001I H County school board's in session Madam clerk please take a roll Mr colck here Mr Cunningham president Mr wster Mrs Perkins here and Mr Marsh here for the listening audience Mr wer contacted me this morning and he had a late notice scheduled change so he was obligated to work this evening um Mr chair I move to approve the agenda for Open Session as presented second motion and second any discussion hearing none Adam Clark Mr cck yes Mr Cunningham yay Mrs Perkins yes and Mr mors yes motion passes someone like to to read the uh pledge or do the pledge in a moment of silence please stand for the moment of silence followed by the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic which stands nation under
002God indivisible withy and Justice thanks sir appreciate that um good evening it is February 24th and we're in Westside Elementary School and we're here tonight for a special meeting for the uh presentation of superintendent's proposed FY 26 budget and on that Dr Kramer would just roll right into it thank you Mr chair good evening chair Marsh members of the board and members of the community first I would like to thank everyone for their patience as you all know we had to adjust our budget timeline due to the snowstorm last week the superintendent's proposed budget presentation was originally scheduled for Thursday February 20th uh and we will revisit the budget time timeline dates later in this presentation I do wish to begin by acknowledging and thanking all who have worked on preparing the fiscal year 26
003or the FY 26 proposed operating budget I would like like to start by recognizing a number of stakeholder groups Who provided input and feedback as we work to develop the FY 26 proposed operating budget I thank uh my colleagues from central office our principals our school teams are I think the superintendent advisories I thank those members of the community who are providing or Who provided input and who will continue to provide input via discussions emails Etc it is important to note and I emphasize that this is merely the beginning of the budget discussion Mr chair and members of the board thank you for the opportunity to present the school division's needs in the superintendent's FY 26 proposed operating budget again I repeat and state very emphatically that this is the superintendent's proposed budget and is
004merely the first public discussion of the 26 proposed operating budget the code of Virginia Section 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 but it is my responsibility for the Commonwealth of Virginia and it is my obligation as the ISA white superintendent to articulate the needs to the members of the school board as clearly as possible after 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 budget requested items that are proposed and address any questions you the school board might have so let's Jump Right In the FY 26 budget represents the school division's plans for the activities that will take
005place for the school next year school year 2025 26 the proposed operating budget provides an estimated cost to complete those activities planned for the next fiscal year school board members you are certainly aware of this act but I note this information 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 funds I will repeat that last sentence 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 Pro proposed budget items I will share were developed through numerous meetings with students teachers principals and central
006office staff as superintendent I've had meetings with members of the community 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 our schools and school division while also developing a budget that is fiscally prudent and practical I venture to say that this is not an aspirational budget in other words we're not asking for resources to fund projects that are merely on our wish list instead I deem this proposed operating budget to be a very fiscally responsible budget that will meet the essential needs of our students staff and families I would be remissed if I failed to articulate the needs of our schools and school division
007based 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 our school board members although I will attempt to share our most essential needs in this presentation I will not Endeavor however to share every single item I think that through our ongoing discussions over the next few days and next few weeks we will identify the needs and the requests of the schools and the School Division and as I stated earlier we will have addition public discussions around the budget in the coming days and weeks as we discuss the needs of our division in the proposed fi 26 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
008discover their gifts and talents and to ensure that each child is college career and life ready essentially we are saying that when our students leave our schools they should be fully prepared to pursue whatever path they so choose Additionally the School Division spent valuable time developing a well-thought-out 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 engagement and organizational Effectiveness and efficiency it is my position that the needs we have identified and the requests 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
009the 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 we 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 it pertains to education funding let's first take a look at the local Composite Index the local Composite Index determines the school division's ability to pay education cost in the Commonwealth of Virginia the local Composite Index 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
010the higher the composite index means that a a locality has a greater ability to pay and what you will see from the chart is a comparison with most of the school divisions in the area and in Region 2 which is where Isa white is listed and what you will notice is that our ability to pay or our Composite index index at 3704 is slightly higher than most in the area and in Region 2 which means that our School Division our County uh has a higher ability or greater ability to pay the next chart I will share is the per pupil expenditure chart which shows how much funding we are actually receiving per student in Isa white as compared to other school divisions in the area you actually see somewhat of an inverse order from the
011previous chart although Isa White County has a greater ability to pay than most in the region according to our local Composite Index we are actually one of the lowest funded School divisions in the region when we calculate what we actually receive from the federal state and local funding sources combined the obvious question is how I think the answers are varied and I surmise from the data that there are a few reasons as to why that is let's take a look at the jar study the Virginia General Assembly directed The Joint legislative audit and review commission also known as jayar to study the cost of Education in Virginia and make an accurate assessment of the cost of standards of the standards of quality the standards of quality s soq funding formula is how the Virginia General
