy, it might be like $10 a month >> because it's getting it's taxing more people. So, that's a way to kind of think of how the the tech levy runs. So, a pro of the tech levy would be that we um listen to the survey results and are trying to prioritize safety and security. >> So, just so I know I the the slang is tech levy. Is this promoted as a capital projects levy or is
092it promoted as a tech levy? >> Well, the ballot language would say call it a capital projects levy. We would probably use both projects. We would we would educate folks on on calling it both capital projects and tech living >> the Anyway, yeah, >> I I asked that because I guess it kind of ties into the cons of capital projects. Now, what do we need? We just build all this other stuff. We don't need more capital projects. >> I think that that word is intimidating. Tech levy makes more sense. I feel like you could also fairly easily market the the STEM prioritizing STEM stuff. Also, Riley, I could get that in there, too. >> I feel like it would hurt our chances of the operating levy if we put a second question on there about
093more money. Yeah, >> you're either going to get one or the other and they're going to go further. >> I don't I can't decide if having giving people like a chance to say no at something but still, you know, if that will help it or if they'll just say no to like they'd be more likely to say. >> Can you hold on? Can you pause that thought real quick? Before um >> you had said something that was like positive about the >> capital projects levy and I did >> STEM. Thank you. Thank you. STEM and safety and security. Yeah, thank you. >> I I agree. I think it would be just people would think it's a marketing tool, right? We're instead of asking for 800, we're splitting it up into whatever 700 and uh attack
094levy. >> We could always go out right away in February >> for a tech levy if the operating levy didn't pass. And then you kind of have like if you had it on the same ballot, it might be intimidating. They're like, "No." >> And so if you left it off the the one in November and had it in February, >> maybe. And it also gives us time depending on whether or not the operating levy passes. It might change the amount that we feel like we need for the tech levy. >> That's a good point. So, it gives us a little bit of time to, you know, know what we're dealing with, too. >> If we put solar panels on the roof, can we add it to the deck? >> Don't get Don't get going on
095the I will go off on a tangent. >> One kind I had thought about, I don't know how far it reached over here, but I know um that it wasn't last year, but it was the year. Anyway, whenever it was that Rochester tried to do a tech levy >> and they were try the way that they were trying to explain it just got I think that got everybody very confused because it came off as not being >> um it came off as being strange and unusual. >> Yeah. So, I don't know if if how many people out here paid attention to that, but they might draw draw some similar parallels or conclusions. >> Learn what not to do from that. >> Yeah, I think going for both in November is definitely risky and it will
096draw more confusion. Um there's still confusion with the referendum and general questions about that that I think we need to clear up and communicate to the community so that better understand that and to add another thing onto that it's going to get messy confusing and >> let's say all the survey all the surveys said people didn't understand the difference between >> a bond and and that so you start putting that as as a question in there and now they're going to go I don't know what the difference between them is so >> maybe to work on the education side of it >> build that piece up >> yeah yeah >> is there any hard data that shows if referendums pass more if they're more likely to pass with or without a second question so hard
097data That's it's I would call it squishy dan um because it's it's yeah it's you know what what works and what doesn't work right so what we do know is that one question two question um first question has a higher percentage rate of passing just naturally over time right versus a second question your data what we talked about tonight superintendent presented to you showed us that the of the supporters you have a strong support for one to get that second question to go, you would have to get all of your ardent education supporters. So, every last person in your district who already is all in, you would have to get them to the polls on election day. Okay? >> And in your in your camp. So, um you know, and you know, the the education
098of I can can help you with one thing tonight. Levy for learning, bond for building. >> Okay? >> Right? If you just keep that language going through your head all the time, right? Um that will help you with operating levy, capital projects, levy. So anytime you're talking about levy, you're talking about inside classroom, what's happening, teachers, students, curriculum, technology, you know, anything like that versus bond is kind of exterior envelope. Think of it that way, right? Um >> yeah, there's there isn't it's squishy data. Um, and you know, it's I it I laughed when Nate said 50.1%. It's it's not even that big. It's 50% plus one vote, right? Um, you know, which is frightening and I've been in that situation with school districts where we're like, okay, >> we're coming down to the last
099prein. What's it going to be? Right. >> Um, but it really is that. And so that's where I say, you know, you've got you got your kind of general support and then you've got your kind of high support and you really do questions need both. >> Okay. >> Um, >> so should should we consider voting of not not including tech levy at this round? >> Well, before we get to that, we do want to get there. Just want to make sure is there anything else that people would want to bring up pros cons? I mean, the cons of not doing the tech levy, I feel like, are obvious. We're kicking the can down the road, and >> we know we have technology that is no longer supported. Um, >> yeah, it's inevitable that we'll need
100it. >> We also have buildings that are >> Yes. Yes. Yes. >> And Yes. >> Yeah. At some point, you can't ask for money. >> Right. Right. Well, we'll keep asking here have to keep the lights on. >> So, um, as I said tonight, the goal was much less about arriving at a decision together and much more about analyzing the information. Um, I'm I'm just keeping an eye on the time and I know that we've consumed a shocking amount of information tonight. Um, the thing I would recommend at this point, um, is, um, normally we'd round home and the home base is the decision and let's make the decision. Um, for tonight, what I would recommend is, um, is stopping here at third base, which is the options, and allowing everybody a chance to to
