001The Yawway County School Board fiscal year 2027 budget presentation meeting is hereby called to order. This meeting is being held at Westside Elementary School, 800 West Main Street, Smithfield, Virginia, at 5:00 p.m. on Wednesday, February 26, 2026. The Isle White County Schools are preparing students for college, career, and life. First, we have the roll call. Madame Clerk, >> Mrs. Perkins >> here, >> Mr. Worster >> here, >> Mr. Marsh >> here, >> Mr. Ford >> here, >> and Mr. Collic >> here. And next, we'll have the approval of the agenda or amendments. I move to approve the agenda for open session as presented. >> Second. >> We have a motion, a second. Any discussion? Hearing none, the clerk will take a vote. >> Mrs. Perkins? >> Yes. >> Mr. Worooster? >> Yes. >> Mr. Marsh?
002>> Yes. >> Mr. Ford? >> Yes. >> And Mr. Collic? >> Yes. And next, the vice chair will lead us in a moment of silence and a pledge of allegiance. >> Please stand for the moment of silence. And now for the pledge of allegiance. >> I pledge allegiance 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. And I want to welcome everyone tonight uh including those that are viewing at home. Um we're not expecting this meeting to last but possibly two or three hours and it's going to be very simple. There's going to be no citizens comments. Uh we're going to start off with Dr. Kramer presenting his budget proposal uh to the school board and
003followed by Mrs. Dvary providing a presentation with the details. Dr. Kramer. >> Good evening, Mr. Chairman Collague, Mr. Vice Chairman Ford, other members of the board, and community members. I wish to begin by acknowledging and thanking all who have worked on preparing the fiscal year 2027 or the FY27 proposed operating budget. I would like to recognize a number of stakeholder groups who provided input and feedback as we work to develop the 27 proposed operating budget. I thank our school administrative staff members, our principles and school teams. I thank the superintendent's advisories. I thank those members of the community who are providing input via letters, emails, public comment, and in other ways. It is important to note and I emphasize that this is merely the beginning of the budget discussion. Mr. Chair and members of the
004board, thank you for the opportunity to present the school division's needs in the superintendent's FY27 proposed operating budget. Again, I repeat and state emphatically that this is the superintendent's proposed budget and is merely the first public discussion of the FY27 proposed operating budget. The Code of Virginia section 22.1-92 states that it shall be the duty of each division superintendent to prepare with the approval of the school board and to submit to the governing body or bodies appropriate funds for the school division the estimate of the amount of money deemed to be needed during the next fiscal year for the support of the public schools of the school division. Therefore, this evening I will present the needs of the school division. I do not know the level of funding that will be approved by the board
005of supervisors, but it is my responsibility per the commonwealth of Virginia and it is my obligation as the ILA White superintendent to articulate the needs to the members of the Iowa White School Board as clearly as possible. At the my presentation and as we move to the work session, members of the school division's leadership team will be prepared to elaborate on any requested budget item that is proposed and address any questions in the school board uh that the school board might have. The FY27 budget represents the school division's plans for the activities that will take place for the next school year, school year 2026 2027. The proposed budget provides an estimated cost to complete those activities planned for the next fiscal year. Schoolboard members, you are certainly aware of this fact, but I note this
006information for members of the community that upon review and approval or modification by the school board. A budget is submitted to the Isa White board of supervisors for consideration. Funds are only made available once the board of supervisors approves the operating budget and appropriates the funds. As I have forementioned, please know that the requested proposed budget items I will share were developed through numerous meetings meetings with students, teachers, support staff, principles, and school administrators. As superintendent, I've had the had meetings with community members and with various advisory groups. My leadership team and I have attempted to include the recommendations and needs from all of these stakeholder groups. Yet, we have made a concerted effort to develop a budget that meets the essential needs of our schools and the school division while also developing a budget
007that is fiscally prudent and practical. We're not asking for resources to fund projects that are on a wish list. Instead, this proposed operating budget is a fiscally responsible budget that will meet the basic needs of our students, staff, and our schools. I would be remiss if I failed to articulate the needs of our schools and school division based upon the extensive conversations my leadership team and I have had with stakeholder groups and the individual conversations we've had with each of you schoolboard members in our 221 meetings. Although I will attempt to share our most essential needs in this presentation, I will not endeavor, however, to elaborate on every single item. I think that through our ongoing discussions over the next few weeks in our work sessions, we will identify the needs and the requests of
008the schools and the school division. And as I stated earlier, we will have additional public discussions around the budget in the coming days and weeks in our work sessions. Now, as we discuss the needs of our division in the proposed FY27 operating budget, I think it is important for us to remind ourselves of our school division's mission and vision statements, enabling every child to discover their gifts and talents and to ensure that each child is college, career, and life ready. Essentially, we're saying that when our students leave our schools, they should be fully prepared to pursue whatever path they so choose. The school division spent valuable time developing a well-thoughtout strategic plan with multiple stakeholder groups, staff, students, parents, and community members, and identified four broad areas: academic excellence, recruitment and retention of employees, family
009engagement, and organizational effectiveness and efficiency. It is my position that the needs we have identified and the request we are making will help us improve in the areas as identified by our school division's strategic plan. Prior to sharing our identified needs, I will provide some state of Virginia comparison data in a few key areas. We've compiled some of these data points from the Virginia Department of Education, also known as VDOE. As most of you know, the school division is funded from three primary sources. The local government, the state government, and the federal government. And I will briefly discuss each. But before we do that, let's take a look at our community and where we stand relative to the state. I will share some of the major data indicators that are often discussed and utilized as
010it pertains to education funding. Let's first take a look at the local composite index. The local composite index is calculated every two years and it determines a school division's ability to pay education cost in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It is calculated by using three indicators of a locality's ability to pay. Those indicators are true value of real property, adjusted gross income, and taxable retail sales. The higher the local composite index means that a locality has a greater ability to pay. Now, what you see from this chart is a comparison with most school divisions in the area and in region 2, which is where Isa White is listed in VDOE's database. And what you will notice is that our ability to pay or our local composite index at at 0.3704 for years 2024 through 26 was
011fourth highest in the region. Next, our local composite index has increased to 0.3808 in the most recent adjustment for years 2026 through 2028. As you see, our ability to pay, as shown by the local composite index, is slightly higher than most in the area and in region 2. In fact, we remain at fourth highest in the region. Furthermore, according to the local composite index, Isa White County has a greater ability to pay than most school divisions in the Hampton Roads area. The next chart I will share is the per pupil expenditure chart which shows how much funding we are receiving per student in Isawite as compared to other school divisions in the area. You see somewhat of an inverse order from the previous chart. Although Isa White County has a greater ability to pay than
012most of the region according to our local composite index number, we are one of the lowest funded school divisions in the region when we calculate what we actually receive collectively from the federal, state, and local funding sources. As you see from the chart, we are second from the bottom. Yet, our test scores are higher than most of the school divisions listed ahead of us on this chart. The obvious question, I think, is why? I think the answers are varied and I surmise from the data that there are a few reasons and I will discuss some of these reasons in this presentation. As we recall the disruptive changes during the CO 19 pandemic, all school divisions received additional federal funding to help students return to school and those funds were referred to as ESSER dollars. Those
013federal funds were certainly needed at that time, state and local governments. The next few slides will show the Isa White County government's budget and how much of that budget is alloc allocated to the school division. I'm going to go back several years as far back as FY 2016 prior to the pandemic federal funding to provide some context and I will share data from years after the f after the co federal funding ended to shed light on our current funding status. As you will see in the current slide for FY20 2020 through FY2023, the school division experienced four consecutive years of funding decreases with FY2023 decreasing to a 10-year low of only 28.68% of the Isawite County government's budget going to the schools. Now the next slide, this current slide shows our funding average from the
