001finance and care services for the month of March um we have a packed agenda today and we are going to start that with the um annual comprehensive financial report which um Mr CL is here tonight to present it for us thank you for joining us toight okay this is Mr St Jer St sorry pass away on January 13 1987 so but we hear it all the time rest in peace but thank you for joining us tonight it's not a problem can I can I yes it's first of all very happy to be here my name is Jer San I'm a partner in the public accounting firm of s client company um I've been doing Municipal governmental School Board audits fire district service authori since uh sometime in January 1980 so um and I started out
002a very small firm very small firm and we worked our way up to a bigger firm then merged into a a real estate firm and so I've been there since 1998 so you've been around the block a few times I have yeah and every client gets treated with you know the same or whether it's a little tiny place or a big place you get the same AIT okay so basically U we're appointed by the board okay to give an opinion on the financial statements okay we're answerable to the board okay and um I it's one of the few I think uh positions that actually answers directly to the board okay and we're we're um we we performed the audit for the fiscal year into June 30 of 2024 okay um and the audit was done
003sometime between the middle of the summer and concluded it I think quite Before Christmas um different commitments we have it was kind of spread out a little bit and I don't like to send too many people from my office into the building together because of U social reasons okay to get more done when they're alone and when there's a group of people in in the basement over there at the building so um basically what we we do is um we we perform the audit okay and what happens is this management which is Laura and present us and the and the finance office present us with the records okay bank statements General leisures U cash receipt reports expenditure reports um anything Finance related okay payroll reports okay payroll registers okay it's all it's all software now
004it's not really you know stack of reports this high okay so basically what we do is we we perform an audit based on auditing standards that are promulgated by the auditing profession by the the government Accounting Office of the federal government and because all government agencies which you are are required to follow GAO requirements and also New Jersey Department of Education okay so we follow we have a bunch of different paths that we have to follow so but they're all common pretty common procedures okay so we we we start our audit procedures uh by preparing samples of okay of of expenditures as well as payroll that we want to test okay but it's a little a little deeper than that we kind of do things in a certain progression okay first we'll start we want
005to get the Student Activity fund records done okay which we don't spend a lot of time on but one of you know the high school has some serious money going through it so uh we try to get those done so they get back to the schools to the kids so when the kids get there so we get that out of the way then we prepare our payroll sample again it's all done based on random samples it's nothing magical it's it can't be what they call a halfhazard sample or let's let pick on the nurses this week or the teachers it's all done in statistical method every you know we we have a you might have I don't know 30,000 transactions during the year so we select a sample of those and we don't discriminate in
006terms of uh if it's comes up into random numbers that's we pick it we don't say oh we we already picked her and but we'll pick him or what no it's all done uh just by a process okay okay so what we do with the payroll is um we make sure that everyone that comes up in the sample and that their base pay is proper and and again every one of them is a transaction so we might pick someone the April 15th pay okay so but we make sure that their base pay is profit if there's any extra pay we also verify the documentation that for example class coverage uh extra period um Sports uh fees Student Activity advisors all the extra stuff so um that stuff is all um what we test and make
007sure that it's done and also too with with regards to everyone else the bigger money is in the you know the education side in terms of uh the that everything's paid in accordance with the collective bargaining agreements as well as where there is no bargaining agreement where there is uh you know an authorization from the board to contract for one of your you know your management area people so we got good results in that area and by the way the system and you know God Rest the soul the guy that that passed away recently he had over the last several years from my experience uh dealing with him was you know he had developed that whole department into a pretty pretty good uh Department in terms of having a real good audit Trail okay because
008we only worry about audit trails and and everybody should worry other words if I ask for look can can you get me this boom it appears can we get this boom it appears so we try to make sure that we test enough so that we get a good feeling that that the payroll is being properly administered we had no problems in that area okay then we deal with expenditures okay and basically again you write a lot of checks during the year again random sample first check of the year last check of the Year take the difference if there was 4,000 checks written we we prepare a sample based on that again all random numbers okay and so what we look for there is to make sure that the expenditures are all properly documented that they're
