001anybody coming you're good well will you need someone to advance the slides for you well I'll bring M or you can I didn't know you could travel that's why I asked did you needed someone yeah that work well it says on the screen 52 sunny today well I mean I think it hit 60 66 my goodness awesome really feel like that with the wind personally when I was out there with the dayare was that this afternoon I think I'm wi I think like 2:30 to 430 should been all right it's 7 o' right now all this we please rise for the pledge allegiance i al to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for it stands one nation God indivisible andice all thank you Miss Cook will you please take
002rbody is there any new business to bring before the board hearing none I would seek a motion for approval of agenda second I have a motion by Mr Welch and a second by Mr gist all those in favor signify by saying I I I post same sign motion carries 70 next item on the agenda is consent agenda items 6 a through C is there any item any board member would like removed and discussed separately okay hearing none I would seek a motion for approval move I have a motion by Mr G and a second by Miss kefir all those in favor signify by saying I I post same sign one abstention I'm on the coach list oh okay so Mr Raven horse is GNA abstain thank you for that for volunteering to coach so motion
003carries 6 Z with one board member obing did I say that right okay perfect doesn't happen very often so I want to make sure I say that correctly next item on the agenda would be item seven considering adopt the resolution of accepting donations I believe we had uniforms if I remember right jerseys yep and a records board so as always we say thank you for the donations from the community members and groups and the anonymous donor as well this is a resolution so I would seek a motion so move so second I have a motion by Mr G and a second by Mr lman and we will go to Miss Cook hi Mr gist hi Miss kefir hi Mr lman Mr ravenor hi Mr Welch hi and I for myself motion carries 70 next we
004will welcome Bailey and Samantha up to the podium for the high school student council report and I'm sorry did you say you were part of this Council as well um I'm the advisor thank you for joining thank you hello I'm Bailey Shoemaker and I'm Samantha jish today we will talk about what we've been doing in the high school for the past coming months and what we were planning for the rest of the year his advance so for a recap of winter week we had daily wrap-up activities that happened around the high school we had bingo in the cafeteria Bob Ross painting tutorial in the art room and each of those activities had around 30ish students participate and then we had basketball and dodgeball in the gym um all money raised throughout winter week went towards
005kids dreams come true which is an organization that supports children with life-threatening illnesses and life altering injuries dress up days went very well and we got lots of participation from both students and staff to for Tots we had five boxes placed around the high school in the English classrooms and one by the Performing Arts Center in total we received 95 toys with seniors donating the most because the seniors donated the most toys they were able to pick up a small prize from the student council table before school or during wrapup in Miss mle's room please Advance somebody can I ask a question yeah did one of you on the student council just I'm just curious with um choosing that Organization for where you donated your money did someone have a personal tie or how did
006you decide on that's where you were going to donate the money from winter was a recommendation from Miss Melinda key for the NHS advisor oh okay we've been doing it for the past few years too is that same organization yes oh my apolog sorry Toys for Tots yes um it was a recommendation for the kids dreams come true okay this year this that was new this year that was new this year Toys for Tots have been doing the past okay perfect thank you for the anwers today before school we sold snacks hot chocolate sedus crosss and raffle tickets this is where the seniors picked up their prize you could purchase these before school and there was a raffle B basket filled with a bunch of snacks a holiday movie a game and fuzzy socks winter
007bash was the second half of the school day on Friday where the students could pick an activity to go to during afternoon with teachers the activities that students could choose from are coloring board games orn ornament making movies cahoot games video games reading and gym activities student council also partnered with Mr erson who who rented a horse carriage is Advance um throughout winter week we ended up having to cancel the 1 minute fundraiser on December 19th due to weather we were planning on trying to collect as much money as possible during one minute of the halftime B boys basketball game in total we raised $357 towards kids dreams come true and 95 toys for Toys for Tots please Advance this image is the kind thing you know we received from kids dreams come through please
008Advance our next steps in student council will be elections elections will be done end of March into early April first the exec board and then the general election our goal is to have all new members start May 1st which means all seniors will be done May 1 our next Schoolboard meeting we attend we hope to have the next Schoolboard reps attending with us so you might see some new faces um another thing we are working on is homecoming 2 in the next few weeks we'll be looking at themes and beginning to create our committees as we get toward the end of the school year we are talking to seniors and getting some advice from them about what they would say to incoming high schoolers and creating a slideshow this is still in the works and
009we aren't fully get we're still fully getting it mapped out recently we have been working with the High School administration toward implementing the 9th grade resolution we would like to put seating near the main entrance of the school please advance our main concerns with these seatings is that they are up to fire Cod and we are actively working with the High School administration to make sure that they are um we are getting our furniture from Med City outlet they are an outlet that takes furniture from Mayo Clinic and gives a discounted price so that we can hopefully get it in a reasonable amount of money um the reason that this is another one of our concerns is because student council will be paying in full for all of these Furnitures how how many are you