012Assembly fulfills its obligation to seek to establish and maintain a high quality public school system that cost is then a portioned between the state and each local government using the local Composite Index and it was determined that Virginia school divisions receive less K12 funding per student than the 50 state average the regional average and three of Virginia's five bordering states School divisions in other states receive more per student than School divisions in Virginia on average at the normalizing for differences in cost of labor among states in other words State officials are telling us that the state of Virginia is underfunding our Public Schools undoubtedly the current state s soq funding model is Obsolete and does not meet the needs of local school divisions additionally it places a greater burden on local County governments in their
013efforts to fund our schools I'm pleased that the delock study was conducted and anxiously await an overhaul to the current soq state funding model further complicating funding matters in Isa white county is the fact that we have a higher ability to pay as a county as determined by the local Composite Index as I showed earlier which means that we receive less funding from the state than many of our neighboring School divisions who are less affluent as a result many of our neighboring School divisions received more state and federal funding than does Isa White County Schools given that they have a lower Composite Index as we all recall the massive changes during the covid-19 pandemic all School divisions received additional Federal funding to help students return to school those pandemic funds were referred to as the
014elementary and secondary school emergency relief funds or Essa funds for short those federal funds were certainly needed at the time but as most of you know those federal funds have been completely depleted and no longer exist because we received additional federal funds during the co pandemic time period and because schools were virtual and remote for much of that time period the county schools actually needed fewer and received few fewer local County dollars now that we are no longer receiving additional Federal Co or Essa funds means that we will need to rely on our local County government to return to the original pre-co funding levels the following pie chart slides illustrate the composition and the makeup of our Isa White County school division's funding sources as you will see from the 2019 2020 chart with iite
015County Schools sources of financial support from federal state and local governments you will see that prior to the pandemic our division received 6.5% of our budget came from federal government from the federal government in the burnt orange 51.3% came from the state and 42.2% of our budget in that year came from the local Isa White County government as you will see from the next pie chart from the 2020 21 chart which shows the funding sources for our School Division due to the federal Esser funds you will notice in the red the federal government's portion of our budget increased the 11.4% from 6.5% the state's portion increased as well to 53.9% up from 51.3% yet the local IA White County government's portion decreased to 34.7% down from 42% Again In fairness to the county this occurred
016because the School Division needed fewer County dollars at that time and because we were receiving more Federal funding also schools were not in session for some of that time period during the covid pandemic the 2021 22 chart shows a similar pattern of the federal government portion increasing even more to 13.9% of the school division's budget the state 5.5% during that year of the school division's budget and the local County Government funding was still below the original preco period down to 35.6% of the school division's budget during that year at the risk of being totally redundant but I think it is important to stress this point that the ISA White County government did nothing wrong the division simply needed fewer County dollars during the covid Pand pandemic given the additional Federal Esser dollars allocated during that
017time period now the 2022 23 slide begins to show the first signs of the Esser or federal funds decrease you will see that the federal portion of the school division's budget decreased from 13.9 9% to 99.2% this downward trend has continued for the 2324 data sets and for the current year 2425 although the state's data sets are not updated with the 2324 and the 2425 charts we know that the funding for these years have continued to decrease and again the additional Federal funding through Essa have completely ended and Al though the state and Cy's portion of the school division's budget have decre have increased you will also see that we are not back to the pre pandemic funding levels as a result I implore the school board members and the Board of Supervisors to strongly
018consider returning the school division's operating budget funding level to the original pre-pandemic funding levels given that we no longer have Federal Esser of Co dollars the previous slides showed the breakdown of the school divisions Isa White County Schools operating budget as funded by the federal state and local governments the current slide shows the ISA White County government's budget and how much of that budget is allocated to the school division as you will see we received approximately 35% of the County's operating budget in FY 20109 and FY 2020 prior to the pandemic as the chart shows we continue to receive less of of a percentage of the County's budget during the years when we received more Federal funding during the pandemic again because of the additional Federal funding and the additional dollars we needed through County
019dollars this is not surprising and these Trends are consistent in many if not most counties throughout the state and the country as you will see from the current chart the portion of funding we currently received from the County's budget is 3.86% which is down from the pre-co period which was at the at that time 35.6 2% currently we are receiving approximately 5% less than we received prior to the pandemic and although these percentages might appear to be relatively small when we're considering large budgets of approximately $100 million or more each percent represents approximately a million doar most importantly what I hope to illustrate are two key points first the county funding changes were understandable and justifiable and no one did anything wrong I hope that everyone hears that no one is to blame and it
020is understandable that we received fewer local dollars given the increased funding the School Division received from the federal government moving forward however it is important to emphasize that those additional dollars are completely gone and that leads to my second important key Point without the without the additional Federal Co or eser dolls and with the state admittedly underfunding our school divisions in the state it is critically important and urgent that we receive the percent of the Count's operating budget that we received prior to the pandemic I implore both our school board members and our Board of Supervisors to please take these data points into consideration when we consider funding the ISA White County School Division board members I am sure we will have further discussions around this matter in the in the day days and weeks