014county in the five years prior to the budget being revised downward due to the COVID pandemic. The school division received an average of 35.33% of the county's budget prior to the pandemic with the 10-year high of 36% in FY 2017. again averaging 35.33% of the county's budget going to the schools during this time period. The next slide, this current slide, postcoid after the pandemic shows that our funding from the county has decreased drastically to an average of 31.52% of the county's budget going to the schools in the years following the pandemic with the 10-year low in FY23 again of 28.68%. And what is most concerning and I deem to be problematic is that we had already spent almost all of the federal funds as was required by the federal government during that time period. As
015I stated early, Alawat County schools like every public school district in the nation received CO federal funds during the pandemic. As a result, many local governments did not need to allocate many uh not did not need to allocate as many funds during that limited time period specifically for FY2021 and FY2022. Again, by FY23, the federal funds had all but ended, but we have not returned our previous to our previous local funding levels from the county, which has created a funding shortfall for the school division. The next slide, the current slide merely shows a side-by-side comparison of the funding years before and after the COVID pandemic. Now, a few percentage points may not seem like much, but I remind everyone listening to consider that each percent represents an amount that is approximately a million dollars when
016you consider a budget that is in the range of a hund00 million. More specifically, CFO Dary has estimated that the Isa White County School Division has lost approximately $20 million since the pandemic due to a decrease in local county funding. As you are aware, board members, you commissioned the school leadership team to conduct a compensation study to compare the Isa White County School Division salaries to the salaries of other school divisions in the area. As a result, we contracted the consulting firm Management Advisory Group International or MAG to conduct the study and at the February board meeting, they presented their results. The next slide shows the districts in the region we were compared to in the study. And as you see, there are 13 other districts with Isa White that are all located in our
017region. Next, the slide shows all of the school districts we were compared to. 10 of the 13 regional school divisions offer their teachers higher salaries. The 10 of 13 divisions paying more than Isa White are identified in red. And some offer significantly higher salaries than Isa White starting pay at 52,000. Some of our neighbors are starting their firstear teachers at 60,000 and slightly above. And these are the current numbers. It is very likely, actually, it's probably uh almost a guarantee that other divisions will be offering payraises in their school divisions as well for next year. Next, you will see the teacher comparison proposed slide or recom are the recommendations from the consulting firm. The consulting firm is recommending that we need to pay our teachers at the 70th percentile to offer competitive salaries. And you
018notice that there is far less red in this chart. Meaning that Isa White, if we accepted the recommendations from the consultants, would be far more competitive in terms of pay. Again, I remind everyone that other districts are very likely to give payraises next year as well, which will continue to make it a challenge to be competitive. But if we adopt the recommendations from the consulting firm, we will certainly be more competitive and at the very least, we will be less further behind in terms of pay. Now, it is important to note that the compensation study provided comparisons for other educator groups as well, specifically the clinicians, support staff, and administrators. And like our current system, clinicians were kept on a step scale with improvements to bring those positions up to market value. For support staff
019and administrators, the consultants used an annual minimum, middle, and maximum range. And for each of these educator groups, the salaries were at the lower end, which was the minimum. So very much like our teachers, our support staff, our clinicians, and our administrators are grossly underpaid relative to the mark market average and to their peers in neighboring school divisions in terms of the five-year cumulative pay increase. Uh furthermore, as we look at the cumulative percentage of percentages of raises given in Isa White over the past five years, we see that we have given a 19% total increase. And as we see, we're at the very bottom of this this list as it pertains to the percentages of raises given in our neighboring school divisions. board members and community members. The harsh reality is if we are
020to be competitive as it relates to salaries, we have a lot of ground to make up. The current slide shows the cost for the raises for each of the major educator groups. As you see, the total cost for the salary raises will be approximately 5.1 million. As it pertains to the budget requests for fiscal year 2027, I will certainly not endeavor to share every single request in my presentation. Those detailed requests will be shared in the work sessions. Nonetheless, I will share some of the most significant needs and priorities for our school division. And I will start with some of the absolute required funding needs as we deem uh to be for our school division. As you see from the current slide titled changes in revenue, we're expecting 2.5 million additional dollars in revenue from
021the state, which will certainly offset the cost of some of our request. The next slide provides a summary of the total request to meet the needs of the school division at approximately 7.1 million. The vast majority of the expenses in this category will be for the employee raises at $5.1 million. And remember, this was the amount that was determined by the consultant consulting firm for our school division to offer competitive and fair employee salaries for all employee groups. And the second major expense will be for the employee health insurance at more than $1 million. And for the current slide titled discretionary changes in expenses which was which totals $2.5 million you will see that that the majority of the cost are for new positions. And to be more specific these new positions will be to
022support the needs of our special education students in our schools. As you see that cost will be approximately $1.5 million. And the remaining costs are deferred maintenance, purchased services and for technology equipment. And again we will have further discussions in the work sessions in the work session regarding uh those areas. The current slide shows the additional special education positions needed to meet the increased needs of our special education students. These positions are highlighted in yellow text. The only other request for a position will be for another assistant principal at Hardy Elementary which is uh listed in the white text. As we compare with as we shared with you all in our meetings board members the numbers and the med and the needs at Hardy Elementary warrant the additional positions. Additionally, I think it is important
023to note that we have identified three positions that we were able to cut, thereby resulting in a savings of approximately $228,000. Our director of special education and our deputy superintendent of instruction will certainly provide more information on the need for these positions during the work sessions. Separate from our full-time positions, we are requesting to have part-time hourly positions for our elementary schools to assist with lunch and recess monitoring. We piloted this initiative this year and we know that this will really help our elementary teachers with giving them time back in their schedules. Currently, our elementary teachers have little time in their schedules and it is important to note that many school divisions already have these positions. The cost of this initiative for all five elementary schools will be approximately $195,000. The next slide shows the
024total request if we were to fund the full request at $7.1 million. Next, this slide shows the ongoing CIP or capital needs for our school division. I'm very pleased to say that we have made significant progress with a number of our capital projects for our school division and for many of our schools. I certainly thank you, members of the school board and members of the board of supervisors for those much needed capital improvements, but there are some ongoing needs that are listed. Namely, the fleet services building and additional buses are still pressing needs for our division. As you see from this slide, we have sought and received numerous competitive grants over the past few years. This has helped to defay the cost of several projects and initiatives. The first major initiative uh that I will
025site is the school construction assistant program SCAP grant in the amount of $14 million which will pay for 20% of the construction cost of the new Westside Elementary School. and we received $2.7 million in a grant for the Isle Maritime Trades Academy through one of the governor's lab schools. And as you see, there were numerous other competitive grants we applied for and received. So, it is clear that we are being proactive in our efforts to bring in additional resources for our students, staff, and our schools. According to the Welden Cooper Center at the University of Virginia, Isa White County continues to be one of the fastest growing counties in the Commonwealth of Virginia over the past few years and we are awaiting the 2026 data. Many individuals are choosing to live in Isawite County and