010hoping looking at one to two chairs um yes we are looking at one to two chairs at 70 per seat um we are hoping to get some more like these so that they can like have more people and encourage more Community as opposed to like single seats um but it really doesn't depend on price and ending up on how much we have you know yeah and the reason why we are wanting to do this is so people who are waiting after school for sports or for parent pickup have a nice comfortable place to sit great yeah that's awesome um do you guys have any questions about anything that we talked about today or comments um on the chairs have you have you reached out to hcon at all oh that's a good idea because I
011know that they've done donated stuff to people in the past so y we just we the reason why we were looking at Med City outlet is because most of them our fire code and so but if that might be a good place to live there's a good chance they build those anyway and then then they might they might give you money towards you know I mean yeah I'm not going to speak on their behalf or anything but I know that they've donated um chairs for nonprofits and so awesome and a lot of the a lot of the furniture that we have in the buildings is like I said they was might be built by helic and you're very good to talk to joshh he will be able to help yeah that's great awesome and and
012I'm I'm really proud of you for raising $357 thank you that's great and you know goals for next year yeah yeah well thank you for coming thank you so much if you want to scoot out you can girls or you can stay for the remainder of the meeting we oh I forgot you need to right I forgot I like they like to okay all right thank you for that okay so the next item would be nine tonight we don't have anything for High student achievement so we'll skip down to 10 which is a safe welcoming engaging learning environment and that's where we have to consider and adopt our policy 524 internet technology and the cell phone acceptable use and safety and this was sent out for review for the board prior um everything that was
013changed with statute uh is there anything that any board member has a question about would like to discuss okay hearing none I would seek a motion so moved second well I apologize is this a resolution it says it is on here says it on on my minutes it does okay all right so I I apologize who made that first motion okay I have a motion by Mr Raven horse and a second by Miss kefir I don't know why and we'll do it as a resolution so I'll start with Miss Cook hi Mr gist hi Miss kefir hi Mr lman hi Mr ravenor hi Mr Welch hi I for myself motion carries 70 okay next item on the agenda would be 11 effective and efficient operations a is to consider and approve the bid that we
014got from how do you pronounce that con con conco electric for the football track lighting uh this was something that board had decided to do when we do the track and this was the bid that came in and um per policy we're supposed to we need to go with the lowest bid as long as it meets all of the requirements which this does so there are the bids there any other discussion okay hearing none I would seek a motion so moov I have a motion by Mr Welch second and a second by Miss kefir all those in favor signify by saying I I posting sign motion carries 70 next item on the agenda would be budget forecasting for the fiscal year 26 through 30 is that right apologize I thought maybe that was a m
015um and Miss sers will be presenting there you scr um just so the board's aware um and and I'm and I'm correct maybe this does also go along with item C they kind of piggyback each other so just let you keep rolling so uh what we're doing tonight is looking at the budget forecast from fiscal year of 26 through fiscal year 30 fiscal year 26 is the 25 26 school year and fiscal year 30 is the 2930 school year so we're looking out five years um what we are doing if you want to scroll up is anticipating and preparing for the financial Trends and changes so that we can reduce the likelihood of unexpected gains or losses so we use a lot of assumptions when we do this we're assuming what our enrollment will be
016we're assuming what the state aid will be and we're assuming what the other large um Revenue Source our property taxes will do we don't know any of those things so we're making assumptions and doing the best we can to predict what's going to happen long-term forecasting supports our efforts to sustain our financial stability and the process I have mentioned is based on assumptions regarding our enrollment our revenues and our expenditures do thanks so I'm going to go through some of the assumptions that we made one is the revenue assumptions starting in FY 26 which is next year an inflationary increase on the basic Aid floor in Mara is going to be between two and 3% every year if inflation is less than 2% it'll be 2% if inflation is more than 3% it'll be 3%
017so they're going to be somewhere between 2 and 3% every year on the basic Aid formula this amount is calculated in February and then released in March so it just got released so for next year the basic Aid formula is going to be 2.75% we do not know whether it'll be for the following year we won't know that until February of 2026 which is problematic because all of our contracts are two-year contracts so we know the amount that we're going to get for next year but we're negotiating contract for the next two years and so we're going to make assumptions about what that increase will be for year two if you could roll ahead oh I'm sorry um for FY 27 through3 what we assumed is that the assumptions are going to be 2% um
018we did not overestimate we're being very conservative in our assumptions for 27 through 30 okay starting in FY 26 the state's going to provide aid for the cost of special education at the rate of 50% right now at 44% so they will increase our state aid for special End by 6% starting next year also they're going to increase the student support Aid by about $55,000 and that's just a one-time increase after FY 26 it stabilizes and levels off so those two things will go up thr rest next year our enrollment acceptions this is the basis for determining our largest revenue sources so enrollment determines our state aid formula the am amount that we're going to get and how much we get through an operating Levy so if our enrollment goes down our Levy will go
019down because it's based on the number of students that are in the school district okay enrollment and child counts are tracked multiple times during the year I report out enrollment every month we chew that up make sure that it is accurate every single month for incoming kindergarten which is what we're expecting for next year we base that on preschool screening so every child that is ready for kindergarten needs to be screened and we are making making the assumption that every family has brought their child in for screening another assumption is that we have the verified records of eligible children living in the district now if somebody moved into the district that the county doesn't know they have a 5-year-old or they're not connected anyway to the school or they haven't screened their child we don't