021to come as it pertains to the budget request of fiscal year 26 I will certainly not Endeavor to share every single request in my presentation those detailed requests will be shared via multiple formats to the board and to the community nonetheless I will share some of the most significant needs and priorities for our School Division and we'll start with some of the absolute required needs we are projecting a reduction in Revenue due primarily to receiving fewer dollars as a result of decreasing decreases in the usage of our schools by Community organizations and fewer State basic Aid dollars as this slide is titled required changes in expenses these are the amounts that are required for next school year FY 26 the estimated amount for the 3% employee raises is $781,000 the estimated increase for our healthc
022care fund is $1,663 491 and the local textbook match increase of $ 39,7 N8 and the already negotiated increases for purchase Services is $84,999 as you will notice approximately half of our requests are required just to maintain our School Division more specifically the raises in health care expenses are consuming the majority of our request in the current slide titled discretionary changes in expenses we're asking for additional positions to mainly meet the needs in special education Career Technical education CTE and Safety and Security the current slide shows the overall amount of the required needs which are an absolute must to maintain the operation of the School Division and it shows what we have termed the discretionary needs which are still very important board members as you are aware the lessy central discretionary needs were cut by
023staff and by me since our last meeting with you the school board in individual meetings or in our 221 meetings as a result we have already reduced items that are important but were not deemed to be as essential by either you the school board or by our staff given our initial discussions in the following slides we will unpack and further discuss some of the specific budgetary requests let's start with the essential 3% salary increase as it pertains to compensation for FY 26 we're requesting a 3% salary increase for our Educators the Virginia General Assembly and the governor have proposed a 3% salary increase to support our teachers and other Educators in the division the 3% raise is not just a matter of fairness it is an investment in the future of IA White County it
024is no secret that Virginia continues to face significant teacher shortages in public schools similar to many other school divisions in many other states this modest increase in teachers and other Educators salaries offers a far-reaching benefit that extend beyond the classroom such as recognition of their dedication and will help to improve retention and recruitment efforts we will continue to prioritize our Educators and ensure that they receive the compensation they deserve health and wellness for staff is also a top priority having access to Comprehensive Health Coverage not only promotes physical and mental health but also promotes a healthy learning and work environment by increasing the budget for the health care fund the school board is able to mitigate increasing Health cost and avoid passing the additional cost onto our employees to help health plan premiums uh to
025help keep Health Plan premiums affordable able for staff and for our families who will need additional funding in this area it is it is important to note however that we've not received a health insurance renewal yet so these uh increases uh are preliminary and we will get you those more accurate projections in the dayses to come the CTE positions are necessary to support expanded programs such as the governor's lab school the is maritime Trades Academy to support and improve existing CTE programs and to provide additional supervision to ensure student safety in work-based learning environments and in this case specifically for the welding program we are requesting funding for our reading and math interventionist positions this year we receiv received a reduction in Title One funding we we mov two reading intervention positions to are all
026in Virginia Grant from the governor moving forward there will not be enough Grant funds to cover these two positions our students continue to need the services of our reading interventionist without these positions approximately 100 students would lose these very important Services we're asking for Library assistance for our elementary schools to provide support management and facilitate Chromebook loans to students as needed Additionally the assistant will handle book checkouts and restock shelves during student visits to the library currently the librarian attempts to juggle these numerous task which is overwhelming for one person as a librarian teaches resource classes daily and is faced with the constant rotation of classes lastly in the absence of the librari and the assistant will step in to teach classes ensuring continuity and instruction without the need to secure substitute teachers we're requesting
027two additional school security offices ssos to assist with the expansion of our weapons detection systems at the high school level and the additional ssos will enhance our ongoing efforts to make our schools as safe as possible we're also requesting support in our human resources department we are underst staffed in that department to properly support employees in our division it is recommended that there be no less than one HR staff member per 100 employees in an organization for Isa white that ratio would be 800 to8 but we are staffed at 800 to 3 5 less than half of what is recommended for a School Division our size as we all know retention and recruitment demands are continuing to grow as the pool for Education applicants decreases I don't think it's any secret that our school division
028is one of the lower paying School divisions in the region as it pertains to many of our educator groups therefore we are requesting additional funding to enhance the pay for several of these educator groups to help make us more competitive as a School Division in terms of pay or at a minimum it allows us to not lose ground or at least not as much ground with our neighboring School divisions although although staff members too often take a pay cut to come work in IA White County we can absolutely not depend on that in future years yes we have a very desirable Community to live in and a very good School Division to work in but the cost of living continues to go up and we owe our employees a fair and comp able compensation package
029and we certainly do not want to lose quality staff to other counties because of loway and non-competitive benefits packages as you will see from this chart most of the increases in Pay pertains to our instructional AIDS IAS for kindergarten and special education programs again these increases will help make us a little more competitive in pay and help with the retention and recruitment of Staff we're requesting to increase supplemental pay and stiens for our Handle With Care staff CPR training school security officers for game coverage and school leadership team stiens as you will recall from last year we received onetime funding for several important projects through the capital Improvement plan or the CIP therefore we are requesting some one-time funding for the CIP items which are one-time non recurring requests which exceed $50,000 I extend a
030huge thank you to our Board of Supervisors and to and to you our board for the generous funding in last year's CIP budg in the CIP budget we received funding last year for HVAC repairs at Carolton Elementary additional buses funding for new high school tracks and Fields and weapons detection systems at the high school level although we received significant CIP CIP funding last year some some of the much needed items were not able to be funded last year therefore we're adding those requests to the current Year's request with a few new additional requests at needs some of the onetime CIP requests for FY 26 are a much needed upgrade to our Fleet Services building which is where our buses are serviced and maintained the current building was constructed between 1952 and 1955 the structure is