009charged to the correct line item of the budget that's important well documentation is critical but line items now because now everybody at every level of government is looking at probably every one of your line items okay um so and all that's done electronically as well so we make sure that the proper line items are charged U make sure that it's cut off with respect to the correct fiscal year so you may have bills paid in July and August uh that relate to June 30 and prior those are called accounts pay that's set up properly the other thing is oh important too um you're in compliance with the public school contracts law so if something had to be bid if it was over x amount of dollars it was properly bid if it was required to
010get quotes there was proper quotes or'll get all properly documented and in this day and age you know the districts that I work on participate in a lot of um Cooperative purchasing agreements State contract uh Ed Services of New Jersey and there's some other ones up in North Jersey that they cooperate and there's some national ones so it's very difficult to violate the bid law in any District nowadays and I and I know you have a lot of people a good human infrastructure in the building that kind of you know monitors that and makes makes sure that that doesn't happen so good results from expenditure so payroll was good expenditures we're good um B are important it's technical but um you just got to know as a board member whether it's deer or social organiz
011or whatever the general ledgers as presented okay which is what we use when we start filtering through the numbers to translate them to the order report General Leisure for cash okay POs to the bank reconciliations okay just accept it okay if you work in business you know what I'm talking about but that's critical in fact that's even more prominent than everything else so that means actually that if the bank reconciliation agrees to general ledger that means that there's a very reasonable chance that all the transactions got captured within each fund you have a general fund special Revenue fund a de service fund now you have capital projects fund which is a temporary one and you also have the Food Service fund and the Falcon care and early childhood so all those funds were properly administered
012okay and by a lot of money goes through bank accounts and it's all properly accounted for I mean like to the penny um and that's how it's been so we um we verify that information as well so what happens is we then take that information and translate it into a document fix document there's two documents that you get there one is the audit report which is actually the annual comprehensive financial report that is actually the board's document the only thing inside that document that belongs to us is our opinion okay now our opinion is again you pay us to give you an opinion about the financial statements okay that they're presented fairly and properly so based on all of our good order results okay we we have an unmodified opinion in the old days J
013from it used to be called a clean opinion or an unqualified opinion so your opinion is unmodified if your opinion was modified I I would have been here a lot sooner because if you get a modified opinion Department of that has the right send the monitor in to monitor your operations okay and your expense okay and you don't want that and you were never anywhere close to that okay so basically we have an independent auditor report that okay so Management's responsibility presents us with the financials we do our thing we go through everything we give our opinion our responsibility is to give an opinion and our opinion is again unmodified okay and that the financial statements present fairly in accordance with the acceptable accounting so we're dealing with auding standards as well as Accounting Standards
014so they're presented we did the audit in ordance with all the different auditing stands and the financial statements are presented in accordance with the accounting standards okay and there there's three different types of accounting contain within this document one of them is your basic financials which is your internal information that'll I'll get you then there's one that's called gap which converts your basic financials to Gap because as you're aware the 19th and 20th State a payments don't come in until July under the accounting rules the state does not have an accounts payable set up to us or any other district and therefore we can't set up an account's receivable and recognize the income so it kind of distorts the picture okay but it's required okay then the other piece is a u what's called a
015districtwide financial statement that that takes things like depreciation uh unused sick pay unused vacation pay um and these monsterous numbers called uh pension and uh health benefits okay they are if you'll see in report enormous number but they're actuar determined okay it's this thing that 20 years ago a bunch of people were sitting in a room probably having a good time saying hey what are these government entities on the hook for okay so they decided to implement these two Accounting Standards which measures postretirement health benefits which there's a lot of documentation in here about it I mean the purpose of having the pension system was to eliminate the administrative burden on the local entities but it added about 40 pages to your audit which is kind of contrary to that so there's there's a pension