020know about that child and then the last piece that we use is open enrollment applications so those are the data points that we use to predict what our kindergarten class will look like next slide these are our en rollment sub assumptions all the way out through fy3 and what you can see is the current years enrollment is in the First Column and then we know or have reasonable assurance that we're going to have 125 kindergarteners next year which is nine less than this year it's totally based on birth rates so Olstead and maer County birth rates have declined and so when you have less births you have less children enrolling in school so when people talk about declining enrollment it sometimes feel like it's a negative about the school district it's not it's about birth
021rates and how many children live in the school district we project that out using a model from mde and mde basically said you can probably make pretty good assumptions you're going to stay at 125 in kindergarten through fy3 that's based on what they have for our demographics okay so whether or not that rings true we won't know until that time comes but what we do is Advance all the grades all the way through grade 12 out five years if you can go on the next slide can I yes so is that based on birth rates from the for those kindergartens like when those kindergarteners would have been board so for like five years yeah prior to that year right so and that's why it's almost impossible to do a fiscal year 31 because we don't
022know the babies haven't been born so that's five years probably as far out as you can go and even that right that fy3 is still very precarious as far as using it as a solid number what's the what's the enrollement rate for six- year olds has that changed I mean does that make a difference you know people who hold their kid to extra year um we base it that they're sending it at 5 that's what I was just going to ask I just wondered if it if statistically if it made a difference not very many are held that was my question yeah um and I you know there's multiple factors on why people might hold their children but it doesn't happen very often I feel like it's it doesn't happen very often anymore okay because
023I feel like boys after June they hold them yeah they may itally relevant yeah what we see um majority of the time is firstborn sure and after that let's go yeah second third and fourth get him in school all right um this is enrollment assumptions again and now what we did is we took the total enrolled in the K12 system our base is this year at 1944 and you can see what happens over time um with that number going down to 125 and carrying through all the grades in fy3 we 1805 so it's a dramatic drop of about 40 kids um and again it is birth rates um and if you don't have the children in the communities you don't have children to enroll in school um we recalibrate this every year and what's challenging
024for us is we have to create a preliminary budget by June 30th but we truly don't know who's going to show up until September so when we do a budget that's why we call it preliminary it's based on what we think is going to happen based on our best assumptions for enrollment and then we true that back up in the fall we get through about two or three months of the budget and then you get a revised budget in January February um the projections for the future years gives a landscape for the anticipated revenues which we Ed for long-term planning Advance here's our basic a assumptions um our base this year every student that attends our school we get a base rate of 728 in fy22 that was what we used as a base and
025then it increased by 2% in FY 23 to 6683 our Aid increase that year was about $275,000 in FY 24 that was for the current year they went 4% it's a nice boost um the average per people increase was $275 we got just under $550,000 in our increase majority of that went to settl contract settlements and the increases in inflation in supplies and operations and all those kinds of things for fy2 the increases 2% which is $143 that puts us just under 280 now when you look at it going out next year they're saying it's going to be 2.75 which will bring us about $390,000 but following that even though it's a 2% increase you can see how it stabilizes and that's because of the declining enrollment so that declining enrollment is going to offset
026our increases and we just don't have a bandwidth out there in FY 27 through fy3 for inflation because our enrollment is going to be declining our Aid is going to stabilize so what that means for the district is you're not going to be able to spend the money that you have the prior year you're going to have to figure out how you're going to not increase your expenses year to year and if you're not going to increase your expenses you have to decrease them every year because your revenue is not going to go up does that all tie together some of that en is that du to those large there a large 196s and the 170s junior in the freshman class right now are large classes and we don't have the students to replace no
027we just don't have the live bur so it'll be an extended yes that's what we're anticipating and again enrollment gets cheed up every year um things could change um the only way that that would change is not through births but moving in or open people to yeah okay expenditure assumptions so we've talked about enrollment assumptions we've talked about Revenue assumptions now we have to talk about expenditure assumptions so we base these on our current status of our budgets and accounts um it is requirement for everyone who is in charge of budget to stay in the Black by the end of the year uh we do not allow our budgets to get overextended or overdrawn it's a requirement you are in the Black by the end of the year um we are anticipating for next year
028that salaries and wages might go up 3% the TR P pensions going to go up0 75% and there's no state aid for that so that increase is going to be born by the district all of our other expenses we're thinking operations um vendor contracts all those kinds of things possibly up to 3% extracurricular we're going to try to hold at 2% Supply budgets and media center books we're going to try to say no increase for next year and make that assumption that we won't have increases in those budgets the unfunded mandates through FY 27 will cost us about $590,000 so those are the laws that were passed in the 23 legislative session that are now going to be in place for the FY 26 and 27 there's no funding attached to them and it'll cost