031not large enough enough to accommodate modern buses as a result the facility remains to be uh open to the elements during vehicle service and repair which places Fleet Service workers in an inferior unacceptable working environment with an interior working height of only 12 feet it is not possible to fit this structure with modern lifts for inspecting Vehicles which means all repairs and inspections must be performed on the ground additionally the buses do not fit in the structure which exposes our employees to extreme weather conditions board members I think you would agree that we owe our fleet services staff a building that is first and foremost safe and one that allows our employees to perform their work in a sufficient work environment that is out of the elements during the harsh Winters and the extreme heat
032in the summer we're asking and still need more buses as you may recall approximately one in three of our bus have exceeded their expect expected lifespan of 15 years of over 300,000 miles although we were funded five buses last year we know that we still need additional buses for the next several years to get us up to par with our bus acquisition rotation safety is and will continue to be a top concern for me as superintendent as a result we're asking for additional weapons detection systems for our middle schools to enhance safety in our school in our school division we've also heard from our band students our parents and staff regarding ban needs one of those needs pertains to upgrades to the Smithfield High ban room which we will gladly discuss in more detail uh
033as we proceed so to summarize some of the major areas of need as we look at the needs we have identified and the requests we are submitting to meet those needs you will see that the needs exis in critically important areas which are consuming the vast majority of the 26 proposed operating budget therefore our requests are in those areas to meet the identified needs the numerous facility and infrastructure needs the 3% raise that is recommended by the Virginia General Assembly and the governor our transportation needs our special education needs Career Technical education CTE needs as our programs grow the instructional needs and the additional resources for safety and secur security to ensure that our students and staff are as safe as possible there's no question board members that this investment comes with a cost again
034we are asking for one-time funding for facility infrastructure upgrades for essential items such as school buses fet Services much needed Renovations and additional security enhancements to mention some of the needs and one additional much requested initiative is for after school programs if funded next year this will enable our school division to provide transportation for each school at least one day per week for elementary schools and a few days per week for secondary schools this will also provide a stien for staff who will work to support our after school programs this would ensure that all students have access to after school activities given that Transportation will be provided the programs would potentially support after school clubs activities uh mentoring and sports for example it could also allow students to be tutored uh after school and would
035allow for other other possibilities for our students as you well know board members the vast majority of our budget costs are to pay for salaries and benefits for our employees there is not a lot of room for discretionary spending thus we are required to be very prudent as we request funds for other needed areas as 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 students staff and our community I assert that you are not just spending taxpayer well-earned dollars board members but you're investing money in our children and in the entire aisle of white aisle of white community and what do I mean by that statement I mean that where you have
036great communities where people desire to live and work you will always find very good schools thriving schools is one of the major reasons people are attracted to and move to this community I venture to say that our quality of living will remain high and your property values will continue to increase if we maintain very good schools but to maintain very good schools we need the County's investment to ensure that we are properly funded according to the Welden Cooper Center at the University of Virginia Virginia in their recently released study which was shared in the Smithfield times showed that Isa White County continues to be one of the fastest growing counties in the Commonwealth of Virginia many individuals are choosing to live and work in Isa White County and they desire to send their children to
037our schools by and large if that trend is to continue board members and my dear community members then I implore you to invest in our schools as I'm confident you will 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 with staff 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 February 24th there is the school board budget
038uh presentation and the beginning of the work session on February 27th there's another school board budget work session March 6 will be the public hearing March 13th is our regularly scheduled uh board meeting and on March 18th the board will vote to approve the budget uh the caveat certainly is some of these dates can change uh based upon the board's determination Mr chairman this concludes my presentation I thank you chairman Marsh 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 FY 26 proposed operating budget thank you sir we'll uh give you guys a chance to get settled and we'll move forward all right so figure
039out how we want to proceed to my colleagues up here um it's a lot to digest um and I know Mr rooster isn't here tonight and we're going to have a lot of question and answering coming up here Thursday evening um guess we'll just open it up anybody want to kick it off you have anything to say yes C you want to go yeah um you said Mr chair there's a lot to digest here so I'm not going to be prepared to ask a lot of detailed questions uh tonight um but I do have a a couple um pretty minor questions that I think Dr kmer can answer pretty pretty easily sure um so we talk about him impact Aid in your slides and it looks like we're having a loss of some funds um
040so my question is do we without the impact Aid statements from the individual families do we have an idea of how many military families that we do have in a community and who are missing any of them forms from sure yes we did not get as um great of a response this year as we had years past so we do have um students that are registered in our system as being of military families but they did not return the survey and when I apply for the impact Aid I can only you know put in the numbers of the actual surveys we received back sure sure I am going to be looking at doing an online um survey this coming year so hopefully we'll we'll get a bigger response okay and if we know that there's