016information in here now you're only on the hook for PS for tpaf the stakes on the hook okay but we still have to disclose what the value is that the district receive in terms of what the state paid on behalf of Monro School District as well as what the long-term liability is they're absolutely enormous numbers okay but you're not on the hook for them okay they appear in the states order okay the other thing is the PS which you are on the report those numbers are in here well and that's not a lot of people compared with the district okay then there's the health benefits for tpf people that appears in here and that's also Pap but it it's it's required and I'll show you when I get to that point we have to disclose
017it because they want you to see what it really cost to run the dist even though you're not paying for it you still get the benefit of it okay so basically we have a clean opinion okay other thing that we do too um got can spend a lot of time on you submit the asssa the application for state school aid U on October 15th of every year whether I don't know whether is any benefit to be derived from it but um we verify the attendance registers okay um I actually we verify 100% when we count every kid make sure it's all there we also look at IEPs okay make sure that if you claim that there's a th we'll make sure there's a th000 we we'll only look at a minimum maybe not a minimum
018we'll look at a certain percentage of them we're required to okay we also look at the free and reduced applications which by the way it's becoming lesser and lesser since a lot of kids are direct certified or their staff or whatever so it's really only the applications where the parents have to actually file the form and there might be like a little higher risk in terms of whether they fill it out properly or not so we checked out so we do have we do have good results from the uh the asssa enrollment camps okay um what else up an aid dependent on the ass Assa say some part um the um enrollment members from as can hear you can hear but you don't get you don't superintendent we were in that meeting with the investor
019you don't I wanted to jum I couldn't jump in we don't really get any a you know we don't so that's another topic right we get special aded Transportation but you know none of the other Stu so in this document there no the financial it just explains a lot of the accounting requirements that the district required to follow which you do okay your software is set up that follow School Board accounting the interal records are set up to follow all School Board proced we also look at other things too like we'll look at Transportation contracts we'll look at tuition contracts we'll look at unused sck vacation it's all part of a standard audit I don't know I don't speak for other firms but I know what I do okay um so we we of disclos
020a lot of information in here about that you'll see there's a lot of numbers in here about post retirement it's just a big thing now in the industry because of what has happened over the years with the pensions and and all the different deals that are cut in terms of what what you get when you retire so um but it all is based on discount rate you know Federal discount rate and various Actuarial stions mortality rates um it it sound there more of it but it's all built into the projection are you for for that particular section are you randomly looking at the entire stock or are you only looking at the ones that are retiring that year we we don't look at that at all the state does that okay so those numbers that
021you have in the report are for what set of dat like what cohort of the they call it the measurement date okay and it's um based on June 30th of 2023 numbers okay okay and but we're allowed to disclose it you have 366 days to to utilize the data okay actually several years ago a lot me especially this the ords were always late because the condition of pension always late it was always late in putting out the numbers and they blamed it on Co they blamed it on lack of operation from some of the districts because they had to do a whole statistical study of the whole thing but now they seem to be it's all Actuarial based so we don't know who the people are but they they have a census they know how
022many people you have who are 42 years old how3 years old we don't have that that that's all confidential um so so in the end we have a a document that is joint venture with us and the board technically all these numbers inside of this document are are representations of the board okay and also built into here there's a lot of statistical information about Monroe Township okay and since you're get participating in the E program and going to issue a document whoever's looking at us on Wall Street or wherever finan they're going to look at this okay they're going to see and you know it's population information rable information taxpayers top taxpayers the quality of your taxpayers in terms of how big how big is Big um so you have a nice mix here okay