029us about $590,000 so that duplicated with the low amount of state aid coming in 2.75% and the enrollment we've got kind of a perfect storm of that's Brewing not to our benefit and the unfunded mandates is a myriad of things unemployment pay family medical leave um curriculum um those are the big ones I know we had talked about it previous meetings I'm just clarifying so we are um I have four students going with Mrs Morlock and I and Mr Raven horse to the capital tomorrow and we're asking them to revoke or repeal the unfunded mandates if the state wants us to do it then they can't afford to pay for it then take it away it would give us a $590,000 cushion to absorb some of these things but right now we're planning that we're
030going to be required to do them next slide to complicate our assumptions we have legislative proposals that are not in the favor of the school district one is special AED Transportation reimbursement right now it's 100% that we get reimbursed the governor is proposing to reduce that to 95% reimbursement for next year and to 90% in FY 27 that'll be a $35,000 loss both years so by the end of FY 27 that'll be a $70,000 loss for the district literacy Aid is going from we've already been told 978 to 54,000 which is a decrease of almost 44 grand um this is a proposal of the governor if it goes through we will lose that $44,000 and then he's also suggesting that we lose another thousand in the following year so the combination of all of those
031is probably over $125,000 okay we've talked about enrollment assumptions Revenue assumptions and expenditure assumptions now we have to talk about fund balance assumptions so the unassigned fund balance is a percentage that we use that helps us assess the fiscal health of the district when we go out for a bond or we want to um refinance one of our bonds that we currently have they use a rating just like you have a credit rating through U FICO or any of those right so our our rating is usually based on how healthy our fund balance has been and how long we've been able to be healthy we've got a very high rating right now the last time we went out for a bond our interest was 1.85% which is unheard of so we do very well in
032this regard what we want to do is be able to continue to do well because it sets the tone for the future of the district the unassigned fund is the most flexible portion of our budget and it's necessary so that we can address unexpected shortfalls or financial expenses that we don't see coming uh the UN unassigned fund balance is a key indicator of our stability financially Slide the school board's policy is to maintain the fund balance at 8% it ensures the district has a financial cushion so that we don't have to borrow money to make payroll or pay the light bill or pay our contractors our bended contractors if we have to borrow money to make any of those payments there's no interest P Aid coming from the state so now you're not only paying
033back that what you borrowed you're also paying interest out of a fund that you don't have money in and so it becomes a very vicious cycle and so we want to maintain that 8% fund balance budget forecasting gives us the opportunity to look at the future of the fund balance under various scenarios so I'm going to roll that and you remember we did the enrollment I had the table I just wanted to provide a graph just so you can see visually what happens with enrollment over time um this year at 1944 it drops to 1805 in fiscal year 30 that's our projection it's the best um inject that we have right now you go to the next page I already showed you this in a data chart but I wanted you to see it as
034a table a a visual chart as well FY 23 we've got just under 300,000 fy2 24 remember we got about 550,000 um this year we're just under 300, next year will be close to 400 and then it levels off so that level off is the Assumption of 2% per year and the Assumption of our enrollment those two things put together any questions on that one okay what we're going to do next is take a look at what happens if we do make alignments for next year or we don't this first one is do nothing this is the board making a decision that we're not going to do any alignments for next year we're just going to roll forward take in the revenue we get and maintain our expenses where they are right now with the
035increases that we're proposing so with those increases our fund balance would drop to about 1.7 million next year it drops to a negative $333,000 the following year and we get to a 9.7 in the whole 9.7 million in the whole by fiscal 30 that's if you do nothing here that's also assuming that you would do nothing along the way right so this is a case where the board is going to put their heads in the sand and say we don't see it we don't acknowledge it we're not going to do anything about it so on the next slide can you just um just for people that are watching or anyone that might not know in education what the word alignment means oh alignment means making your expenses line up with your revenues in your household
036it might be that you're cutting your budget okay because you have less money coming in you have to spend less going out thank you the next page would be what happens to the fund balance and remember now the board has a policy of 8% being maintained in the fund balance this year we're going to most likely end up at 9.12 which is above the 8% if we do nothing for next year we're projecting that it will drop to 5.84 which would not be aligned with the board's policy um in FY 27 it goes to a negative .12 and then it dramatically goes into statutory operating debt statutory operating debt is when the district's fund balance is below a -2 a half% once you get below ative -2 and a half% the state requires you to
037put together a financial plan to get out of the red so by law school districts cannot operate in the red you must be in the black and if you fall 2 and a half% below zero or you're 2 and a half% in the red you must develop a plan to get out of debt you cannot be bankrupt you have to get out of debt and make a plan to do that you can see it's geometric so it's not linear and a lot of people think that if you're over budget by $1,000 this year it stays $1,000 doll every year it grows geometrically which is why you see the graph do what it does there's no way to get around it um this is a combination of those assumptions that we made 2% declining enrollment and