041children who who parents are in a military and they don't send something back it could be because you know mom's working full-time dad's deployed or the other way around so if we can go is it possible for us to go back and you remind them we are doing that okay we're going back to the schools and when I filed my application I did um let them know that we will likely be amending it by June 30th perfect perfect thank you just to followup we have had the schools reach out to the parents to ask them to return it we still have not had the success we hoped for okay so they've been doing phone calls and sending other messages thank you Miss GS um so my my next question is on Healthcare as you know
042I had asked for you know all the statistics on the current years's health care program um and I'd really U like to see as soon as we get it next year's healthcare because I want to make sure we're in line you know with the the employees share you know with the norm I my gut says that maybe our employees maybe paying a little bit more in some for some of the insurance than uh in other places and considerably less in in some insurances so I'll definitely have questions on that when that comes out because I want to make sure we're Fair across the board and we're kind of comparable to the rest of the uh the community particularly ala White County employees I have developed two new schedules that show more of a a clear
043breakdown on them than what I had sent you so we'll get those out to you tomorrow beautiful to all of the board and it gives also what I have projected for the upcoming year but keep in mind we have not received our renewal yet right right thank you um my next question I don't know if we've got this yet is the cost of living National cost of living you know for the current year what it's projected to be because 3% if we've got cost living of three and a half percent we're not even keeping up you know um and so I really want to get a good feel for that because I don't want to say hey we're able to keep our employees 1% behind this year you know I want to see if we
044can try and get our employees ahead okay so that's kind of important to me um may may I respond M thank you for that really important point and certainly that's something uh we're looking at is to look at those National averages but I think to your point not only are we looking at National averages I think it's important that we look at being competitive locally absolutely because to your point if we are just providing an increase but our neighboring jurisdictions are providing a more significant increase we're not even keeping up locally so that's something we certainly need to be uh paying attention to yeah and and and um I think my last comment right now would be on the nurse's pay um we we still need to have a sit down at some point you
045know with the nurse supervisor and you know Miss Sullivan and and your uh yourself Dr Coleman um but I would really like to make sure we are competitive with our nurses pay um with the other surrounding jurisdictions okay I get it the nurses aren't in the ER they're not going to be paid $45 $50 an hour okay they're not in a doctor's office so they're not going to be paid you know on the most part $30 an hour but the comment that was made at the last school board meeting were to get in around $9 an hour and I don't know how accurate that is but I think you know for me that's kind of low um particularly for you know somebody with an advanced degree in nursing whether it's a BSN or or a
046master you know maybe they should get a little bit more so that's something I still want to explore I do think just looking at it without any research that the amount that we're looking at for 16 nurses is low and so that's that's a number that I really want to look at it very closely before you move on May I respond to that as well and I'm sure you and the board members would agree with me we're certainly looking at the nurses and I think it's also important to note that we are paying attention to all of our educator groups uh so we you know whether they are speaking at public hearing or not we are looking at where we are with all of our groups to ensure that across the board uh we have
047competitive pay and competitive benefits packages for all of the groups and I applaud our team for that you are 100% spoton um I I feel that way for everyone at works for us they should all be getting very competitive pay within their profession s so I I agree with that Dr crer thank you Mr chair thank Sir Mr ver on the slide that Dr Kramer briefed title was required changes in expenses I was going to ask you which number slide that was Mr chair but you have the I don't know page there keep going keep going right there so on the top line the 3% pays with Benefits the 781 th000 is that local match or is that total that's the total um increase in expenses from budget to budget okay so there were some
048other changes and I did come across where something might have been budgeted twice last year so because that's really not the true cost of a 3% pay increase but that's the change from budget to budget okay um you know to to identify whether or not that's the local match or the the one provided by S soq you know we we don't really separate those right out but that is the total Delta between budget proposed and current year yes sir got it okay because I don't have page numbers we actually have them here so it's I'd prefer to go off the book anyways bear with me goodness gracious there we go page six of the book we're talking about average daily membership I know there's no simple answer to this and to be fair I called
049Dr Kramer this afternoon and told him I was going to ask this but I I think it's fair to ask especially for the people watching given that our average daily membership was flat between 21 and 22 for the most part it decreased in 23 and we're projecting it decrease again this year given that the student enrollment or the average daily membership decreases how do we justify to the average person watching an increase in funding request and and I know there's no it's a big answer but I wanted to get that out there may I res take the first opportunity to respond to that sir I'm going to ask Mr CER if you would take us to slide six there thank you sir so as it shared in the presentation we are one of the lowest
050funded School divisions in Region 2 and in the area I think last year we were third from the bottom this year we're second from the bottom so when you look at federal state local funding when it's combined we are second from the bottom I would venture to say that if these bars represented our academic scores we would be up in arms people would have an issue and they should I would say sir we have gotten used to getting along with less a number of these positions as I look on the four-page sheet on page two of four a number of these positions we have we don't have insufficient numbers we talked about human resources and no intent in Baris Mrs Sullivan but we mentioned that a fair Staffing ratio would be 100 to1 we're not
051even close to that our reading interventionists and some of the other positions that we do not have in all of our schools our ssos we do not have insufficient numbers a library assistance positions that I will tell you are standard in many school divisions and school systems in this country we don't have I shared with you that our funding has gone down since the pandemic and has not come back up shared with you the federal funding is decreasing Esser funds are completely gone a share that the state acknowledges that they're underfunding our school divisions plural and our funding has not returned locally so we are doing what that we are already understaffed in many ways and we're underfunded so so I would argue that we're asking for more just to get up to par we