023lot of information yeah yeah I mean it it makes sense but it's sometimes it's tough put it together because I have to draw from different sources you know um town hall and they're usually pretty Cooperative I ask them for information I get information from the county we get information from other places and we kind of put it all together and the person who really is the biggest participant in this is is our secretaries because they're the ones that that bang out out this information um we're we're we we also issue a smaller document okay that is really everything I've spoken about all the positive results is encapsulated in that document okay but I wanted to just go to one page to um if you go to I don't know if anyone has it here or
024not but if you go to page 194 okay um it talks about your your main operating f is it 104 it's 104 10 104 okay from page 93 on it has your budget to actual for revenues okay and it has your budget to actual for expenditures okay and to be truthful um you know again the numbers come are lifted right off of the software that we provided with we verify the numbers we TI them in and usually what we do I think this year we kind of verify the numbers by the middle of the summer rather than waiting till December okay to um you know to do it for some places they can't get it together and it's hard and they get the surprise in the middle of January that oops we only have a
025million bucks well in January that's not good you kind of need to know in August and there about as your budget is a year round process so and in in in exhibit C1 on page 103 though your actual expenditure including these payments that they make on behalf of the district for tpf it it cost about 68 million to run the district even though your budget might only be 140 okay but they make us put those in they make us recognize the expense and the related Revenue so to show so as to show the proper cost to run the district but as a result of all the smoke when all the Smoke Clears you end up with um with the fund balance which is your internal records which is really what you operate with okay and
026it it's got several components it's on C 104 you have unemployment Reserve of 115,000 you have incumbrances of 999,000 you have excess Surplus ear marked for the 20425 budget of a million four you have excess Surplus as a result of your operations from 2324 ear marked for 2526 by Statute it's ear marked you don't really have an option to play around okay and it's locked in for the software we prepare an electronic version of this that we're the only ones allowed to make the changes it's locked into that already and I'm sure you see that on and that's a million4 that's 2.9 the million4 basically on July 1 and 24 the million4 left old from 2223 it's gone once you adopt your budget and open it's gone 2.9 is the one 2.9 is forly 25
027it's part of your revenue and in my mind it's gone it is and then um you have a little capital reserve of 23,000 um you have a sign which was additional fund balance that you appropriated to balance your budget for 2425 of a mil 750 okay so and then you have your What's called the unassigned which is the 2% maximum you're allowed to keep in reserve okay so that's 3.2 million all right but that that's there um the St the St doesn't want you to go over that okay so um it's there I guess maybe there's some benefit to maybe not overusing it because you know once you use a very high level of fund balance sometimes it's hard to stay on that FX out okay a lman question so what you just said the
0283.2 is that what we would call the bank cap or no no when you say you're allowed to go up to 2% right that's actually it used to be called the free balance free B but it's not free anymore you used to be able to appropriate long time ago from your fund balance you can't do that anymore unless you have an extraordinary that's the reserve what's that that's your reserve that's your reserve yeah and it it's all statutory it's all formula driven there's no magic to any of it some districts circumvented by or they have excess of money they start loading money into their capital reserve into their maintenance Reserve you're fortunate that you don't have to do that okay so I mean some of them they don't they oh all of a sudden we
029got this money what are we going to do with it well they put it in their capital reserve and spend it in the next subsequent budget year so but you don't have that problem so that that's really the basic number and what I do normally don't do is I don't really say the total number because it scares people and by by the way the components are actually broken down and and some like by now most of it's gone you're eight months into the fiscal year it's gone so it might look like a big number on June 30th but when you open the door the next day is gone so so basically we have um also too you don't really get a lot of Grants you you get state but the grant money you get um
030it has all been properly complied with um and also we do want to acknowledge everybody in all the offices was very Cooperative to us okay and when we asked the question we got an answer when we needed an invoice we got it pulled okay so it was uh and that's actually that's actually a good audit environment it's where we have to wait for three weeks or something like you start to get nervous like well does it exist or are they writing it that didn't happen here so right thank that's important and and not to go too far back in history but the you know back in 2003 when I first came here it was a highly aggressive uh VA Wayne and he had it set up so oh yeah you can come in here anytime