026they desire to send their children to our schools. Given the expansion of housing developments in this county, this growth is likely to continue for the foreseeable future. Now, as we look at the budget calendar, we all know that the budget process is very fluid. Board members, you may ask us to remove items from the proposed budget and or you may ask us to place items in the budget before you, the board, take a final vote. And we are fully prepared to respond to the board's adjustments as instructed. Again, for all who are watching, the superintendent must develop the budget, but the school board must adopt and approve the budget. And further, the board of supervisors must ultimately fund the budget. As you look at the budget calendar, this evening, Thursday, February 26, is the superintendent's
027proposed budget presentation, and there will be a work session following this presentation. On next Thursday, March 5th, there will be a public hearing and another work session. On Thursday, March 12th, is the regular scheduled board meeting. And on March, on Thursday, March 19th, the board will vote to approve the budget. And I certainly do add, as you see there, all dates are tentative. So, the board may elect to add dates to this calendar or the board may elect to make adjustments to these dates. As I conclude my presentation, I contend that the request I've offered in my presentation on behalf of the many voices I represent with this proposed budget is an investment in our student, staff, and our community. I assert that you are not just spending taxpayer well-earned dollars, members of the board
028and members of the board of supervisors, but you are investing money in our children and in the entire Isa white community. Isaite County is fortunate to have very good schools and we can substantiate that claim with evidence and data. Our test scores are some of the highest in the region and we continue to outperform the regional and state averages on SOL assessments and on other state and national assessments. And unlike many other school districts in this region, state, and even around the nation, Isa White actually grew this past year. For the current year, we have well over 100 more students than the state projected. To maintain our good schools and to grow them, we will need to invest in our schools, our students, and our staff. In my view, the most important variable to maintaining
029really good schools is to have great educators. I venture to say that we have some really good people in our district already. To keep these really good educators, we must compensate them fairly and competitively. Please hear me, board members and community members, when I say that if we don't pay our educators what they so rightfully deserve, I assure you other school districts will gladly take them. It is my firm belief that where you have great communities, where people desire to live and work, you will find very good schools. A thriving school district is one of the major reasons people are attracted to a community. I say that our quality of living in Isa White will remain high and your property values will continue to increase if we maintain very good schools. But to maintain very
030good schools, we need the county's investment to ensure that we are properly funded. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, colleague, and members of the board. At this time, I will ask our leadership team to move to the table and prepare along with other staff members to respond to any questions you the school board might have for our FY27 proposed operating budget request. And Mr. Chairman Collic, as we discuss, CFO Dary is prepared to walk the board through the more detailed work session presentation if you would like. Thank you again for listening and for allowing me to present the superintendent's proposed budget for fiscal year 2627. >> Thank you, Dr. Kramer. And Merry is going to come up and she's going to provide a presentation of the details of the budget that Dr. Kramer just laid out. And
031of course, Dr. Kramer's entire staff is going to be available for questions. And board members can ask questions at any time during the presentation. Mr. Dev, it's yours. Give me a moment to get situated. So, my thoughts are is that we'll go through um basically the same information that we have presented to you. um in the last week or so. And as we go to each slide um we can you can have further discussion, you know, we can pause, you can talk about it, or if you're ready to move on, we can move on to the next slide. So first I just want to t touch on this um just briefly. Um your total budget consists of multiple funds. There's the operating fund, the textbook fund, grant fund, food services, facilities, and your health fund.
032So the fiscal year 27 the grand total is $112,90,574 versus the fiscical year 26 total of 100,84797 and I'm sorry the slide before showed all the the revenue sources where it um the money comes from. here shows you the spending plan for each based on the different functional area. Down at the bottom, I have highlighted in green the 26 numbers just so you can see the change from year to year for each of the the operating I mean for each of the funds. >> Mr. Chair. >> Yes. Just for the sake of uh clarity here, the proposal is 7.1 million increase from last year to this year. I just want for the listening audience that's we're what you're showing here is a $12 million increase. So where's the delta at? >> Um the the 7
033million is actually for the operating fund and facilities fund. So the total increase in the budget um is the 9.4 plus the 250. But the net increase that we're requesting from the county, you have to subtract the additional state revenue and federal revenue of 2.5 million. >> Thank you. I just wanted to clear that up. >> So here are the the proposed changes in just the operating fund. Um, as Dr. Kramer mentioned, uh, as the governor proposed, the previous governor proposed, we should receive an increase in our state revenue of nearly 2.5 million. We are also receiving additional reimbursements for our JOTC program from the federal government of nearly um, 12,000. Then the um changes in expenses um which you have here um and we're going to go through each slide is going to take
034each section here and go over that in more detail. But down at the bottom you see the net increase um from the county that we will need is 7.15 million. So to review the changes in the operating fund, um the state revenue is increasing nearly 2.5 million and this is primarily due to the rebenchmarking that is done every u bianium. But it's also important to note that the current way that the state does the rebenchmarking is a very outdated methodology and it needs to be changed. um federal revenue as I I stated and the county contribution um and why this number looks a little different is because just in the operating budget it's 6.9 million in the capital or the CIP is the additional 250,000 that brings it to the total that we had on
035the first sheet. So on the first page um the total amount of the change in um compensation plus we've projected a 10% increase in health insurance premiums from budget to budget it comes to a total of 6.16 million and I've broken it out here by the employee type andor pay plan. So the first line is the administrative staff. Um and keep in mind this is the total cost salaries and benefits. Um to make all the changes as proposed by the compensation study would cost about 613,000 for teachers and clinicians. It's 3.8 million for all of the support staff. Almost 1.7 million. Substitutes. These are um you know our temporary substitutes as well as long-term substitutes. And the primary increase there is I I increased it since if the other pay is going to increase naturally
036the subs would too. Then the next line is what we budget for vacation and sick leaf payouts as well as our e-rip program. Um and so there's just a slight increase there. And then last but not least the board. Um, and there is no proposed changes in that compensation. >> Mr. Chair, >> yes. I think because this is just as much for us as it is for the public that are watching and I can guarantee you there's a lot of people watching. I just I want to say it out loud that this time last year, this board sat up here and we had some spirited debate about who in the division needed a pay raise. There was some debate about teachers versus nurses versus clinicians and various support positions. And this time last year, the
037board unanimously agreed to do the comp study. That comp study has done that work for us. And we can see here that the percentages for administrative versus teachers versus support, they're not all uniform. So, they did that work for us. Um, that's really just it. I just want to draw attention to that. It's not straight across the board for everybody in a division. It's distributed based off the market average. That's all. Thank you. >> Okay. >> Anybody else? Okay. >> This next slide um provides a detail um of the proposed changes in positions. Um and I'll just note a couple things before Mrs. gets and Miss Magner speak to this. On the far left, there's a little asterric um by these positions. Um they are actually required for compliance purposes. Um and noting that the
038last or the second to last line there for vacant teachers, I have it marked as required because of course that can offset the the cost for the required positions. Then over on the right there's a little box that summarizes these costs for you. So the required for compliance is about 213,000 whereas uh eliminating three vacant teacher positions um you're actually going to get more of a savings. Um that's almost 229,000 and then the remaining positions total about 1.5 million. So that's how you arrive at the 1.52 total cost increase at the bottom. So Mrs. Gats Magnum Would you like me to go through each line? >> I I think that would be good. Um Okay. >> Because we, you know, we we call most of it discretionary. Um but you know, with my limited knowledge