052have people who are doing extra work because we're underst staffed in so many ways already and this will only be exacerbated if we do not get the funding we need this year uh Mrs GS Mrs Sullivan if you would like to venture a response please feel free to great question as a taxpayer I would probably be asking the same question um I think everything Dr Kramer said yes reiterate but I would also add that while it is a projection we don't know for sure it is a projection the needs of our students are not decreasing not by a long shot um so when we talk about reading intervention um without those two positions that would be a 100 Kids possibly not receiving reading intervention services and that's direct pullout Services working directly with kids all
053day every day um to improve you know early uh you know first you know kindergarten first second third grade students in their reading which we all know that is one of the most important things that we do in a school division teach children to read um so again the needs are not decreased ining also when you look at special education the special education students that we are seeing have more and more severe um disabilities um and they continue to come our prease students um again significant disabilities and they often require self-contained classrooms so when you look at the requests for special education teachers it is for those classrooms and and by law we have limits on where we can be in those classrooms yes because I don't want to lose that thought are the special
054education the self-contained requirements are those captured in the S soq chart are they s soq positions it it's hard to answer that question because we're so inadequately funded by so soq is that in there so there is a section for soq under that however that does not by any means capture the needs of our School Division because when s soqs are being allocated it's based on your ADM which does not take into any consideration the percentage of your students who are in need in need of special education nor does it take into account the number of service minutes that those students need so there's no way for them to say this is how many special education teachers your division needs because they don't know our kids nor do they look at any of that to
055understand that and I I thank you I think to your point I guess we'll back up earlier last year we had that special education presentation um because we identified early on that that demand was increasing but I think to kind of make your points on page page 11 for special education AIDS we so soq funded for 10.36 people I'm not quite sure what 36. 36 of a person is sure but you're asking for 68 so that I mean that right there is a is a huge Delta that's 57.6 people difference so that that's a lot that's significant it is but you could not function and no school division is functioning with just soq positions it's not possible right and the state knowledge is as much and that's because that was the point I was trying
056to make and and then I would also add just kind of what I've already said but imta so it's Governor Yan's lab schools we were granted with one imta is going to be great for our community but it is a huge undertaking and we want it to be a success we want all of our CTE programs to be a success so when you add that huge additional responsibility it then says well who's going to be responsible for it um if you keep spreading it around among many many people the job is not going to get done to where we need it to Mr chair may I revisit your question regarding ADM and I think Miss gets hit on something that's very important I think we need to be careful with looking at the numbers going
057down the ADM has been inaccurate since I've been here from the state's projections so I stated that Welden Cooper has stated that we have been one of the fastest growing counties for the past several years and that continues and we see all of the growth in this County I think a number of school divisions and systems throughout the country have seen fewer students return uh to their school divisions since the pandemic but I don't think we can Bank on that at any point those numbers can increase significantly so with all the growth and I if I were to name the projects you would all know them and see en growth occurring here so yes our ADM uh projections have been stagnant and they've fluctuated somewhat uh but again I wouldn't Bank on the fact that
058our student enrollment numbers will continue to be low or to be stagnant I would venture to say those numbers are going to be increasing and we have seen uh some data sets that will indicate as much thank you sir anybody else Miss Sullivan put you on spot here on page nine of the book where does HR fall on this s soq chart is are you Administration administr um yes so that's some of well some of my Department's positions fall under Administration administ Administration administrative and then some follow under Administration technical clerical just depending on the classification of that individual's job okay and again just for pointing out some of the obvious it's it's interesting that we're not funded for a superintendent that's crazy um if we could roll back I think it's slide 12 I'm
059guessing it was the one with the the line graph just a couple things and again I I think I'm restating the obvious for my colleagues up here but for the for the listening audience it's worth pointing out then in FY 23 I don't think it's coincidental that that just happens to be the same year we had a deficit so certainly that had some sort of a an influence on that among many other things um but then if you look at FY 24 yep we're still below the covid level but I think we'd be remiss if we didn't point out that last year we got 9.5 million from the county and local funds for Capital Improvement and that's huge it's huge um and and again we're asking for more stuff that didn't get picked up last
060year so while I think this is important it's also worth pointing that out um at some point I think Dr K you said that 1% was about a million dollars there in about I was just making a just a very broad prediction because I think the County's budget is over 100 million um this coming year do miss do you know I know you work with the count Finance folks quite a lot I heard the number thrown around last year it was if memory serves it was about $600,000 in the County's budget equated to a 1 cent real estate tax is that is that about the same believe so yes okay because I'm sure we'll hear that again I know Dr Coleman is sitting over there patiently waiting for for me to pick on him chairman
061Marsh it's actually 67,500 okay thank you 670 I don't have it let's see towards the tail end of the slide deck where the capital things are listed there's the chart of the spreadsheet we've got an initial ranking um and then there's the following slide one more all of these I do believe with the exception of one is a carryover from our last asks from last year is that correct Dr colan that is correct so every one of these items with the exception of the band room is something we'd asked for last year and if memory serves again last year we initially had it was a crazy amount of money it was 14 million or something like that we'd asked for in capital funds and we were blessed to get n a. half million again we're