031you want pull anything off the shelf it'll be all there so it's kind of a system here Mak very conducive audit environment that's Wonder so in the end we have no recommendations and there's really no comments usually the department of edat after you if you have a hint of negativism in your in our management report actually by the way just for the record that thinner document is actually our representation to the board okay but I covered most of the stuff in there um so yeah I mean you know we're very happy to to been involved this year with the with the audit and um it was uh it was uh you know the records are good and we're happy we give a a clean opinion 10 point recommendations are all none so but we uh
032if there were any we would have had a meeting ear earlier than than this but so you know the audit itself was filed on time June January 15th and the audit sum was filed on a ridiculous date January 1st is the due date but we filed it I think right before Christmas why January 1st I don't question Department that that was I don't know what they're going to what are they going to do with it on January 1st or second or third so but I know you were supposed to come here in February and thank you for rescheduling we had to cancel the finance committee no problem and I'll be here Monday night yes publication yes anybody has any questions now but for the public I'm not going to go as deep as this is
033really for the benefit of the finance committee and uh and again any questions or problems just give me a yell I'm not far away I'm actually happy to be here I had eye surgery last Thursday looking at that oh yeah I can't I can't take until the bubble goes away in my eye so who scary thank you for making it happen thank you for when I was in the preop they took my blood pressure and the nurse says I said is that a nine shees what do you mean said 195 over 89 that's called the white coar that's yeah you just scared me scared the out of but it was quick it was painless and you're here to support the board and we look forward thankful to the the finance office and all the wonderful
034all the people yeah that that's what really makes it I mean you you would ever know if I did great AIT or not I would know that your people do good work so thank you see you she did good at the meeting oh thank you yeah wow so people are always talk that we did have a bond rating meeting with standard and fours and they asked me if I would be present and we discuss whether or not I would be speaking and as those of you know I tend to speak so I did well it went very well thank you have a good night good night thank you moving on the second item on the agenda is uh discussion is a crucial conversation on uh the Falon care tution um I have Mrs Cara here
035to take this um discussion on all yours than thank you um I'm here tonight briefly talk about a price increase for Falcon care and when I say Falcon care it does not mean the half day oh would you mind speak a little bit louder I'm thank you so we're talking about Falcon care the before and after not the half day ECE program that pricing is going to remain the same it's under $500 it's $493 that's the half b um we're talking about the before and after care since Co we've had lower enrollment uh due to a lot of work from home and also multi-generational households we have a lot of grandparents living with families and they take care of the children so that's a big difference that we've seen preo postco uh we've been operating
036at a loss EC C helps to balance that but when we go to full day kindergarten we certainly can't continue to run a service that's going to drain financial resources from the district so we definitely need to raise our prices to at least great even or make a profit to give back to the kids uh we want to be able to care for our students without taking away these important resources and it is an important service especially on the half dat when uh we do have a lot of half days early dismissal days early dismissal so a lot of parents rely on us to have their child for the full day we have a lot of drama so we think it's important to continue running this service but we do need to increase our prices
037so I'm going to reate we are only talking about before and after ECE program which is uh for our uh kindergarten kids is not going to be touched in the discussing it's only before and after care would either of you care to comment on our numbers last year so that members of the public and the members of the board know what the financials for this program the before in Africa the Falcon care was last year yeah the Falcon care ended the year with um a $54,000 loss so in order to break even to break even based on last year numers we increase it by 11.6% um to higher so that we are in the black yeah looking at 20% 20% a very important aspect of this conversation is that we are looking to go as
038soon as possible to F Lake kindergarten yes which means we will and right now ECE is a big Revenue source for the uh for the borders we will lose that Revenue source so that was helping us offset this loss that we saw $55,000 but there will be no ability to offset once and we should not see any loss this should be a revenue generated uh generating Services before and after care which is an extra service that we're providing to our fam so I would um open it up for any questions or you know comments you guys everybody has the the second sheet is the previous year of current numbers and the first sheet is the numbers that are being proposed uh would you like to read it out just to give everybody a compar people