039of uh special education, I can't see how they're discretionary. So, >> sure. So the first line speaks to a part-time position uh speech pathologist. That person u would be covering the students at Smithfield Middle School and Smithfield High School uh and all of their speech and language services. It is required because of compliance. We are currently over um our case loads in other uh buildings that have traditionally helped cover those those uh student services. We do have someone working temporarily in that position so that we can remain in compliance, but in order to do so, we need to maintain that into the budget next year. The uh new classroom at Westside Elementary School, there's a teacher and an IIA tied to that classroom. And again, for compliance purposes, we are currently at max capacity in
040that classroom. And with our rollups into the next school year, we will continue to be at max capacity. And so we need and a second classroom to be able to overflow um so that we can remain within compliance in terms of the number of students um in in each of those classrooms. We are asking for um an increase in the number of teachers in the inclusion setting. Uh there's a total of 10 here within these next two lines. That is to help better support our teachers and our students in the process of co-eing. Um currently we staff at uh compliance. Uh so we are within those you know those parameters. Uh we would like to do more and we would like to do better at co-eing. And so that ask is simply to be able
041to perform um at a at a level that would benefit both our teachers with that support and our students as well. The next line speaks to IAS and our self-contained settings. We as a division would like to get to a point in which we are able to have two IAS in every one of our self-contained classrooms. Currently, we staff those at one teacher, one IA. Our self-contained classrooms are our highest need in terms of our students and their services required. Uh for safety and for compliance, we would like to be at two. In order to do that over the course of several years, we will need about 15 IAS. For this budget, we are asking for five. And on on that, you know, um you want two IAS in each self-contained classroom. >> Yes. >>
042And um so from my experience, I've always seen a minimum of three. Okay. Um and you know my background. Um, and this is more for the general public who don't really understand uh special needs, but you could have one child that is just having a massive blowout where one of the IAS has to really control them and if the teacher has to leave the room with a student and you've got three or four more students in there, there's nobody dealing with them and it could really get out of control fast. I I'm of the opinion that those five positions should be mandatory. I don't know why the state doesn't have it that way. Um having seen how things can blow up very very quickly. Um so I definitely want to urge all of the board
043members to uh consider that um when we're looking at that specific line. I I think that's imperative that we fund those positions. >> And I Yes. And I will add that currently our self-contained teachers don't um get lunch or planning time. They have to build that into their schedule and and often remain in the classrooms even if they are able to carve out a few minutes. So adding the additional support also helps with that as well just to give them an opportunity to step out and take a break which they need. >> And it's it's very difficult to explain everything that goes on in the classroom. But if anybody has any questions, you can talk to me and of course you can talk to the ladies. Yeah. >> Um it's, you know, we need to
044do better for these kids and their parents. >> Mr. Chair. >> Yes. >> If you don't mind, sir, I'd kind of like to piggyback on what you're saying because I agree wholeheartedly and >> you and I and this team, we had pretty robust conversation last week about this very topic. >> Yeah. >> Dr. Kramer, you sent out the memo earlier today came from Miss Meer. Um kind of wish that was up for display because it tells a big story. Um, and you alluded to it when you were doing your presentation. So, up until this year, I'll back up. Three years ago, before I was on this board, I would watch these meetings and I would ask myself, how is it that student population is either flat or declining, but every year we need more teachers
045and we need to spend more money, right? And I think that's a it's a valid and important question to ask and to explain to the people watching. Then you said earlier that this year was the first year and I don't know how long that our average daily membership actually increased. Correct. >> That is correct Mr. Mr. uh Marsh. We are up by over 100 students. In fact I'll confirm this but I think we've received 40 students 40 additional students since January. So our enrollment is up significantly. >> Right. So, I don't know the proper terminology, but your average run-of-the-mill student this year has went up since, and I'm looking at Miss Magnar's note here, since 2020. In 2021, the sped population has increased 15%. And of our roughly, we'll say for even even numbers, for
046roughly 5,500 kids, almost 900 of those kids are special needs. >> Yeah. >> And they don't they don't all have the same needs. Correct. So there's >> Right. C >> could you talk to a little bit of the difference because you'll do much better than I will up here rambling. Self-contained versus inclusion. Teacherto student requirements for both of those different categories of students. And and what I'm trying to drive at is because the sped population has increased annually, that drives up the overall demand for teachers and resources and all that equates to money. So that's kind of what I want to drive home. If you could help with that, >> it does. And it's hard for us to ever know how many teachers we're going to need based on the students that do come to
047us. Um, if a student comes to us with an IEP or we find them eligible for services with an IEP that requires inclusion services, those are services in the general education setting. And typically a teacher can have on that type of case load up to about 20 students. Sorry. Um, if a student requires a more restrictive placement such as a self-contained or special programs classroom, those cap at about eight students. So when we I think one of the numbers on the memo you're looking at is in that same time frame from 2021 to 2526 school year we that 15% increase is about 117 students and a third of those students actually came to us or were with us and and and required a special programs classroom and again that cap is eight students per teacher.
048So it's um depending on the needs of the student uh that drives how many teachers we ultimately come to you and ask for um and really if you think about it it al there's so many variables because I have to think through the the grade level of that student uh the services required for that student often those students can't be in the same classroom because of just simply their their ages or their grades. So, if I have um three students who all come to us all at one time requiring self-contained classrooms, but they happen to all fall at one grade level, it could put that class immediately over capacity without us even, you know, be being prepared for it because we're not always knowing who's going to transfer to us. I mean, it happened recently,
049truthfully, in the month of January. One of our elementary schools saw three students enroll all in one week requiring a self-contained setting and they were having to we were having to figure out where these students were going to be serviced because three students requiring the same type of classroom definitely takes you from six to nine as an example will put you over capacity in that classroom. So um so yes our numbers continue to increase. Uh people come to Iowa County because we have good programs for kids and we have good teachers. Uh we just need more support so that we can continue to provide the services that are required for our students and support the teachers that are doing a tough job. >> And just for the sake of getting it out there and maybe
050a can of worms, but of all the positions that you're asking for, are any of these SOQ positions? So, all of the positions that are here are positions that are types of SOQ funded positions. Um, and I could look at the chart individually, but I believe in all of these positions, we are already staffing at a higher rate than what the SOQ is mandated to fund. >> And again, as a reminder, JARK has already come out to say that that formula is extremely outdated and definitely not funding the schools. our government that does the funding has said we are not funding appropriately for where you have to staff. >> That's exactly what I was trying to pull out of you. So, >> if I may, um, in your budget book on page 12, it shows
051the SOQ positions and it has right there for special education. And you can see um how we provide many more than than what is um funded. Perfect. Thank you. I think that's it, Mr. Collic. No. >> Okay, >> we can keep going. >> The last two lines for special education purposes are a transfer off of our uh special education grant. uh it would be transferring a part-time or part of a technician's salary and a full uh salary of a registered behavior technician and I think that's salary and benefits but the uh ultimately our grant uh which does provide um salary and benefits for several special education staff is at a point where we can't maintain the number of staff we have been able to because salaries and benefits have increased. So, in order to remain
052at a point where we can continue to provide uh or continue to keep staff on our grant as well as have enough money for materials and supplies for those un unexpected needs, we need we need to start moving some of the staff off of the grant to local so that we can clear up some money for for the students. I'll also add that this is a federal grant. Yeah. >> And um I think we've gotten confirmation that we do have it for 27, but as with all the other changes going on in the federal government, um we're not sure it'll be there the following year. So more of these positions would need to move over to being local funded. >> Okay. Okay. And the next line is for um an additional assistant principal at Hardy.