062asking for more stuff and I don't expect that we're going to get 10.6 million but the point I'm trying to make is these were carryovers from last year except for one can you tell us about the one new thing the band room yes sir and looking at all of the C Capital Improvement plans and all of the items that we did uh were fortunate to get last year I like for everyone just to keep in mind these are 20 25 to 30y year uh projects that uh that we actually were able to get through um the $7.5 million HVAC project for Carlton that will last the county 20 to 25 years the new tracks that are 15 to maybe 20 years in motion so the items that are on the CIP is not only only
063for the schools but also for the community also and just like everyone to keep that in mind now focusing on the band room of course you already know that the band room was built in 1982 and along with the school and hasn't had a upgrade or any sort of renovation since then so with an expanding band and at one time the band was up to 75 individuals in the band um one thing that we're looking for now is the storage of uniforms and instruments and music um growing the band even more um the practice rooms most up-to-date bands at this time they have practice rooms and things of that nature the kids can expand out too we don't have that at this time and just keep in mind that averaging right now the band sends
064two at least two individuals to college uh on partial scholarships at least two every year not saying that only two individuals go but on partial scholarships those are our kids going off to college to further their skills from the band and that's right now of course it will be expanding in the future so more to come so just give you a little bit of background on the one item that is not was not on the CIP list from last year the reason I wanted to bring that up is because this is my third budget season setting up here and the last two we had some pretty passionate folks that came up here advocating on behalf of the band Yes so my point of drawing attention to this is that the band room has made the
065list so we'll see how it pans out you know we're not guaranteed any funding till we Mr chair I think I think it made the list prior to our our arrival I think the band has been a request for years many years yes can you tell us a little bit about the the project itself this is something you came up with well it's something that the operations team actually uh came up with and working with instruction and the principal uh allocating space and trying to really take the space that we already have and make more out of that and that's when we came across the Boer room on the backside of Smithville High School and in this Bower room they were um we're using as more of storage and of course it was the older
066boilers and the older heaters and different things of that nature uh three years ago Smith High School changed over the heating and cooling syst system to more of HVAC units on the roof I think it's maybe 17 18 units so then the boil room became obsolete so at that time you've had a maybe 20 yards long 15 yards tall uh boiler in a room outside just being used for storage so taking everything out of that room getting rid of all of those items in that room and just clearing it out gave us an ideas of maybe more storage and then working along with instruction and once again uh the principal of the school it started uh thinking of the ideas of what else could this room be used for and that's when we went full
067force start thinking about allocation of maybe using it for another band room which is bigger the room is larger than the uh current band room and we have U more space space that we can actually break out into those different areas that we discussed a little earlier thanks Doc any anybody else when you're done go for it I need a um well I don't need information right now but I am going to want information on the textbook funds um where we're getting those numbers from um what it is what it's used for because they're carrying around laptops now and so just an explanation of where we're getting those numbers um training and travel those numbers seem a little high um for a couple of areas so I want some information on that um what what
068is necessary what is more of a want instead of a need in that category um we do have some soq positions that are a little bit off uh some information especially I know the Public's going to want to some details on that um we've covered a lot but if we could have anything that is going to kind of be a red flag when people look through these slides make sure have that information um we have Allin with the funding question if you could just give me a little bit more clarity about the soq so I can provide the information for you that you're looking for um well obviously special ed is a huge one um with the numbers changing have we reassessed and are do we have the people where they need to be and
069um you know are we moving people around as needed that kind of stuff um and anywhere else like you have um assistant principles we have more than what's s soq was saying um IAS so there's just various areas in there where the numbers are off we you could just um explain kind of why a little bit and we've already gone over some of it but maybe having something on paper that people can review or whatever would be nice um Allin I know the funding is changing for that um how long have we had Allin in the schools has that just been since the grant funded it yes this is the second year um and whatever is not spent can carry over for next year um it will be some funds not going to be a
070lot substantial like we have right now okay and then that will be it okay um and Dr Coleman if I can have a breakdown of where you're getting the numbers from for the band room and the cost not right now but thanks okay so I'm looking at uh let me see the proposed new positions and changes and pay uh for ssos looking at this uh we're looking at getting uh trying to get two more or two additional ssos uh which is good uh I think we need more but uh two of a start because we're looking at the two middle schools correct actually no these would be for the high schools so it would give a team of three at Smithfield High School and a team of two at Windsor high school with the implementation
071of the weapons detection system um right now we're able to implement that fairly well at Windsor High School Smithfield starting it soon um while during arrival however during the rest of the day when we have visitors coming into the building there is not a person able to man that system otherwise they then would not be available to provide security to the rest of the building they would just be sitting at that one door waiting for arrival of guests and so this is um in place to allow someone to man that system during the day otherwise you're just scanning students and not other people who may arrive during the school day um for weapons okay before you move on I want to acknowledge your point I think your point is well taken and I think it