101simmer on it until our next board meeting. And then um I would add this as an agenda on our next schoolboard meeting. And then that would be the that would be the time where we could we would I'd pull the same thing up >> and then we'd we talk through the the options that we've got and then you could make the call. >> Then remember that's next week. >> Oh yeah, I know. >> I know that. Well, yes. >> Yeah. And then that would also be a situation where if tonight um when you wake up in a fever dream thinking about this um like hey I need this piece of information or whatnot um it would it would provide you an opportunity to send that to me and I could try and collect that before
102our next school board meeting. >> Sounds good. You another question. Do you know what the median income is for retirees? >> Median of retirees? >> Yeah. like a retire pension >> do the median income. >> What's the median income of >> Google? Thank you. That is >> Oh, it was in a brochure I just got from the city. That information >> median again is 126 >> median family, right? >> Yeah. Median household. >> Mhm. And in that source that where you cited number of 80% of um seniors in environment did you see anything about like% of the population that have has kids? Click. I'm working on a site that I use for potential cities. As long as I can get it to cooperate, it will give me all that information. And is this of our
103city or of our school district? >> Probably the city. Okay. Because we know we have what like 20 plus% of our families. Yeah. Don't live in the city. >> Median median age is 37.3. Uh 6.2% of our residents live in poverty. >> 37.3. That's interesting because I think some of the higher numbers were in that demographic area. So that's um that's returned on your sheet on your >> survey. Mhm. Come on. Unemployment is 2.2%. Climates have been running. what the client is, but I know the >> Is there anything special that people on a fixed income, public assistance, stuff like that, is there anything that they can reach out to or get special, I don't know, like tax relief or something. >> Average household size is 2.7. Percentage of family households is 76.1 which is
104well above the state average and percentage of households with unmarried partners is 5.7%. population 25 years and what's education got all the religions. Um I can't tell you the number of retirees but I can tell you the mental status of the fire on this as well. I'm gonna give it to you. >> Yeah, exactly. >> Because I'm not 100% confident in my knowledge of Byron's demographics and stuff, but if you've got a lot of, you know, like apartments or assisted living for sure for retirees, they wouldn't necessarily see that impact right away. It would be onto their landlords. >> Got it. Right. They may seem right, >> but they won't they won't see >> increase in home. >> All right. Thank you. And that doesn't include our township demographic, which is, you know, 20ish% of
105our school district population. >> Is it three townships or nine, eight or nine? I think >> Oh, there's a lot. Okay. >> Do not say we have a map over there that has >> Yes. All right. >> So, do we want to put the levy discussion to bed for now? >> Okay. Yeah, I'm good with that. Unless >> Yeah, >> you you all want to do something different. That's what I would recommend. >> No, I think that was good. It'll be good to have time to think about it. >> Okay. Well, we'll get into uh review and first read a policy starting with policy 410. >> Is it possible to just batch these since we all read them before we came? >> Yes. >> Okay. >> Are there any questions or discussion on any of
106the policies present to presented for review tonight? I didn't see anything get stuck out to me. >> No. No. >> Okay. >> And I'm assuming we're still doing the same process where the policy committee has reviewed these and make sure they're up to date with MSBA's best practices. >> So we haven't So what is it 3 months in advance? Is that right? >> So policy committee is is that how you did it at the other place? >> No, but that's okay. >> Okay. Kelly Kelly will catch you up. >> Okay. Thanks, Kelly. >> Uh but yes, policy committee has reviewed these in depth through discussions. Uh and then it comes to the board with their recommendations. >> All right. Introduction and first read policy 718 and the PECARD manual. And for some reason, I could
107not >> I just did it today. I forgot to change the share settings cuz I made that I made that a while ago and then I put it on the agenda and completely forgot. So I apologize for that. But you should feel open now. >> I didn't have any questions about it. >> No, I think it was great to see it. >> Yeah. And um it's a we're just basically streamlining so our credit card use is in compliance with best practices. Correct. >> Correct. >> Great. >> And to this point we don't have we have not issued any cards outside of this building. >> Okay. >> Until this is done. >> Okay. Great. >> Great. >> Okay. And then policy 718 is the district credit card program. I was going to send you an email
108right where you're Yep. >> Yeah. Yeah, I think you know being where we were to where we are, this is it's just it's a good review, but it it's uh it's just in writing and it's very simplistic and straight to the point. >> Yeah, I appreciate you taking the time to do it. >> Do we have any questions or discussion on either the PECARD manual or policy 718? That was for you. And then we'll go to approving the public sale of surplus technology equipment. >> And is Jen asking us to approve this tonight? >> Yes. Okay. >> Yeah. So, um anyway, we I know this was dropped on uh kind of last second, but we wanted to try and take advantage of the the summer tech team's uh ability to not have to be putting
109out fires all day every day and to potentially manage um manage the the bid process and the the sale of surplus tech equipment. Um it's kind of hard to guess what, you know, what sort of money we'll get for this stuff. Um, this is kind of uh among the first batch of Chromebooks from the pandemic that we're >> okay. >> We're kicking out of here and trying to get some money from. So, >> are they going to take any any number or are they going to have like a They won't take a specific >> It comes back to us, doesn't it? >> Yeah, it'll come back to us. >> Oh, it come back to us. Okay. >> The last time we did I think we had four bids, >> right? >> Uh, and yeah, we
110didn't get rich, but it it it beat throw them in the trash. And does this go back into our general fund or are there restrictions since it was >> back? General, >> right? >> Great. >> I make a motion to approve the public sale of the text equipment. >> Second. >> Motion and second. Any further questions or discussion? >> All in favor say I. >> I. All opposed. >> Motion carries. Um, next on the agenda is a recap of the listening session that will take place at our uh our first meeting in August, which is August 4th. Uh, and for the board members, we'll work on a schedule of assignment of those listening sessions and just send them for the foreseeable future. >> There were no community members here early, >> correct? I I was
111here, right? >> Yep. >> All right. Which brings us to our final uh agenda item, which is adjournment. Motion to adjourn. >> Second. >> Motion and a second. All in favor say I. >> I. All oppose. We are adjourned. Here's >> a way to