038some of the expenditure increases that we're anticipating so that's what puts This Together want ask any questions about this one no but could well yes I will um but but it's going to kind of go with what you're going to be talking about for the next few if for as far as making alignments for the board can you um just give a little bit of input on who those recommendations come from as far as you and Mr schroer we'll do that at the end we will okay thank you for that okay so when Mr schroer and I were working on this um we wanted to see what would happen if so we did a few what if situations so this one is $300,000 in alignment that means we're going to reduce our expenses by 300,000
039but we still have all the revenue assumptions that are in place okay so if we reduce our expenses by 300,000 for next year you can see that FY 26 ends up just under $2 million but it quickly Fades because of all the combination of the other things that are happening expenses going up revenues being stable because of the enrollment going down right we end up at a negative 8 million so it doesn't make up a whole lot of ground for us in the long term this is assuming that you're not only going to do the alignments for next year you're going to do them every year after so that 300,000 each year not 300 every year this year just for and then you're burying your head in the sand well for the next four um
040this one is bearing your head in the that's what I'm saying like 300,000 this year and then nothing then nothing and then nothing after that okay so it's a one time adjustment it's a onetime adjustment only on the first year it's really challenging to project what you're going to align in the second year third year fourth year because you just don't know what if your assumptions are corre correct is why you recalibrate every year and you're hoping you don't have to at all in all reality did you make a slide where you cut 300,000 every year just to show what it would look like no it's too risky because you might not have to do that much we can't we can't predict so let's go to the next slide and you'll see why we didn't
041do 300 every year or any the others um it's important to note what happens to the fund balance if you do $300,000 in the line we're projecting that you'd be at 6.97 for your so even if we did 300,000 is what you're saying we would be not for next year you'll be below 8% so the goal is that this number is 8% and then you recalibrate this year to make sure it stays 8% the following year recalibrate that year to make sure it stays 8% here per policy that the board has said even though we like it to be higher yes for Mr shorter especially you know for financial it was I think 11 or 12 when I personally got on board so so uh we went back to the drawing board and we plugged
042in $500,000 in alignments so now this is saying we're going to reduce our expenses by 500,000 all of the other assumptions about a enrollment and revenue stayed the same no more Revenue same enrollment projections but reduce our expenses by half a million that puts us at just under 2.15 in our fund balance and again it does diminish because it's head in the sand for the rest of those years our fund balance is on the next page goes to 7.74 so it is an option but the board would knowingly recommend that we dip below our policy as 8% so and and what will happen is the following year if you don't end at 8% and you want to make up that ground it's harder to make up ground than it is to do it the first
043time you have the opportunity and it messes with your buying power and all that stuff all of that gets impacted so when the um if we need to do a bond or refinance they don't just look at the previous year they look at your history just like you do when you take a car loan or AG it's a history and they would see this on our audit so the audits are public we can't hide it if we're below %. and that's bar 8% is barely barely barely safe well like when I why I say that in quotations because it's barely safe it's um how many months of expenses it's one month of expenses yeah so it's not in in my opinion as the board member that's not we want to be a little bit a
044little bit more comfortably above that personal finance person would tell you you should get three months of expenses right on hand we operate with one I think it's important to note I don't know when that eight was set I I mean everybody that's been here it's always been eight I mean so let's just even say 20 years ago um because of inflation what your dollar buys you 20 years ago to what it buys you now that 8% doesn't perform like 8% did you know 20 years ago so or even eight when we done it no years AG it would be re it's all um it has relevancy though because your revenue is higher than it was no no I'm I'm aware of that I'm just saying because of I'm just saying because of what your
045dollar is will buy you now right versus what it could buy you before is what I we don't have an inflationary Factor built into right no you're right the general fund grows more so it's relevant to that but I'm saying that's why you so then what we did is we decided what if we went to 800,000 in alignments um our fund balance is just under 2.5 million um again the rest of these years we're doing nothing which likely isn't going to happen but it's too hard to predict what you would do year after year if you go to the percentage page $800,000 in alignments would put us at 8.92% um and then at the end of that year you'd have to do something because because if things if our assumptions were true for FY 27
046you fall to 5.76 so maybe Revenue will go up maybe enrollment will go up maybe our expenses come down naturally in other ways but you'd have to recalibrate at the end of the next year at this time to determine what happens next so basically we're we're doing one year at a time we're and we're saying that in order to be comfortable and safe financially we need to do 800,000 we're going to talk about that is are these expenses numbers still assuming the same Staffing levels yes yes so and that's a that's a very good question Mr Roman this is assuming current Staffing current vendor contracts all of those also bothin some of the percentage increases like vend contracts that we already established yeah yeah so now the last slide is discussion clarification review of the
047data and projections and you can tell me to go to a page if you want to we are am going to ask the board for an alignment Target and once you set that alignment Target we will begin our work of determining how we're going to get there so the board sets the Target and then the administrative team determines what are the um formulas machinations whatever we can put together to get to that Target um I'll talk talk about um the updated budget planning process um after we have a little bit of a discussion here I also want to remind you that the ploy minary budget for next year must be adopted by June 23rd that's our last meeting before the June 30th deadline to adopt a budget that budget will include the alignments that you