072shows that we have been very conservative in our request because otherwise we probably would have asked for middle school as well yep that need does exist but again we have been very conservative in our request um perhaps to our shrin but I wanted to acknowledge your point yeah because uh yeah I'm looking at it I'm look also looking at the CIP where um we're looking at uh additional weapon detection systems it's uh 180,000 is that for two or is that for one I'm thinking is that two yes uh both those weapon detection systems are for the Middle School okay yeah but is it two per school is it is so the 100 all right basically real simple uh for 180,000 are we getting two systems or one or you're going to get for 180,000 I
073can check on this but you're getting um no it's more than two um it's going to be and I hate to throw that out there I think it's going to be eight systems okay cuz yeah cuz that's what you know uh citizens are going to be asking 180,000 what are we getting and Mr kham if you can just allow me to bring that exact answer you don't have to tell me right now right um you know and that's for I'm interested but also citizens are going to be interested what are we getting for our money absolutely I mean a lot of these uh figures on here uh I think it's it's being conservative and I know we have to do that due to the budget but uh people are going to want to know what
074okay if we agree with this what are we getting um but then if we do get the whatever number of systems uh we are going to need more ssos so you know it's one of those things where we're being I know we're being conservative very conservative and we have to uh due to money crunch but uh that's I mean how lean can we be I mean I my my prior priority is safety of the kids of all the students staff something happens I don't want to be reactive I want to be proactive so and I and I'm hoping and and I'm sure the Board of Supervisors proactive also understand everything's lean but but there are things happening and probably things are going to happen in the future with the state of the United States as
075it is you know we need to be proactive on what we're doing just in case it's like an insurance policy understand insurance goes up too but you got to have it I mean it is what it is so I'll get off of my Soap Box those were the questions I had so thank you uh M Mr Cunningham made a few very good comments here you know the first the people want to know okay what are we spending our money on second is safety okay safety I think has been this board's priority since day one now probably a little bit late this year um but we want to go in and we want to ask the Board of Supervisors for a level of funding consistent throughout the years we've got to have some good justification to
076go in and say hey let's have this agreement we want 35% you know of what the county brings in in taxes I I think what we need to do and something we haven't done since I've been on the board is maybe start out next year and I won't be on the board then but with a zerob based budget if we can go from we've got nothing on the on the plate and start putting okay we got these first grade teachers you know this is how much each one of them is going to make and and just go down every position every line item and I know it's going to be very hard work but we might find in there some places we can save money you know um and I know I mentioned it uh
077a week or two ago when we met that maybe we can buy some things in bulk um to save a few pennies here and there because we save the nickels and dimes the dollars will save themselves okay so I I'm a big proponent of the zero base budget and I think we might be able to help Shore ourselves up a little bit find a little bit extra money and where we can't now we go to the Border supervisors we have tried to say we have looked at every single line this is what we absolutely have to have to have the best schools in the area to continue a world class education and have a very safe environment for our students our staff our employees and our visitors so just put that in the back of
078your minds for next year I I think that's going to be very important but you know right now we're working on this my questions will be coming to you in the next few days thank you can we talk a little bit about page 37 of the book the health fund so I know Mr very you've been keeping a close eye on this all year um and you had some concerns early on but if I'm interpreting The Proposal correctly we're looking at including our Al County Schools contribution by 1.9 million and reducing the employees contribution by 150,000 uh which is basically flat I would imagine if you divy that up plus or minus 800 employees um I I think that's important to point out that that's a while that doesn't come in the employees paycheck that's
079certainly a benefit because you know insurance is Insurance somebody just said it my homeowner's insurance went up my auto insurance went up everything goes up so what we're proposing here is certainly a benefit to the employees as well yes sir and um we are at currently we are proposing that the employee sees no change in their current premiums that they pay that's what we have proposed here right okay I guess we could sit here all night but we've got Thursday for this there's one thing that I do want to present to uh my colleagues up here as well as Dr Kramer um with the assistance of our esteemed School Board clerk she show want to make sure I say this right this budget wants approved is the school board's budget but within that budget we
080have some very specific line items that are allocated solely to the school board Professional Services staff development travel training uh mileage dues and membership supplies so on and so forth food to the grand total we're budgeted $61,500 uh again Mrs Whitlow helped me put this together and I suspect she may have had some assistance I don't know all you that's why you're number one so I've shared a hard copy with my colleagues and I'll give one to you Dr Kramer uh between now and the next handful of days I'd like to get together and look at somewhere some places where we can trim this off and reappropriate it somewhere else um $61,500 is what we're budgeted for FY 2425 to date and it's February so we're not done we've spent about 37,000 almost 38,000 I'm
081sorry we've spent 23,700 so there's quite a bit I I suspect we're going to have some excess um I'd like to get together and figure out where we could repurpose that funds um a part of that excess is because we backed out of the vsba um and then I know that in July June whenever we voted to leave the SB the vsba we had discussed leaving those funds in the budget for the sake of policy and legal fees potential legal fees so I'm not suggesting we make it all go away because we still don't have a policy services but I think there's room for reallocation so that as well as the H2O to go and I know that's not a popular conversation with some of the staff um but the fact that we're funded or
082budgeted for $7,500 for bottled water um I'd like to look at a way to take some of that put it somewhere else I don't care if it's a field trip or an SSO we'll figure out where I think we can use those funds better somewhere else and I'm getting the mean looks from some that's okay I take them um what are we missing here okay yeah for sure digest it the next couple days we're scheduled to be back here Thursday 5 o'clock again 5 o'clock I Know M Mr rooster will be here on Thursday I know he'll have a deck of questions um and then after that we've got our public hearing just March forward like we like we know what we're doing that's what my aunt would say anything else doc staff that is
083it thanks for the opportunity to present we look forward to the ongoing discussions okay call us adjourned