039can't see this it we can hear the meeting though okay so would you like to hear the the prices that we want to change to yes okay so for five days a week for morning care would be $195 per month for afternoon care until 6:00 pm would be $432 per month and afternoon care until 6:30 p.m. would be $554 so people that go for that monthly tuition when we have a half day we we do not or early dismiss we do not charge them additional fees if they're already enrolled on a monthly basis and that early dismissal day winds up on the day that they're already enrolled for there is no additional fee we do offer drop in Services which a lot of parents utilize for the early dismissal day um that would be if
040you they drop in on early dismissal until 4:00 that would just be $30 that's on the bottom yeah sorry that's no I want to just say that's on the bottom of the feet okay and then if it was a half day drop in until 6:30 it would be $60 um I think these are all reasonable if you look at a regular babysitting rates you'll get like $20 an hour and forget what the break I know I wish I was um uh forget what the breakdown is per hour for PA do it quickly if it's five well actually we'll do it another time would you care to comment on what our neighboring town is I believe you have looked into so I did I looked at a few neighboring towns and our pricing is around the
041same but we offer a lot more than a lot of towns do not um what exactly like like what because we give flexibility we allow one two three four or five days per a week a lot of towns will have you just do a flat rate um a lot of towns will not allow lower than 3 days per week because it's not worth their time so they have a minimum where we do not correct correct the same with before k a lot of towns when I had my daughter signed up in East BR we couldn't go just for one day it had to be a certain amount of for there I know I might be digressing a little but offering that flexibility of the number of days is that a resource challenge for you ever
042like do you no do they have to in you know let you know in advance okay so it's not like a for this month I'm only keeping my child for one day next month I'm GNA keep my child there for five days oh it's fine okay because we always have at least two staff members on site right um so unless we get a ridiculous number of children we wouldn't get that kind of a drop and we're always prepared they let us know our new events if it's not if it's not challenging for us then it's a good thing that we all I think it's wonderful it's very accommodating definitely it's an important service and I think mil lake is our biggest um enrollment have 54 in the afternoon sometimes and that site they have a
043lot of fun you can ask any midle a parents they will tell you that they have a wonderful program over there so our biggest site I think is due to the fact that it's a great program but also that's the area that needs the most after um they're doing great anybody have any concerns with the rave in does the committee feel comfortable recommending this move ahead to the board I think it's obviously want to be losing any money you cannot Cann we yeah I I Ag and we want to continue that service because it is important for the parents certainly would let take up that now or next school year how does that'll be for 26 which is nice for notification decis summer I can I can put the the numbers up on the website
044once the board approves so that they'll be able to look in the next few weeks and then if they have to make other arrangements they we could have this added to the agenda on one day 100% yes um and um just to reiterate this is this is the reason we are having the discussion is because this was the last making uh program last year we cannot afford to well e ECE did help us last year but it should never be a last we program this should always it's a service we are providing to our parents um who are working and cannot afford cannot be home to you know pick a child up of time um we will recommend that the board consider this Monday meeting thank you so much for your time appr the next
045item on the agenda is a discussion on the budget timeline um Laura is all yours so on Monday March 17th we will have the at the Board of Education meeting we will have the budget presentation um on March 19th two days after we is the last day to file with be um the count May 5th um at the Board of Education meeting we will have the the um budget hearing and then that will be due to the County on May 14th that's the deadline to adopt the budget so there is you know quite a bit of time between the March 19 17th meeting and the May 5th meeting for any you know any you know yeah why would we have it in um April why are we still we do not have an April meeting
046if you look there meeting in April because we're having it early May 5th May okay and so we we have a meeting 17th March okay and we're trying toate spring break happens to be in the middle and between Good Friday and the Passover and then the Easter break we are going to have our committee meetings at the end of April which will allow us to have a very early May meeting so that so that April anything needs to be done in April can be done very early in May okay that was the logic than you so the public will have have the opportunity to see the presentation do we call it the preliminary Budget on 17th of March or do we call it the budget no that's the budget it's a budget presentation on 17th