048are recommending that we do and will approve and then we'll build that budget based on those new alignments of our expenses to our revenues we can't build that budget without it uh we can do nothing it is an option and we can build a budget based on that if you direct us to do that so so tonight you want us to decide what the dollar amount will be yep you can do a range um you can tell us uh what you want us to go up to uh what the bottom might be um but yeah we're looking for a direction from you on where you'd like us to go so it's open discussion uh for you and not what will be aligned but how much yeah what is decided by admin and the process yeah
049this is the okay can you speak to just I think we all kind of know here but just listening and just to refresh for us as well obviously not everything's decided at the state level at this point so we kind of you know let's say they did fund some of the unfunded mandates which I'm not hopeful for but if that were to happen you know how does that affect this and then you know we're deciding this now but things could change so the legislature is in session till May 19th and that is after the deadline that we have to notify staff um if the legislature were to do something drastic in our favor we would have the option to bring people back but they would have been notified before that of what the plan is
050and they could go they could look but we would revise if yeah something were to go in our favor yes they do have yeah they do have till June 30th to pass the budget at the state level our budget is going to be approved on June 23rd yeah so they may still be in session when we meet last time in Jun yeah um also once July 1 happens there's a whole different set of rules because contracts have expired on June 30th so it can get really messy um but we would work with our attorney to work through that process um I think every school superintendent has communicated to the legislature the timing is very important for us May 19th is late June 30th is beond late L okay 10 if they get to that point
051though I mean anything big in our favor is not going to happen I I'm getting the feeling that um there is some support for revoke or repeal unfunded mandates among a specific political party but not bilateral not bipartisan I'm afraid it might not yeah anyway we can hope so as far as like let's say for example we pick where we'll choose the 800,000 as a Max we could always go under that because these numbers will be coming in correct we may not know what the state is going to do until after we we have to pull the trigger before we know where the target we have P you are exactly correct yeah it's a good analogy good why it's very complicated and it's challenging because our timelines don't match up but the state L just
052might use time so do we have to decide a dollar amount or are we deciding like a like a general fund balance to percentage or can we go either way you can go whatever Direction you'd like so I'll just start by saying like yeah obviously we can't pick anything that's really close to eight because every update that we've seen there's like a curveball that gets thrown at us like every week so it's like you need a little bit of room to I think you mean 8% yeah right yes would want to say that he wants to keep us at what number would you choose I'm saying nine or something close to nine I don't know I don't know I'm just this is this is what I'm saying discussion for think 800,000 to a million because
053if you want to pick a dollar because every time every time we every time we cut between 800,000 million dollars to try to maintain 8% Miss suff just to give a magnitude of what that is what was our Cuts last year what was our last year was it 1.2 I thought it was 1.2 our Target was like around 1.6 but but we did 1.2 and we did 1.2 so so just to refresh everybody's memory we knew so 1.2 to 1.6 is 400,000 we knew we probably had at least 400,000 to cut this year regardless of what happens happened between then and now right we did that so but just to give you an idea what $1.2 million the magnitude of it the the amount of cuts we have to make in order to reach those
054dollar amounts 80% of our expenses are staff and programs so so it's a big discussion so it's a big it's a big decision on what that that Target we give these guys is because it's going to be big right it's going to be a big cut and we still we still have enrollment right that we have to cover right we don't have that 1,800 students right now we still have the 1944 to be able to educate so do we do what let's just go around the table do we do what Mr lman said and do 800 to a million so a million is the max so we stay at 9% and last year close it's 8 well last year we did but that's give or take well no more number you know what I mean
055800 puts us at 8.9 892 so it's very close and I like that's why 8.9 892 8.92 yeah so so it get us very very close so we say 800,000 and then well I'm because we have to pull the trigger I I feel like we should go a little bit over the eight because I think if we pull the trigger and it's not enough we're going to end up we're gonna have to pull a big trigger again next year just to catch up just like we're doing so do we say a million Max I'm only asking I'm only looking at you Mr guys because you I'm only looking at you in this aspect of things obviously the whole board is deciding but I really value your opinion as a financial person I would as a
056financial person I really value your opinion because this is what you do on a day-to-day BAS reaction was similar to Aon is eight eight to a million t for target range Target a million as keeper how do you feel about that I'm just asking everybody because we're gonna have to vote so I'm at 800,000 yeah like um I was right right around eight I mean around because I think 9% is it's really difficult for me to even say it because I have such little information even base it on because we have there's so much uncertainty that's going forward so I you have no idea what's coming I just like every time that we've seen that there when Dan and Belinda come and they say okay now our fund is this much it keeps getting whacked
057back because of something else and I and it just seems to be the pattern so I I will say districts that didn't do anything last year you're really seeing the effect this year oh yeah well they're the ones that we hear about and we yeah we don't want to go in the red and just remember the these numbers are showing that we're going to be doing this each every year right for the foreseeable future because our enrollment numbers are going down and if they continue to Trend that in actuals we're going to have to do this every year because you don't have as many students you have the fall the drop from FY 26 to 27 pretty dramatic yeah when those those freshman in junior classes when those guys 47 or whatever we're going to
