0016:46 p.m. This is the board of directors special school board meeting for the truth and taxation hearing. Um, welcome to all of our visitors, guests, and media. Uh, tonight we're doing the board roll calls. Mr. Phelp here, Mr. Burns here, Miss Schultz >> here. Miss Nathan >> here, >> Mr. O'Neal >> here, >> Mr. Scheler >> here, >> and we also have uh Mr. Griffith from uh school management systems. And there have been no public comments prior to the start of this meeting. >> Oh, are there are there any public comments, >> Mr. Runell? Nothing. [laughter] >> All right. There were no public comments uh prior or >> after the meeting here. >> We need a motion to close public comment in that situation or not. >> You can. >> Oh, is there a motion
002to close public comment? >> So move >> second. >> Motion to close public comment by Mr. Burns, second by Miss Nathan. All those in favor say I. >> I. All oppose. Nate. Motion carries. Thank you, Mr. Burns. And is there a motion to approve the agenda for the truth and taxation meeting? So moved. >> Second. >> Motion made by Mr. O'Neal, seconded by Mr. Burns. All those in favor say I. >> All oppose? Nay. Motion carries. All right. Item three, the 25 Watertown Mayor ISD 111 truth and taxation meeting. Um, so it's the 25 payable 26 levy limitation and certification. And tonight with us we have the school management service personnel Tom Griffin board or table or presentation is yours something like that. >> Thank you very much Watertown Mayor School Board. My name is
003Tom Griffin. I work for school management services on behalf of Watertown Mayor. We handle the um the finances for the school district. And today I'm going to present the truth and taxation. Just a little bit about uh truth and taxation law. It uh begins um in no around November or so when uh residents of the county receive their notice. Um and then tonight there's this is the public meeting where we will review this year's budget and talk a little bit about the levy and then open it up for public uh comments. Um so a little bit about Minnesota school funding. Uh we're funded by the federal government, state government, local fees, local taxpayers. Uh but the largest portion is the state of Minnesota that produces the largest amount of funding. Some points to remember, revenue
004formulas are set by the state. Uh local levy and state aid or mix equalization is set by the state legislature. An increase in local taxes does not necessarily mean an increase in revenues for the school district. Unlike counties or cities, our levy is set by the state legislature who who sets the formulas that determine our levy amounts. So, uh here's going to now we're going to do a quick look um at the uh school district budget for this year. And um here's a here's a view of how um school districts are funded. The uh first fund is fund one or the general fund. General fund revenues are based on student enrollment. The largest uses uses of the general fund are general ed and special ed instruction, but also funds things like transportation facilities and capital
005expenditures. Um the food service fund is is called fund two and although it's included in this presentation, it's not paid through our tax dollars, but that's you know school breakfast and lunch program. Uh community service revenue is based on adults and children under the age of five in the district. It's used for early childhood and adult education alike. And then the debt service fund is used for payment of the principal and interest amounts. Um so here's a look at our fiscal year uh budget. I guess it should be noted before I begin that um we are looking here at an adopted budget this evening. So this is the one that we uh set in April or May uh towards the beginning of this year and sometime um after the audit we're going to be making
006revisions uh for the remainder of the year probably sometime next month and that'll be uh called the revised budget. But today we're looking at the adoption adopted budget. Um a fiscal year look at these funds show revenue going up slightly in all funds for a total of 29.949 million and an overall increase of 1.3%. Um, this pie chart illustrates the point I made earlier about state aid being the largest part of our general fund revenue or 76%. Um, local taxes in um, orange there makes up about 15% and that's basically what we're talking about tonight. And where we saw our um revenues go up 1.3% on previous slides, our expenses this year are also uh slated to go up by 3.45% or just over 30 million. Uh this slide shows how our general fund dollars
007are allocated to our expenses as a percentage. And you know I kind of like to look at this slide as you know a dollar, right? So 100% equals a dollar. Uh 34% or 34 cents would go to regular instruction, 20 cents into special education instruction, 12 cents into state buildings and equipment, and so on. But this kind of gives you an idea of how the general fund dollars are spent. Um here's another pie chart showing how the general fund dollars are spent. uh close to 70% of the dollars go towards salaries and benefits of the employees. Uh this is the norm across um all school districts in the state. They typically range from about 70 to 80%. But salaries is the blue and then the orange is the benefits in this particular slide. It's kind
008of hard to tell. Um, as of June 30th of this year, the fund balance consisted of 5.32 million in assigned and unassigned or close to 75% of the overall fund balance, followed by uh long-term facility maintenance and medical assistance. Uh, those are restricted fund balances [clears throat] um kind of determined by the legislature or some of these other ones where we have to use them for specific purposes. So now we're going to talk a little bit about the proposed levy for this evening. This is the 2025 payable 2026 school district levy for the 2026 2027 school year be payable in fiscal year 2027. Uh the authority for the school levy must be either set by the state formula voter approved or board approved up to $724 per pupil unit. Uh factors impacting the tax change,
009inflationary pressure, abadements, property improvements not previously taxed, change in individual assessed market value, or uh possible change in property classification. This year uh 56% will be spent on the principal and interest of district debt [music] while most of the remainder will go towards instructional programs and capital expenses. Um here's a look at our actual 2024 2025 levy and our proposed levy for this year. Um in the general fund we're looking to go up 1.83% 83% go down in community services. Overall, um a proposed dollar difference of $96,000 versus last year or 1.22%. Um here's here we see the changes we're proposing this this year by [clears throat] levy category. And the the real news on this slide is that there's no news. Um, we're swinging year-to-year by less than 4% in all these categories. And
010overall, as I mentioned before, it's a 1.2% increase in the proposed levy. Um, over the last 5 years or so, Watertown Mayor School District has been pretty consistent, and that's a real good thing when it comes to school levies. Uh, no news is good news. Um, at this point, I'd like to open the floor to any questions. >> Anything, Mr. Griffith? >> No. >> Uh, thank you. Tonight, we are asking the school board to pass the resolution for the 2026 levy, which will be collected in 2027, to be 7,944,4543. [music] So moved. >> Second. >> Have a motion made by Mr. Bird, seconded by Mr. On O'Neal. Any further discussion? >> I do have um the levy limitation and certification report to be signed. I don't know if that's done now or >> Yep. It'll
011be done after the meeting. >> Yep. >> Okay. >> You'll get it later. >> All right. [laughter] So, all those in favor say I. >> I. All oppose, nay. Motion carries. And that ends the evening before 7:00. Do I have a motion to adjurnn the meeting? >> So move. >> Second. >> Motion made by Mr. Burns, second by Miss Nathan. All those in favor say I. >> I. All oppose, nay. Motion carries. Meeting is adjourned at 6:57 p.m. Wow.