053They currently have one principal, one assistant principal. Um in looking at the needs of Hardy, the current enrollment, the needs of the students at Hardy, um and looking at the number of students with IEPs, so those are students with disabilities. Um there is the need uh to add that position. Um, also as a reminder, we talked about um at the last uh board meeting, Hardy has been identified as off track. Um, and so this would also add additional support to assist in that area. Um, is there a question? Pause. >> I hate to take off all the time, but you know, I like to run my mouth. So, Mrs. Gats, Dr. Kramer, I sent you kind folks an email late last night so you know this is coming. >> Looked at your uh monthly enrollment
054reports and you gave me some corrected numbers looking at the total number of students in our elementary schools and and even Smithfield Middle School. Today I think Westside has two APs. >> Yes, >> it's the only one, right? other than Smithville High School. Smithville High School. That was kind of an outlier with 1300 kids. >> Of all of our schools currently, Westside is the only one that has two APs. >> Yes. >> Westside has 671 students, 121 of which are with IEPs. And I look at Hardy and they've got 664, which is actually less, but they do have a couple more with IEPs. Windsor Elementary in particular has got 634 students and 111 with IEPs. And I could go on and on. That's a lot of numbers to kind of sit and listen to. But
055I think my question is and and I understand and acknowledge that Hardy has a strategic plan to get on track. But it doesn't seem to hold a whole lot of logic to me aside from that to give Hardy an AP and not the other schools. So my question and and suggestion to Dr. Kramer and you folks is to consider instead of adding another full-time assistant principal strictly at Hardy to in part assist getting them back on track. What if there was just another position in general that could float around and cover those same needs? specifically focusing on students with IEPs and the administrative drills that go along with those. That way, when Hardy gets on track, we're not stuck with a school that may or may not need a second AP. Does that does that
056make sense? Excuse me. It makes sense. I disagree respectfully. Um, I think we could make a very plausible argument that all of those schools you mentioned uh warrant an additional assistant principal given the numbers. I don't have the ratios in front of me, but there is a staffing ratio recommendation. When you hit a certain number, you add an additional counselor, you add an additional assistant principal. We are in need of additional support administratively at a number of schools. I think what we were trying to do was to not ask for everything in this budget just knowing the constraints we are dealing with and knowing that the raises I think has to be priority number one. So we are looking at other needs relative to the realities of what we think a budget will allow and
057accommodate this year. You're not wrong in that uh those other schools are in need. So Smithville Middle School, Windsor Elementary, and I think what we are trying to do is look at what's the number one priority at this time with the hopes of maybe looking at some of those other schools and providing them some additional supports in other ways. So I agree with you conceptually. I just don't think that the answer is not providing the additional supports in the future years. >> So I don't disagree with you. That's that's what I wanted to hear. Um I I I would offer a suggestion that we revisit regulation FBR that we we basically drafted that up in response to program capacities. All this is tied together to Mrs. Magner's argument about needing extra sped support. perhaps you
058could transition or or incorporate yours your ratio chart loosely into FBR that it sets expectations across the division. Um it makes this budgeting process a heck of a lot easier to digest. So if the board already knows that we're not in compliance with a recommended ratio, there's nothing to argue about. Um, and and I would hate to send a negative message to your other building administrators on how one schools getting an AP when they need one just as much, if not more. Um, that's just my thoughts and my opinions. Um, I'll leave it at that. >> No, I think that's a very fair point. >> Uh, Mr. here. >> Um, in addition to that, I I I asked that same question in our 221 meetings, and there was a specific reason why we decided to
059or the leadership team decided to add a an assistant principal versus someone else in the support team. >> Thank you for raising that again. That's right. in the one-on-one we had with you. Actually, I'm going to ask you uh Miss Sullivan, I think you were the one who responded uh to why not just another position, but an assistant principal. Would you speak to that rationale? >> Sure. Yeah, I think the exact um conversation we were having is perhaps hiring like an additional instructional coach to support Hardy versus an assistant principal. And we were looking at that the cost difference was only around like I think a 9 to $10,000 difference. But then we talked about the flexibility of that assistant principal and the roles that they can take on um related to not only just
060instruction and helping with that with only with not only gened but also helping with special education being the LEA in those meetings um and then also the student discipline. So, they're kind of your utility player um in in reference to like leading a school um being able to pick up all of those roles versus an instructional coach that's just specific to improving instruction. >> By that logic, an instructional coach could float it around and do the same thing across the division. I don't know that the instructional coach position would well they would not be able to help with discipline. Um they do not sit in IEPs and so that was really they they don't address attendance matters. So those are the things at Hardy that we were really looking um to add additional to support
061with and and I think your point is is very valid. you know, it the the numbers aren't that drastically different, but I think when we looked at the most need, we looked at the current situation with the students there. So, just because you have 500 students and I high five high have 500 students, that doesn't mean we have the exact same 500 students with the exact same needs. And so when we look at the needs of the students and the programs at Hardy, we felt as a team that that was the school that needed the most um was in the most need of additional support. That does not mean that we don't have other schools that do need support. We do. But if we're looking at could we add support for next year and then
062maybe another one the following year and f we were trying to space it out whereas we don't say we need three assistant principles next year. Okay. All right. I'm going to move on. Um we've already talked about the vacant teacher positions that we identified and are giving back. Um and then the only other is the um support positions, the cafeteria and recess monitors. I will point out these are part-time positions um that will go to our elementary schools. We have a few in place currently. They help support um during the lunchtime. I don't know if you've ever been in an elementary school during lunch. Uh but the teacher has to uh bring the students in, get them through the lunch line, assist, get them seated. If there's anything to open, you go up and down
063the rows and you help students open and get situated um eat their lunch and then the teacher sits in the cafeteria and eats with them. They probably have 15 minutes to eat their lunch. Um they then take their students outside for recess and they monitor recess as well. Um and so in an effort to give teachers back some of that time, um the cafeteria and recess monitor monitors do a whole lot to help students. Um um teachers have that additional time where they can make parent phone calls, maybe get together and do some more planning, uh use the restroom. Um so just giving them that time back that they currently do not have. And I'll also point out that their planning is about 40 minutes. Uh so this is adding another 30 plus minutes to
064to that time that's not encumbered with students. Uh the schools that have them are very very thankful um and have really uh been very appreciative of that support during those times. >> And if I may, I I'd like to thank you all for allowing us to pilot that initiative and for voting uh to let that happen. And to Mrs. Sketch's point, I've actually had a chance to interact with some of the lunch recess monitors and certainly the teachers and I think they are doing a great job already. We're certainly not where we need to be, which is why we are asking uh to not have not only have additional uh lunch recess monitors, but to have this codified in our budget for 2017 for 2027. Remind me um the 17 positions is that inclusive the
065of the current positions or is the 17 so the cost in here are we is some of this cost already in the budget? >> So how are we paying for the current ones? >> We found savings Mrs. Perkins in the budget the current budget and we don't have 17. This would be 17 for the entire number. And the ones who are piloting are again we are putting those positions in place through cost savings that we have been able to uh find this year. >> And how many do we have currently? >> We have 12 part-time currently. Thank you. >> And that's 12 because we couldn't fill more. Is that correct? No, 12 is the number that you all approved for us to seek this year and we've been able to fill the majority of those.