058we're going to have this same discussion again in two years you will especially and then two years after that we're going to have that again another one when that freshman class graduates what was it 140 students between the projections from the beginning to the end of it up to 30 F 30 that's a whole grade from now to then yes so how do you feel Miss Cook I feel sick you want to ask how I feel I feel like could we do like 800 to the million but kind of being like here's in priority like here's the 800 and then if we as a board like we are going to have to go more here's the next phase like like tier one tier two yes I kind of hate to go let's go a million
059and then we would get some good news or we would know something that changes our mind that we're like oh we really only probably had to do this 00 we definitely could do a tier priority that would be great because I feel like the 800 gets Us close enough to where we're hoping to be but again I'm worried about the things that might come in yet if we don't yeah if we don't have a plan and then we're scrambling or we're in trouble so if we had a tiered approach of here gets us to the 800 here gets us if we're I $100,000 increments or yeah whatever you know what I mean if you at 800 900 and then a million you could do three tiers is that doable or you know in the planning
060process or yeah definitely how much extra work is that um this is all going to be a lot of work but this is what I mean if that's what the board would want to see we are going to get it done I I think that I I agree and I I'm glad you brought up that idea because um I was looking at it more of a percentage wise I don't know what the dollar is going to be but you know with a percentage of you know even the 8.9 was scary to me because it was still started with an eight um that 092 can go away so fast yes it can so I was definitely leaning on something between 9 and 10 um I don't know what that dollar figure comes out to uh but
061you know if we do attack the alignments with a a priority um a tiered system I think that would be I think we could do both for you we could do a tiered system based on dollars and then what our prediction would be for the fund balance if we got the 900,000 level in the 950 I don't think in you know if I think all of us are saying now like a million or more probably isn't where we're at because we haven't said that here no um but I don't think eight is were there either but so that leaves a big area that's that's a do a lot of dollars between that top and bottom like if we can agree on what is a comfortable amount of fund balance cushion to try to weather the
062storm that we have no idea what it looks like no idea when it's coming well like I said we we can we just need to know where we want to start for this year because we're GNA have incremental Cuts every year yeah going forward it's just it's just a reality the funding situation and our enrollment issues right with the with the declining enrollment it's not going to matter what Happ it's not going to go away anywhere so where do we want to start how far ahead do we want to put our you know what Lane do we want to be in in the heat yeah right right and I think there's a balance to that we don't want to be hoarding money see that was just gonna I me we should be spending it on
063students and programs our because like when I joined on the board we were sitting around 12 right but we were also in a position that we were doing pretty well our money our dollars were spending the way we wanted them to so I mean everything was great right but if you sit with a with a fund balance of 12% and people are losing their jobs that's a bad look and it's it's and it's inappropriate so but what is the correct number right what is what is what is the gross what is the gross amount of fund balance and what's the appropriate one I don't well we know the minimum that's our we know what the minimum is right yeah so you know we we we don't want to get to there because it's defined as
064a we don't want to get there so what would have to be what would need to be done tonight is a board member and normally not the chair but I can do it would um somebody at the table right now would uh make a motion and then we would get a first and a second and then we would vote on it so what I'm hearing now is somewhere between I'm just summarizing what I'm hearing everyone saying somewhere between $ 800,000 and a million doll and maybe we we have Miss sers and um Mr schroer get us um a a tiered chart of how that would look so like an 800 a 900 and a million is what maybe my mind was saying does that I think your motion can be the range um the specifics
065about how we present that will follow your okay so the motion could say something where 8800 to a million is what the board discussion has been so so this motion though is so that you guys move forward with this process this motion is not uh this is for sure no your motion should say a Target the board is recommending or requesting the administrative team to begin the process of identifying alignments of expenses with revenues to the amount of $800 to1 million will be next month to where those alignments are going yes we'll vote on the alignments that are happening this is not to be fair to staff I'm just putting it out there this is not us motioning that this is I mean we all know it's coming but this is not this is just
066to get us started on CES to go back around the room again individually is everybody on board with that well I guess I question not questions which way is easier for all of us to wrap our mind around it is the dollar figure or is it the percentage figure oh sure how the motion however you want to say the motion well no but I'm asking as a group which way is easier for everybody to get their mind WRA we could just say eight and a half to 10 probably probably the dollar figure right now doll we don't know what we don't know what the the percent is going to look like yeah until they do the math yeah Will well I guess where I'm asking is the fund balance so yeah yeah this year you're
067at what 9.1 9.12 9.12 so is it easier to say you know Target alignments between n and 10% fund balance and then that could be what and then we don't know what that do is until they do the chart it'll be between something but which way is easier for us to wrap our mind I think you're probably if you're 9 to 10% your bottom is going to be 800 change between 800 and something yeah so you could say I don't know what I don't know what 10% if you want a 10% what kind of cut that you probably close to a million that was my guess it's probably similar yeah so if that's easier to I think it's easier for for people in the public around yeah I think so too percent because then you