047of March and then there is enough time even for the public not just as the public hearing is so public comments can continue to come in through emails or phone calls to the district but the public hearing is on May and maybe we'll say that get during the yes and May 14th is when we have to submit it back so we have some time in um any questions on the timeline I'm sure all of us already kind of knew this I I I did get confused given what our schedule was last year uh so it was um and that is dictated by the state why we pi to Monday and that's how Okay um and um as everybody knows in February we got the stated numbers so Laura would you mind sharing all of our
048numbers um with the committee yes so um transportation Aid we had an increase of 1,892 um so went from 3999 M million to 4.1 million um that's basically due to the cost coefficience for the um the the per pupil base and the mileage um increase in um 3.5% um security Aid we had an increase of $283,000 so it went from $681,000 to 964 th000 and that was because um they increased the per pupil amount 46% special education Aid we had a decrease um of $400,000 so it went from 7.5 million to7 almost 7.2 million um and that's you know they they raised the per pupil cost 5.9% but they changed um the way they the formula is calculated and before it was based on a Statewide average of of student special education students now it's
049sensus based it was based on our actual number of special education students Which is less than what we were getting as the um Statewide average so that is why unfortunately that you know that did decree that did not help us um they are saying that the the um the extraordinary Aid amount that we normally get um what was budgeted for the F level is flat so we can probably anticipate getting a little bit less you know less than we got last year because it's the same amount to spread across District um and costs are going up so you know every year they prate that amount you know determine our costs that are um applicable and then they prate it and then again so we get much less than what we would the actual so the
050pration amounts probably going to be even mon this year and that's the number we find out in July yes we don't find out am July July after the so last July we received 400 yeah so so we got 800 and um we anticipating 800 $24,000 for the year so we had budgeted almost um you know just slightly under 400,000 so the extra 400,000 was unanticipated um so if luck is in on our side and we end up getting what if it stays if we get what we got last year are you saying that we budgeted for less and that would be an excess in Revenue we always budget less because you just never know what you're going to get so historically it's been um just the you know this same number this number hasn't really
051changed is 397,000 I believe it is um we budget that same amount every year so any excess is go down we don't I don't want to over budg I I found your explanation for the increase in transportation very interesting so there was a reason behind it um it wasn't that they just blanket increase so that is also being specific to the town every the same amount I'm sorry I cannot hear like to come closer speak L you don't have microphones buts off words get trailed off sorry um so you you mentioned that the it's based on the mileage that increased and uh the C of something so the mileage rate and the St the base amount for rate the pupil base rate is different for every District no they give you the same amount no
052so it's based on the same amount for every District but it's number of students correct so the more students you have the more money you get ination less students you have and yeah the students are being transported so but the other numbers are the same so that's the one thing that is the same all districts right and well now in special education um the base amount is the thing just depends on how many students you have and in the past were all the districts getting no they were all getting different numbers for the special a right we were getting 7.5 because of our student population based on an average number B Statewide average yes but now they still yeah yeah so we're it's not based on the Statewide average anymore it's based on our actual
053our individual actual matriculation of special education students so it's a loss for us I did understand that it's a loss but what I'm trying to understand is that in the years past another town was getting as much as Monroe know right because if if it's a Statewide average appro so yeah so we would so that average is per student right and so they would multiply that per student average with our pop special ed population now they actually say which one of the children are classified percentage based on like our our um FTE resident enrollment they gave they said it was 15.9% based on that um they would take the a per pupil amount okay everybody had the same per people amount what your um and that's been the biggest change in our and unfortunately yeah