066Um I think we've had three vacancies uh for the majority of the year, but um we've been able to fill most of them. >> Okay. Okay. Next Next, um we'll go over uh what what these requests um represent are from all the schools and all the departments um of what their needs are. I do want to note that as uh the school board had requested, we did um initiate and perform a a zerobased budget, if you will, um for all of the schools and the departments. they were required to provide an itemized list of each of their budget requests. Um, so like here under contracts, if they had multiple types of contracts or purchase services, they had to list each one, state what it was for. Um, so as we go through this, you're going
067to see some some red or negative amounts. Um, and that's because I think through this process we were able to eliminate some expenses that that weren't being used. Um, I was also um was focused on trying to get expenses in the proper line items for report purposes. So, you'll might see here too that it'll say that these expenses were reclassed um to get them into the right right um general ledger line. So under purchase services um the total change is 1,47,532. Um the number one um priority there is contracted security services which um is what you started this year. So to maintain this going forward for a full year uh we estimate it'll cost 422,000. The next is a a bunch of different contracts for custodial services, maintenance, refues, you know, and other contracts. And
068there is an actual uh 3% contractual increase in there. So that's what this amount represents. Athletic trainer contract, uh that's increasing by a little over 22,000. Um within sped um Miss Magner has several um software program licenses um other uh uh software that is for your digital what do you call it? >> Yes. >> Our evaluations >> digital the evaluation. Yes. Um and that totals about 58,000. um HR with Title 9 investigations. Um we need to increase that by 8,250. The next line is substitute services. So these are our contract substitutes. Um we are estimating $375,000 increase and what this would do would help to uh keep us competitive. Um so we have, you know, subs that work across the water. Um, however, if we had a uh more competitive rate, then perhaps they would
069come across and be over here in Isisle of White County. Um, general insurance, uh, I've projected a 5% increase. This covers, you know, your liability, your property insurance, um, and all the, uh, auto insurance, equipment repairs for CTE program. The increase, uh, what's re being requested is $6,654. I know it's an odd amount, but it would bring their total budget to $15,000. Even staff development contracts is showing a reduction of nearly 21,000 and that is largely due to recclassing that to travel and training. Then we have uh several other reductions that total about 116,000. Uh the largest one there is a $92,000 expense that the budget has just been carried over for a couple years in a row. So, we're removing that. Of all of those um 1,47 um,000 and requests, uh 666,000 um are
070contractually required and $382,000 of that um would be what we consider discretionary. Then the last item there is the utilities and this is showing a net increase because like electricity is going up but our use of um gas or for natural gas is going down. Um this also includes all water and sewer. So the whole the net increase for all of our utilities is estimated at 27,456. >> Mr. chair, >> please. >> Before we get going too far, I was hoping I could pick on Dr. Coleman because he's just sitting over there quiet. So, last or some at some point time this year, the school board agreed to allow you to go out and hire SSOS. I've personally seen the SSOs in action. The feedback that I've seen, uh, it's been positive. Um, I'm curious
071as to any specific feedback you can give us on a positive return on investment. And just to be clear, I'm all about it. I just want to tell us in the public what we're spending $422,000 on. >> Uh, that's SSOS. And of course, to go back over it, it's uh at the chosen schools, all of the secondary schools. Um some of the positives that I have heard from is that those are individuals in the schools uh building bonds uh with the students and working throughout helping out with the weapons detection systems as they enter. And one of the uh biggest things that I uh like to lean on is the fill rate for those the SSOs that we have coming in. Every time we need a new one or one of them is sick, we
072can always fill that very quickly. I think that you know that when we were looking for the in-house SSOs, it took us a while to actually find them and to uh get them processed in. With the outsourcing of the SSOS, it's very easily to get them in on a daily basis. If we need one for a game or something of that nature after school, we can easily make one phone call and we have them there. So, it's it's working out very well at this time. Now, of course, over here. >> No, please continue. Now, of course, there will always be growing pains, no matter what situation that you're in, no matter what initiative that you take, working through those growing pains and um building the relationship. >> I was just going to say we are
073going to be presenting in the March board meeting. Mr. Brinkley will be providing a more in-depth uh presentation on where we are with safety matters in general, but uh specifically we'll talk about the SSOs in that uh presentation as well. >> Excellent. And and if I could throw a curveball at you. >> Oh, please. So, we two years ago we budgeted for three full-time SSOs. Two at Smithfield High, one at Windsor. Those still exist today. >> Has does it make sense to consider doing away with the full-time positions and going straight with contracted services? >> No, I I would not say so. Um uh not at this time. uh there's not enough information to make a solid judgment in getting rid of the full-time positions that we actually do have. Um right now we have
074just engaged since January with the SSOs. Let's give them some time to work through that process. Um uh as you already know in-house and contracted out individuals are uh it's a different mindset. uh the contracted individuals are there working for a company um which sometimes works out but having those individuals in house that you can count on that's a that's part of the building that's part of the staff it makes a a true difference as we found out with uh child nutrition throughout the years. So at this time I would say let's let's just keep moving forward as is. >> Thank you, >> Mr. Chair. Um, I don't want to seem nitpicky, um, but the athletic trainer contract, could could I get some, um, context to this increase, um, in cost? >> Yes. So, we
075have um, athletic trainers who attend the um, practices and events at our high schools. Um, we currently have a contract. We know the contract is going to expire at the end of this year, so we have to rebid it. But we already know from preliminary kind of looking, it is going to be an increase in cost. And so this is our estimate of what it's going to increase of what we're already paying. >> Would we get any increase in services or would they be the same? It's just the increased cost in the uh contract. >> It's just the increased cost. >> Thank you. Okay. And Mr. Barry, before you continue, I I think there's another important point about increased cost. Dr. Coleman, back to you. There's some inherent increases each year, correct? I think 3%.
076>> Yes, sir. >> That costs are just going to go up for some of these contracted services. >> Absolutely. It's a overall cost of 3% as you already know. Sometime inflation maybe 5%, sometimes maybe two and a half%. So we settled on 3% every single year no matter uh the cost of living or the uh cost of inflation going increasing throughout the year. So 3% overall for all contracts. >> Thank you. >> Good. >> The next area is um kind of combined travel training memberships and field trips. um travel and and training um attendance services. Uh they need to have their um training budget increase to be able to train all of their staff. Uh continuous training on powers school. Um human resources has a slight increase. Special education and transportation combined is a decrease
077of of 2,100. Um the next line is the school board. Um respectfully, we we are recommending a reduction of $10,000. Um not that you still have a travel and training budget. It just hasn't been used for a number of years. So you still have some money in there. Um I just looked at the historical perspective and I'm recommending that change. Dues and memberships. So, just kind of they're they're kind of minor, but between CTE, our health services program, finance, and the superintendent, there's an increase of 1,820. Um, however, to note that human resources has a decrease there of 135. Then the next one is the school board. Um, there is a reduction here of $20,000. um one because school board is no longer part of VSBA and two the we I reclassed an expense um
078for board docks and you'll see it I think on the next slide field trips an increase of 1500 which is uh required um with the VPI program and then there used to be some line items that were called miscellaneous. And um I requested that every department that had one of those lines that they actually uh reclass it to the proper expense. So we we don't have miscellaneous expenses. So overall you see a reduction of $30,646 there. Next, um supplies and technology software or online content. The reason they're kind of grouped together is because that's how we report them. Um materials, supplies, subscriptions, um the security department or security um area, we are requesting $5,000. they have not had an individual budget in years past, but now that we've increased, you know, those services, um, they
079need to have some sort of a supply, um, budget. Next is between attendance services, the superintendent and finance, there's an increase of 5,800. Health services, there's an increase of 3,000. And then we have reductions a combination of reductions in reclasses of expense between special ed and communication of uh 10,000. Next uh vehicle and powered equipment parts uh requesting an increase of 10,000 primarily due to the cost of the parts. Next, we're requesting an increase to classroom instructional materials. Um, almost $40,000. Classroom instructional materials has not received an increase for a number of years. So, this basically represents a 5% increase across all nine schools. >> Can you What is define that for the public? What does that mean? So if the schools need to buy anything, um they need to buy art supplies, PE equipment,