068have to do the math to do a percentage right and we've already done the previous round was 1.2 correct so you're right it's it's making apples and apples so if we say it as money as long as it gets presented to us with percentages as well so that we comfortable knowing what that percentage is with that I I think um like like you said um Troy with the public I feel the dollar amount probably is easy for everybody to wrap and that's why I said dollars because it made more sense yeah yeah perfect okay so I would just seek someone to make a motion and then slowly say it please so that Miss Cook can write it because she has to write it word for word somebody I move we target alignments in the amount
069of 800 or million 800 to a million $ 800,000 to a million dollars and then that's all we need to say and then you'll get us further information okay I'll second that I should ask do we have to specify they do it in a tiered approach in the motion no be procedure just the motion so I have a motion by Mr lman to um make Target alignments between $800,000 to a million and I have a second by Mr Raven horse all those in favor signify by saying I I oppose same sign it's a hard one motion carries seven to zero is that also C or no no coming nope that's okay I just I didn't know so the next item would be the updated fiscal year um sorry 26 budget planning steps so everything to
070date has been completed so um we are now going to have a district leadership team on Thursday and I'm going to review the budget forecast with them just in case they didn't access the agenda or haven't uh participated in the YouTube tonight um the alignment targets you have set and so we're going to let them know what those are and then begin the process of identifying what our lwh hanging fruit might be and then we work up the tree to um get to the Target that you've established um principal special ed the special education coordinator on March 18th will be looking at the building Staffing positions what that entails is um probationary tenure and lure and so when you start to talk about positions we have to play all of those into our decisions and
071make sure that we are adhering to uh the requirements from pby and mde on identifying those staff that um the physicians may not no longer be a part of the district we'll have a budget workshop on the 31st and we're going to bring everything together with the entire team on April 11th we're going to meet with individual staff members that are impacted by the alignments of those positions or programs we'll have a voluntary staff meeting with all staff on April 14th finance committee will meet that evening before the board meeting to hear our recommendations and then at that board meeting we will have you consider and approve those alignments and then after the alignments have been approved we will have you take a look at the non-renewal of Staff positions and or the discontinuation of
072programs originally that was planned for April 28th that was very late because it does not give those staff who are impacted by these decisions a long period of time to seek other employment so Dan and I tried to get as much done in this process as we could and we did we accomplished our goal so we're able to move this up two weeks and just be considerate to those staff so may I ask how does that look for what we just made a motion to do if we're voting on April 14th how are we you're voting on that night on our recommendations we're bringing them to you that night finance committee first to you that night and we're seeking your approval that night with the three different options or well there'll be two I'm sorry
073I'm confused make sure understand it y we'll have 800 and we'll go to the next tier whether that's 8 and a half% or 9% or 10 and we have that all laid out for you and you can decide how far you want to go and have to do a motion on one of those options I understand okay thank you so typically it would be um option A which would be the minimum or option A plus b which is the next step up or option A B and C and Mr shorter will have his recommendations as well where he feels comfortable too y he's part of this whole process so in a nutshell we're going to be having a meeting with a probably a very detailed discussion on which option we'll choose and then we'll vote
074on so we're not going off of what the finance committee recommends since they're meeting before like we normally would that's why I'm just asking okay all right thank you what just curiosity how if there's a large out cry from the public that you can't cut a million dollars worth of you can't cut that many jobs or whatever you're taking stuff away from our kids the only other option I'm assuming is raising revenue how much work is it to get a operating levy on the fall B for this fall yes so that money won't come into the district until FY 27 that's fine there's a fund balance that a person could work with it could not saying that's ideal but you could work so the way when this can be corrected if I say it wrong
075but when the public comes to you we just need to what we could say is the enrollment isn't there you know we need the numbers of kids to have the staff that we have I I I understand that I'm just like okay so you're just asking how feasible I'm asking feasibility is what what would that take the timeline might be a little short but yeah just just just from when we did the last one I don't know it's really we're still a couple years away from it's tough okay if you wanted to do that you probably would already have to you would either have to Target like doing a special one in the spring or waiting until but it doesn't do you any due diligence because if you do it one time that's just one
076time dollars no I apologize I do um I want to remind the board when we passed that in 2019 the board did submit to not going back out until it expired we did say that we have like three four years three years 2019 yeah 2019 it's just something that people do remember that that was something that the board committed to at that time and so something to consider and that went barely P yeah and that wasn't in was a very minimal it was a Prett nominal increase y I don't remember CU it was little it was a little increase it was a little increase okay we think it was like a 52% or something came Ines thank you for the update on the difficult courageous conversations that we're all going to be having here soon
077next month uh are there any other questions about the budget that we just discussed no the next item on the agenda would be adjournment I would seek a motion second I have a motion by Mr G and a second by Mr Raven horse all those in favor signify by saying I I opposing sign motion carries meeting is adjourned at 8:03 pm. thank you everyone