054normally like when they calculate the special education amount it's it's a very high number but 2third of it goes to the um Equalization the calculations which we don't getes out on that Contin and if you notice when you see the numbers that she provided so the increase in transportation Aid and the increase in security if you add those two together and then you minus with the money that we lost some special education yeah so we're so our net increase was $333,000 y yeah for but you know what we expected to lose we'll take it expect to right we went in with the apprehension that we will lose State a given and I thought we so the $33,000 are are pleas our Silver Lining still in the cloud because our cloud is all about like we
055can't MO we still that crowd is still about the equalization a I still feel like weop they would pay some attention and even when we met with the you probably will never get and what you're getting so in that meeting and in the meeting where our stakehold or our Representatives came in person they said that Monro pays its fair share and it is they do believe it's appropriate and that we will not get Equalization age so we were told basically by everybody that we would not get Equalization age so which is a very large amount of money in many many districts yes which you can't stop harping about but all that means is our advocacy work needs to continue full you know full scene forward um for that that aspect of state aid that we
056missing but um that's all our numbers right so um all in all it's it compared to what other school dist districts have been seeing uh many have lost up to 3% in their aid we should we should feel uh you know we should take a out of relief that we didn't lose Aid um anybody has any questions on this state aid all right the next item on the agenda is a monthly review of the attorney piece we have five invoices um we have the bush Law Firm invoices for December January and and February I'm just going to read out those big numbers um for Bush Law Firm we have the the month of February which was the most recent one was 12299 um the month of January was 11,352 and the month of um December
057was 19,99 this is our current attorney which is the bush Law Firm the other two invoices were from porio for the month of December and um January um January and February no I think it's January January I'm looking at January and February I don't know if correct I think the agenda said December and oh maybe you're right I'm sorry no I apologize no so foro it says December and oh but on the actual EMP janary the date the date supps you is sending has oh but it's for the month of uh correct so for the month of December it was $24,500 and change and for the month of January it was $1,400 and I want to remind everybody we are working with porio only for open cases that they were uh handling before we changed
058the law firm um and based on the numbers that I just read out everybody realizes that we literally paying two attorneys and almost the same amount of money when one is handling the bul ofal work and it's it's just because we have so many legal cases and I just want to make a public flee out right now as a chair of finance that this is money um that is being used for a whole lot of cases some small some big uh some that are beyond our control because these are historical and some that are probably in some of our controls where we can think about it that um if if your case has been going on if you have filed a case against the board and it's been going on a long time what is
059the end result what's the end goal that you're looking for because our insurance only covers 5,000 depends 5 or 10 and then over that it's going out of our operating budget um it is definitely money that could be used for better Pur sucess um I am not saying that the board should not be questioned and the wrong should not be corrected uh but we all need to understand what the end result or the goal of that case that you have filed is and and and think about where that money is going and where it could go um anybody else has any comments on your T voices we'll move on to the bill list um we have about 7 million3 $7.3 million so far on the bill list um I'm assuming there's an addendum coming soon
060before the meeting um this time the meeting is Monday so we'll probably see theend Friday this okay okay anybody has any questions on the bill list I did have a question that I asked Laura earlier and we had a quick discussion on that and Dr Chan G up with a great suggestion on that there was a payment a bond payment that was made uh for $2.9 million in this bill list that happened between the meetings um these are you know prech pre-scheduled pre-approved by the board in some ways but uh just to ensure that we are kind of approving each one of these in advance and not between because we know what these are going to be the court officers not with a um um with the schedule with the amount in it and we
061will probably approve it in one of the meetings earlier on in the year so that even though they're happening between meetings uh it still has uh there's a board work that has already happened on on that p uh besides that any other questions on the bill list excellent we are over but thank you U Mr P for pushing the bg& timing thank you Laura congratulations on a great entire Board office I it's a heran task to get it done but we started a little later this year because I think we only approved in July right yes but all that got done and congratulations on the good excellent job there thank you and that concludes our finance meeting for t