080um they want to buy, you know, a set of novels, they have to use their instructional funds. Um and as you know, costs have gone up for everything. And so they're just finding that they're unable to supply as much as they have been previously. Um and it's been I I really was trying to remember how long it's been. I it has been so many years since they have received any increase but anything they need to buy it's coming out of that instructional budget. The next area which is tech software and online content. This area of course is going to be growing um over the years since everything is going to online content. Um, we're requesting 18,500 and this is for a uh wellness program and app that HR has um implemented. Uh, next is a
081one-time expense um for H HR to for background checks. Um, Mrs. Sullivan, do you want to >> Yes. >> Uh, for background checks, we go through the Virginia State Police to run our background checks. um and they went out to RFP in this past year and have selected a new company to run um the hardware for that. And so we have to purchase the hardware. It's a onetime cost um in order to continue to do our background checks. Uh next is uh for the superintendent. It's a subscription to a grant software. Yes, as I shared earlier, uh board members and uh the listening audience, you saw the number of competitive grants we sought and received in the millions of dollars. This will allow us to identify and apply for even more grants uh thereby hopefully
082taking the burden off of uh the supervisors and our operating budget. And I think that's a fairly modest amount for the software that we will have uh licensing access to. The next line is what I was referencing on the prior slide. Um, this is for the school board. This is the projected cost for board docs renewal the 14,333. The next is for our software called frontline which is used over many aspects. Uh, projected 5% increase 6,250. The next is um a bunch of different um software for technology. Um and these are primarily due to cost increases of 53,181. Um I'm sure Mr. or Dr. Coleman I'm not familiar with all of those various ones, but >> I would have to call on Mr. Cooper to go through the details of each one of those. contract
083I yeah contracts with the software if you wanted a little bit more in-depth information all of the contracts we've had before is just as Mr. very alluded to. Um these are just um increased costs >> and these are are substantial um software um licenses. So we we see them as being required because to go without any of them would cause quite a disruption. >> Oh yes. And the next one is um for transportation. Um this was uh it's almost 25,000 but this includes uh Zonar, My View, Transfinder, Travel Tracks, which is um something new or pieces new this year that we piloted and want to continue that program. >> You I remember when you proposed the pilot. Has there been any feedback of substance that you can speak to? >> Yes, there has. Mr. Fe
084will be here next month also to give an update on it. We're trying to actually put together some analytics for that to be able to tell you how many parents have signed off, meaning signed up for that and has sent emails and and uh and uh I guess you could say agreeing with it, not agreeing with it. just put together some analytics for you for concerning the my view from a parent's point of view but uh at this time the roll out has begun at the secondary also. So the roll out went very successful at elementary now it's being rolled out at the secondary level. Uh the last couple of areas we have one is tuition. Uh for the governor's school, um this is a increase in tuition cost of $7,437. Um and then the
085tuition for CESUP um is almost $100,000 and I think Miss Magner could speak to that. That is um an increase in number of students who require that level of service. It's approximately two students. >> Say that again. >> That number represents approximately two students. The tuition for two students. >> I think it's important to know what's what's our per pupil expense on average. Dr. Kramer, >> I do not have that information at the top of my head. I will look at my down here. >> Yes. >> 14 $15,000 we spend per pupil on average. >> But some of these students with special needs costs a lot. And in this particular case, we've got two students that require about $50,000 each per year. >> So it kind of goes back to my point earlier. Some of
086this stuff cost a lot of money. >> Yes. So, thank you. >> Now, I think we're going to see if we can explore some ways to uh bring those costs down over the next year. >> The next is for either technology equipment or capital items. Um technology hardware replacement uh increase of 165,000 and that's for the iPad replacement. Um next is 15,000 for bus radios. Uh then we have a a hardware addition which would was for Prometheium boards 130,000. Then we had some a couple of line items at Windsor High School and there was CTE had a grant match. Um and these lines were couple years ago they were for one-time expenses and once again had never been been removed. So just a little bit of cleanup there, which is almost a reduction of almost
08715,000. Then the last line is your equipment leases. Um these are ones we've already entered for generators and such. So um that is a required that's just part of the the lease agreement. They increase about 80 almost $89,000 next year. So for all the departmental and school changes um from fiscal year 26 the total is about 1.7 million. Uh 937,000's required 784,000 is discretionary. You go on. So just to um mention briefly the changes in the other funds um the textbook fund is actually uh decreasing by 12,000 and that's due to a reduction in that area from the state. Our grant funds are increasing almost 700,000 what I am projecting that is pretty much to cover carryovers for next year so that we don't necessarily have to amend the budget to cover those carryovers. uh
088food services actually has a net decrease of about 23,800 and this is you know this will be the the third year and um we're just trying to get a better handle on the meal sales and alle cart sales so just bringing that more in line the facilities fund this is where we receive $250,000 now from the county and uh that's for like deferred maintenance um and you can just imagine $250,000 goes very quickly. So, we're asking to uh double that or increase it by 250 to bring it to a total of 500,000. >> Before you move on, uh would you speak to that, Dr. Coleman? That question came up, I think, by um Chair Collick and you, Mr. Marsh, in one of our meetings. 250 for a year isn't much. Would you speak to how
089that cost can be um that can go very quickly? Absolutely. Absolutely. And just looking at overall just in the past u soon as a year would start, incidents of a well going down, a boiler, uh HVAC system, uh numerous different things with um just trying to make sure that all of the gym floors are refurbished and up and running. And those are just to start the school year off. Not getting into different things that um that occurs throughout the year with even deeper issues that might occur with um let's just say air quality issue or something of that nature and just having to use those funds. Um as you can remember at the start of the year uh two years ago uh the first day of school we had the well issue and that took
090$140 140,000. So, just off the bat, uh, we had to work with the limited funds for the remainder of the year. And sometimes the community might wonder why why are there so many band-aids on different things uh throughout the year. This is the reason. Once the funding is gone, the next thing that you can do is you can fix it, but we have to just fix it within our budget, which sometimes require bandaids to fix that. So just FYI, >> this is something that they've asked for. I think Dr. Pullman has asked for this for the last three years straight. >> I would probably say four, but yes, Mr. Chair, if I could before we get into the capital stuff, I sitting here with my calculator. I'd like to pat you and Mrs. Perkins on
091the back because it was you two that pitched the idea this time last year to do a zerobased budget. And I give CFO and her team an extra pat on the back for doing all the heavy lifting. Based off my my numbers here, you guys found roughly $200,000. So kudos to all of you. $200,000 in the grand scheme of things isn't much, but it's still a lot of money. That's all. >> Thank you. The last um item here is the health fund. Um and just to remind you, we put out a bid for the health insurance. Um we are still waiting on um getting the full results of that. The consultant is waiting on some information. Um but what they recommended that we do because we knew we wouldn't have the information back in time
092for Dr. Kramer's uh proposed budget is to go ahead and increase the claims by 10%. Um, and that's basically what you're seeing if you look at the the January board report. Health claims are up 10.8%. So that equates to about $979,000. So hopefully I'm not sure if we'll have the health insurance stuff for you for March or not, but we're still working on it. And then the last slide is just a repeat of what Dr. Kramer had already um shown you of the these are all capital projects and they're actually on the county side or in their ledgers on their system. So, they're not appropriating that money to us. Um, but we are of course controlling how it's spent. >> That's all I have. Mr. Chairman, >> thank you, Mr. Barry. >> Mr. Chairman, may
093I make one comment? I would like to thank you all as we look at the capital. As I stated early, and I'm, you know, repeating myself, but I think it warrants repeating. We made significant contributions in our capital um allocations over the past couple of years. Our tracks, our fields, um buses. We had not uh purchased buses, I think, for a couple of years. And over the past couple of years, I think we had five last year, maybe five the year before. I think we brought in about 13 new buses. Um so I I thank you all and I thank uh the supervisors for all of the progress we've made. Certainly, there are some other things. Uh I think we made a little bit of headway uh with the bus garage. How much did we
094receive, Mr. Vary, Dr. Coleman, to start kind of looking at the uh fleet services building? >> 78 >> 865,000. That's as I stated in my presentation, that's still a pressing need. And certainly we need to continue buses. Uh just to remind people if you weren't tuned in before, I think about a third of our fleet at least uh couple of years ago, a third of our fleet, third of the buses were obsolete, meaning they were over 300,000 miles or 15 years. Um so we've made progress, but my point is we need to make ongoing progress and credit to you all. All of our secondary schools have weapons detection systems. So I just wanted to acknowledge uh the work that you all did. So, a credit to this board and a credit to the board of
095supervisors, but again, there there's still u quite a work quite a bit of work to be done. Thank you. >> Thank you, Dr. Kramer. >> Any questions? >> I got I got a list, but I've been talking. So, anybody else wants to go first and >> we'll start. Mrs. Perkins, you have anything? Mr. Worester? >> Well, go for it because I'm the mouth of the South. Okay. I own that. >> Um, on the budget book on page 37, can we talk a little bit about health insurance fund? I know you you started a little bit on it and I know you've got the RFPs out. >> Yes. >> Um, this is a hot topic when we're talking about overall compensation. And what I'd kind of get a what I'd like to get a good handle
096and understanding on is last year we put 2 point some odd million dollars into that healthc care fund to keep it healthy. >> My question is today are we healthy? >> Yes, we are. We continue to be. Yes. >> Okay. So the the 10% that you've asked that you've projected pending any RFPs is just for projected uh increases in claims. Mhm. As a self-insured um fund that we are um we pay for the claims as they come in versus if you were fully insured, you basically you only pay premiums and that's all you're responsible for. >> Right? So, as we march forward through this process, and I know there's a lot of teachers I know there's a lot of teachers dialed in right now. The health insurance fund is going to be a big topic
097of conversation for me for sure because that's that's huge. Medical expenses are huge. So I look forward to those RFPs and how that comes to be. And I know we've got friends at the supervisors that have similar questions. We did also, just so you know, have we sent out a employee health insurance survey for all of our employees whether they participate or not in our health insurance to get feedback from them before we make any decisions so the board could be informed on their opinions about our current health insurance and what they're looking for in coverage. And we're going to provide um an overview of what that survey those survey results were to you all at the March meeting. >> Perfect. Thank you. Um, we've, this is the second time I think everybody up here's
098seen this. Uh, now it's formally presented. I look at this and I don't see any surprises. I think most, and there's there's a couple exceptions, but most of everything that you've asked for, Dr. Kramer, have been requested in the last two, if not three years. Some of them didn't even make the cut. So, I I don't really see any surprises. So, when you tell me that's a need, I concur at this point. That is a need. Um, and I think it's fair to say that this board put most of our focus the last couple years on capital stuff, and we were blessed to get over $14 million in capital revenue. Um, Dr. Coleman, I mean, he was taking it left and right all year, last couple years. So when we sat in joint session last
099fall, it was October, November, we had a good conversation with the supervisors and at one point Supervisor Roundtree goes, "So what's going to be the big concern coming up?" And that answer to me was easy. Compensation. Yep. >> And so here we are. >> Uh we're looking at recommended 5 some odd million dollars to get that compensation. Um I and I'm just kind of going all around the place. I go back to Dr. Kramer's slide. We talked about per pupil expenditures $14,700 per student and you that's slide nine of the Dr. Kramers if you could put that up. Yeah. So that's that's huge to me. That tells a that tells a story. So I think anybody up here could argue and we'd be spot on to say that Alawite continuously does more with less. Um
100I think we're at a breaking point here. We've got lots of capital stuff taken care of. We've done more with less. We're hearing teachers and administrators come out in droves saying, "Look, we got to do something." So, you you want to >> Yeah, I I just want to thank you. I want for highlighting that and and bringing the slide back up. As I stated in my presentation, our scores, no offense to my colleagues in those other counties, we are outperforming almost everyone on that list. And to your point, I I think we're absolutely doing more with Bliss and we can't continue to ask our educators to do that. Bear with me here. I there's a lot of unknowns moving forward. So, you've given the board a lot to digest and I'm anxious to hear the
101feedback from the community at the hearing next week. But there's a lot of unknowns coming out of Richmond, too, right? So politicians are politicking all the time up there right now. So in the event Richmond comes back and says we're going to give 3% raise to teachers every year for the next two years and if everybody's doing it then that it almost minimizes what we're projecting for an increase. So it's it's it's important to keep that balance in mind. It's the ratio. >> Absolutely. And as I said earlier, everyone's going to be given a raise. I, you know, we're I'm in meetings with the other superintendents. They will all be giving raises and some uh significant raises. So, it's going to sort of nullify some of our gains to an extent. Uh but if we
102don't give a fairly significant raise, that that gap's just going to grow. Um and that's my concern. I know it's a big ask. No question about it. When you talk about 5.1 million um in salary requests, it's a big ask. But again, looking at where we are, we are going to have to make up ground. We are going to have to have I think the hard conversation here uh with this board and certainly with the supervisors about how we do that. Um and that's a bulk of the of the request. I think 7.1 million the uh raises is 5.1 by itself. And then if you look at uh health care, that's another million. So the vast majority of our requests are for salary um and benefits and healthcare. The overwhelming majority of what we're asking
103for it's in those areas. >> I I think to your credit I know that there's a lot of stuff I know this for a fact. There's a lot of stuff that was requested of you that didn't make your request. So kudos to you for prioritizing compensation because I think that needs to be the goal. Uh that's my opinion. I could ramble all night. That's it. Mr. Chair, >> may I add one more thing? I'm sorry to interrupt. >> Yes. >> Um we we do believe we will get more funds from the state. Both the House and the Senate have um presented, you know, what their recommendations are and both are recommending increasing the funding. We just don't know how much um and for what purposes we could use them. >> And we also do not
104know if those are going to be recurring dollars, whether they're one-time. Yes. >> So, we are trying to figure all that out. And and of course, there are no answers as you stated, Mr. Marsh. Uh those are still proposals and discussions. Uh there's nothing concrete that we have to go on just yet uh out of the general assembly. So we're still awaiting um some answers. I am often on Zoom meetings with superintendents trying to get updates. But uh my hope certainly is that before this board uh has to adopt the budget that we can have some more answers in terms of the funding we're going to be getting from the additional funding we might get from uh Richmond. >> Mrs. Perkins sent me a note the other day and said, you know, the wish this
105process was different. She's right. It's completely backwards. it is >> the school board has to adopt the budget without knowing exactly what kind of revenues the county is going to get. The county has to decide how much money to allocate for the schools and try to fix a budget without knowing what the state's going to give them until the very last minute. So, it's it's a crazy process. >> Okay. Well, it's about uh almost quarter till 7, so I'm not going to say too much. Um, but I do want to say that, you know, the focus this year is on, you know, taking care of our our staff, okay? Whether it's through pay, benefits, and working conditions. I I look at um trying to increase the sped positions as making the working conditions for our
106sped teachers and IAS better. Um so I I think that's our focus this year. You know, like Mr. Mar said, historically it's been, you know, we've got to get infrastructure fixed. Well, this year I think the most important thing is to take care of our people. And I think Dr. Kramer, you and your staff have done a great job. There is not a single thing in the budget that I could disagree with. Not a single thing. I hope we're able to uh convince the supervisors that we need all of it and they can give it all to us. I would hate to have to prioritize any of this. Okay? That's the last thing I that I want to do. um because I it all it all has merit and you know with the exception of
107the the number one reason we set the compensation study was you know we had teachers leaving. Um so that's my number one but other than that everything else seems equal and that's going to be very difficult if we have to you know go ahead and prioritize any of that. So, we're going to do our best uh meet with the supervisors and see if we can get everything we're asking for. I I think there's a very compelling argument thanks to you and your staff, Dr. Kramer. Does anybody have anything else? >> Uh Mr. Chair, I just want to say great job to the leadership staff for those putting together this information and all those that contribute to the success of Alawite County Schools. And with that we will adjourn.